[JURIST] UK Prime Minister Tony Blair [official profile] pushed [PMQs transcript] Wednesday for a half-elected, half-appointed House of Lords [official website] that would remove 92 House members who still inherit their parliamentary seats and set the number of seats at 540. Currently, the House of Lords does not have a fixed number of members. According to House of Commons Leader Jack Straw [official profile], currently appointed members would not be removed and Church of England bishops would remain as appointees. AP has more.

In 2003, cabinet members rejected [BBC report] five different reform initiatives, which varied from an entirely elected to entirely appointed House of Lords. Proposals were again initiated in 2006, with the release of a document [text, PDF] by a cross-party working group on Lords' reform that hinted at a half-elected, half-appointed House with 450 Lords sitting in the chamber.