FREQUENTLY accused of borrowing Tory ideas, Tony Blair has interestingly developed one of John Major's for a radical constitutional reform over which Labour and the Conservatives are deeply at odds - overhaul of the House of Lords and the sacking of hereditary peers.

For, just as Mr Major let the public nominate people for honours, Mr Blair, unveiling proposals today to scrap the aristocrats' 800-year-old right to sit and vote in the Upper House, wants the public to have the power to nominate "people's peers."

This idea has been initially proposed for the transitional Lords after its 750 hereditary peers have been banished, but it could be quite easily extended to the fully-reformed House which should be in place by the next general election.

It would certainly give the chamber a much improved and democratically-better character than at present.

For "people's peers" would make the House much more representative of ordinary members of the public than the ones who are there now purely by the privilege of birth or by political favour.

It may not result in a chamber as democratically "pure" as one whose members are elected, but it would come closer to the ideal of purging party politics from the Upper House so that it does not become a compliant rubber stamp for the government of the day.

And coupled with this, it is interesting to note that Mr Blair - at a time when he is beset by accusations of cronyism - also proposes to give up his prime ministerial veto over the nominations of other party leaders for life peerages.

Thus, we have an interesting start to the process of reforming the Lords which, purged of its nobles, should now head towards becoming the House of the People's People.

Let that be the aim of the royal commission looking beyond the intriguing interim reform Mr Blair proposes today.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.