AV

Actually they can and have been on many occasions, there was a big old hoohah about it in 1911 and the Lords lost their power to reject or amend legislation. How it works now is that most bills are sent to the Lords usually once or twice and the Lords review the bill and make suggestions as to how to improve it, it's then sent back to parliament. However parliament doesn't have to make any changes if it doesn't want to and once the bill has been back to the Lords three times, it can go no further and parliament can just pass it over the heads of the Lords. So the Lords are essentially consultants and restrainers nothing more. They do that job rather well, they were one of the leading opponents against Labour increasing the time the police could arrest people and hold them without charge, the Lords actions amongst others helped derail that bill.

AV wouldn't lead to getting rid of the Lords as most countries in the world are bicameral (that is having two houses of parliament, be they Commons/Lords or Congress/Senate like in America) because of the benefits of having a senior more experienced house. Both Labour and the Lib Dems don't stand for getting rid of the Lords but merely reforming it along more democratic lines.

Also Australia isn't classless because it has no lords. It's classless because it's a fairly new country that was settled by convicts and free emmigrants, most of which stated off with very little. It has an entirely different history to the UK. Which incidentially is why it never had a House of Lords, not because the lack of a Lords made Australia classless.

You keep saying that AV would work perfectly without power being split between parliament and the Lords but you're missing the point. The Lords have very little power, they can't make or amend legislation, merely advise. Even the Senate in America has more power.

There all tyrants and oppressors of the poor, especially Thatcher with her career criminal son. These people are evil!