On The
Ground

Josiah Mortimer

Peers on the Authoritarian Payroll

We’ve heard a lot about lobbying scandals in the Commons in recent years. Rules have been tightened a bit as a result. But the situation is, it seems, even worse in the House of Lords.

Take my recent story on British peers serving on Hong Kong courts.

It’s been five years since Hong Kong’s National Security Law was passed, with hundreds of democracy activists and journalists imprisoned and convicted – for crimes like ‘collusion with foreign forces’ and ‘sedition’: in other words, for opposing the People’s Republic of China and its tightening noose around the ‘Special Administrative Region’.

Given the increasing incarceration of British protestors, we have a bit less standing in calling it out these days. But it still matters.