GOVERNMENT: THE NOBLES VOW TO FIGHT EFFORTS TO REMOVE THEIR VOTING RIGHTS IN
PARLIAMENT'S UPPER CHAMBER.

London-They've seen countless monarchs come and go, survived England's
17th-century civil war, and deftly sidestepped abolition during 150 years
of popular democracy.

Now, Britain's hereditary peers are probably facing their final battle
after a millennium of political influence.

Prime Minister Tony Blair wants to strip the 759 nobles of their voting
rights in the House of Lords, Britain's upper chamber, as part of a
parliamentary reform program.

But some peers, described by one newspaper as "an elderly but tenacious and
highly experienced guerrilla force," vow to fight back by clogging up the
government's legislative program.

"I would regard that as my final duty, and would be proud to go out as a
'football hooligan,'" says Earl Onslow, 60, referring to England's
notoriously unruly soccer fans.

The House of Lords, which revises and examines government legislation, was
established in the 11th century. It is composed of hereditary lords, who
inherited their titles, and life peers, who are awarded titles and might be
the only members left after reform.

The peers debate in an ornate, gilded chamber and have a reputation for
courtesy.

The rebellious peers say the Labor Party's plans to abolish their voting
rights without proposing an alternative threatens Britain's constitutional
balance between the government's executive and legislative branches.

"Doing away with us without qualification won't do." said Lord Mottistone,
78, "In the last resort, we may fight all sorts of rearguard actions - slow
things down, ruin government legislation - because we will fight this hard."

Reformers counter that it's indefensible that hereditary lords, who
overwhelmingly support the opposition Conservative Party, can vote in
Parliament on the basis of their ancestry.

"I think the hereditary principle has led to a very narrow social group in
the Lords - almost exclusively male and overwhelmingly Tory," said Lord
Ponsonby, one of only 16 Labor-supporting hereditary peers.

A total of 1,272 peers - and a smattering of peeresses - are eligible to
sit in the House of Lords. Of those, almost 500 are life peers.

Only about 200 hereditary peers regularly attend, carrying out the bulk of
the chamber's work with about the same number of life peers.

Labor's refusal to say how the revised chamber will fit with Britain's new
constitution - in which Scotland and Wales will have their own national
assemblies - has led to accusations that Blair is planning a new era of
patronage politics.

"We don't want an Assembly which is the prime minister's mirror," said Earl
Russell, a spokesman for Britain's Liberal Democrat party.

Some life peers also think the reform plans are being pushed through too fast.

"We may have to change," said Lord Chalfont, an independent. "But we don't
have to change a thousand years of history in the course of a single
parliamentary session."

Although polls show that the majority of Britons support ejecting the
nobles from the chamber, others point to high levels of support for them on
specific issues.

The Lords voted against lowering the age of consent for gay sex, for
example, and opposed unpopular measures such as the government's ban on
selling beef on the bone after a theoretical link with mad-cow disease was
announced.

Checked-by: Pat Dolan