While interesting, i'm not sure that argument is sound. The House of Lords is not the only, or even the most powerful, body involved in law making in the UK. The House of Commons, who is elected, actually proposes and passes laws.
This is in contrast to the EU, where 'legislative initiative', IMO the most important power, is held by the unelected body - the commission / executive branch.
That's a bit of a misunderstanding of the role of the Commission.
The Parliament and even the people of Europe (via a petition) can ask the Commission to propose legislation, and in the case of the Parliament, it's widely considered that the Commission is compelled to do so.
The Commission has only once ever in the history of the EU refused to produce legislative proposals after the Parliament asked them to do so, and the reason there was that existing laws already covered the case. So effectively the European Parliament has legislative initiative - it's just that the Commission is the group that drafts the detailed proposals, which are then debated and amended by the Parliament.
As far as I can tell, the Commission takes the role of the Civil Service in the UK parliament to a large extent.
(Also, I don't believe I argued in the article that the House Of Lords was the only part of the UK government. Obviously it is not.)
> Whilst this 'indirect' initiative right does not
create an obligation on the Commission to
propose the legislation requested, the Treaty of
Lisbon codified the Commission's obligation to
provide reasons for any refusal to follow a
parliamentary initiative. Many argue in this
context that Parliament could take the
Commission to the Court of Justice of the EU if
it fails to justify a negative decision.
That's hardly the same thing as having the power to propose legislation on your own. All they are compelled to do is justify their refusal. Whether or not they have ever refused to do it in the past is also independent of who holds the actual power.
> (Also, I don't believe I argued in the article that the House Of Lords was the only part of the UK government. Obviously it is not.)
I didn't mean to imply that you did. My point is that the two roles seem to be reversed here, and that that is important. The EU parliament (democratic) holds roughly the power as the House of Lords (undemocratic), whereas the House of Commons (democratic) holds power equivalent to the European Commission (undemocratic). And that this makes the EU less of a democracy than the UK.
The EU is arguably more democratic than the UK, and certainly it's very hard to show it's less so.
https://medium.com/im-trying-to-fact-check-brexit/fact-check...