To the new Corporate State - "Ave!"

In a fit of bizarre historical blindness some of my Conservative colleagues - led by a right Jesse -  down in the big city are proposing that members of the House of Lords be elected by institutions - corporations if you will:

The seven point plan includes a proposal to allow mass membership organisations – such as the CBI, TUC, General Medical Council or even the RSPB – to elect their own peers. 

Connoisseurs of fascism will note that this proposals echoes the very essence of Mussolini's 'Corporate State' - the spirit of Gabriele d'Annunzio's Charter of Carnaro:
 

Whatever be the kind of work a man does, whether of hand or brain, art or industry, design or execution, he must he a member of one of the ten Corporations who receive from the commune a general direction as to the scope of their activities, but are free to develop them in their own way and to decide among themselves as to their mutual duties and responsibilities.

What has possessed these politicians god alone knows. Invoking the idea of corporatism as superior to democracy is not just crass but a direct attack on the principles of personal autonomy - individual freedom - that us Conservatives cherish.

Reforming the Lords to give a bunch of national institutions - unions, guilds, special interest groups - the power to appoint legislators would hand to those organisations (not remotely to their members) a power not justified by the UK being a democracy.

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Whatever be the kind of work a man does, whether of hand or brain, art or industry, design or execution, he must he a member of one of the ten Corporations who receive from the commune a general direction as to the scope of their activities, hut are free to develop them in their own way and to decide among themselves as to their mutual duties and responsibilities.