Labour to replace House of Lords with elected Senate?

It's Way Past Time 

• Abolishing the un-elected British House of Lords - it's about time.
• The American Founding Fathers patterned our U.S. Senate on the Lords to be a check on the popularly elected House of Representives.

The Labour Party said that it would summon a constitutional convention early in the next parliament to consider how an elected senate would be established - including whether it could have specific regional representation functions.

Each region of England, as well as the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, would hold meetings before the convention where people would be asked for views on the functions of the new body, as well as the most appropriate form of election.

Ed Miliband will broaden his drive for the devolution of political and economic power to the cities and regions, and away from London, by saying he wants an elected second chamber completely recast as representative of the cities, regions and nations of the UK.

Personification of the Senate.
From the consular diptych of
Theodore Philoxenus, 525 AD

In a speech to activists in Blackpool, Mr Miliband will say: "It cannot be right that the North West has almost the same population as London but only a small fraction of London's number of peers reports the Express.

"London is our capital and one of the world's great cities but it cannot be right London has more members of the House of Lords than the East Midlands, West Midlands, Wales, Northern Ireland, the North East and Yorkshire and Humber added together.

"And it cannot be right that those peers who do live outside London are less likely to be from great cities like Birmingham, Liverpool and Bristol than they are to be living in less-populated rural areas.

"We will make the second chamber of Parliament truly a senate of the regions and nations of our whole country."

Figures from the Commons library show that 31% of peers have their main residence in London, and 23% in the south-east. By contrast, 5% list their main residence as being in the north-west and 4% in the north-east. Among those members who attended more than half the sittings in 2012-13, 82% came from England, 11% from Scotland and 4% from Wales.

(The Guardian)

The Roman Senate
Representative government dates back to various nations in the ancient world such as Rome, Carthage and Athens.
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 The Roman Senate was one of the most enduring institutions in Roman history, being established in the first days of the city (traditionally founded in 753 BC). It survived the overthrow of the kings in 509 BC, the fall of the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC, the division of the Roman Empire in 395 AD, the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD, and the barbarian rule of Rome in the 5th, 6th, and 7th centuries.
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.The Byzantine Senate or Eastern Roman Senate was the continuation of the Roman Senate, established in the 4th century by Constantine I. It survived for centuries but was increasingly irrelevant until its eventual disappearance in the 13th century.
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The Senate has been adopted by nations all over the world.  Brazil adopted their Senate in 1824, Mexico also began their Senate in 1824, France established theirs in 1799 and Australia in 1900.