In the fourth programme in the "Matrix of Power" series, the BBC's Dennis Sewell examines competing arguments over Lords reform.

Some 750 out of the 1,200 members of the House of Lords will be read their redundancy notices in the Queen's Speech in November.

These will be the hereditary peers - Viscounts, Earls, Dukes and Marquises who have inherited their seats. Their voting rights are to be removed in line with a Labour manifesto pledge at the last General Election.

According to Baroness Jay (the Leader of the Lords since the July reshuffle) Lords reform is the "centrepiece" of the government's programme of constitutional reform based on principles of "modernisation and fairness".

This will leave a House of Lords composed only of Life Peers, who have been nominated by prime ministers since 1958.

Both the Liberal Democrat, Earl Russell, and Liam Fox MP, the Conservative constitutional affairs spokesman, fear that the government will be content with an appointed second chamber, which they say, will not prove an effective check on the executive.

They want the government to announce a timetable for the introduction of a newly designed upper house - one which might contain a proportion of elected members. They say that if no timetable is announced, the second stage of reform will probably never happen.

Viscount Cranborne: hereditary peers' time has gone

Viscount Cranborne, the Conservative Leader in the Lords, says he will oppose any bill that attempts to go ahead with Stage One (the removal of hereditary peers) without Stage Two (a thoroughly revamped second chamber).

He denies Labour's charge that he wants to save the hereditary peers. "I don't want a battle over the hereditary peers", he says, "their time has gone".

The Earl of Onslow, a Tory backbencher who wants to keep a number of hereditary peers elected from amongst the present incumbents, tells the programme that he is prepared to disrupt business in the Lords if the government presses ahead with its plan.

"I'm happy to force a division on each and every clause of the Scotland Bill. Each division takes 20 minutes and there are more than 270 clauses. And there are plenty more wheezes like that," he says.

The government needs the Scotland Bill promptly, so it can prepare for the Scottish Parliamentary Election next May.

Baroness Jay: hints at changes

Government sources hint that an announcement on Lords reform is imminent. This will set out a scheme for "a more transparent and independent system of nomination" which would reduce the Prime Minister's powers of direct political patronage.

Baroness Jay says opposition fears are misplaced : "There's certainly no question of us resiling on the second stage of reform", she says.