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By the time they stop being mad, politicians are the right age for the House

Hugo Rifkind

Wednesday, 17th October 2007

This is a column about the reform of the House of Lords. I have a hunch it might not look like one, probably until pretty much the end, but that is what it is. Try to remember this if, at times, it appears to be about something else.

‘They should just clone ministers,’ says the Hugh Abbott character in The Thick Of It (2005), ‘so we’re born at 55 with no past and no flats and no genitals.’

How dated that seems, already. Flats, pasts and genitals remain problematic, true enough, but 55 has become unacceptably ancient. What is a suitable age, these days, for a senior MP? Fortyish? David Miliband, at 42, seems to be about optimum. Sir Menzies Campbell, all the way up at a lofty 66, never had a hope. You could see it in the chamber. He was the Grandpa Simpson of the House of Commons. When he spoke, MPs looked, then looked away, then spoke more loudly of whatever they were speaking of before.

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David Doughan

October 21st, 2007 5:43pm Report this comment

Sir: Hugo Rifkind is understandably incredulous at bank robbers in Ferrar using bicycles for their getaway. Actually, this is not quite as bizarre as it first seems: Ferrara is as flat as a piadina, and most Ferrarese are cyclists. While this conjures up a picture of Amsterdam or Copenhagen, it has to be remembered that Ferrara is in Italy, and Italians ride the bikes in much the same way as they drive their cars. So it would come naturally to a Ferrarese robber to escape by pedal power. Yours, etc. David Doughan 120 Kenley Road London SW19 3DW

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