The disgrace of the Lords is a parable for the end of New Labour

Henry von Blumenthal

Sir,
When will the political parties accept that it was the life peers who should have been removed from the House of Lords, not the hereditaries?

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

Henry von Blumenthal

Diswiss

At last.It was only a question of time.

Burt

The upper house needs randomly selected, highly educated people with no profit motive.

But this government got rid of them.

Mr Green

A well observed piece brilliantly written.

biggestaspidistra

"Whole families of stoats will have given their lives for the ermine draped on the shoulders of Peter Mandelson, Paul Myners and Shriti Vadera"

and the mystifying ennobling of Lord Malloch-Brown

Verity

That was an interesting piece, Fraser.

The HoL was thuggishly broken by thug-in-chief Blair. The next government should not leave the wreckage lying about, but should fix it. This would mean getting rid of, or reducing by 75%, the appointed lords. If we must have appointees, they should only be people of outstanding achievement. That does not include individuals like Baroness Royall, who has no qualifications of any kind for anything, and nor has she any achievements in any field, and all the other socialist bottom feeders.

BYW, speaking of Blair, I thought he was supposed to have a dicky ticker. But we haven't heard of any "incidents" in the last two or three years.

Does Champagne get too old to drink? I've had a dedicated bottle in the fridge for the last two or three years.

jim

The failure of the opposition to oppose, especially with regard to the loss of liberties has been really startling these last ten years. I can only assume most Conservatives were happy with Labour policies.
However, the last bubble to pop will be the government spending bubble, so whilst Cameron will probably win the next election, he is likely to get swept away shortly after.
I think unemployment will go much higher that you think, The banking sector is extremely bloated, if it halves in size, that's another 3 million unemployed right there. That is quite likely, as we just entering a pause before the next lot of banking losses come due.

Mike, Brighton

Presumably several cabinet ministers have also bought pergolas at a cost of £1,920 to the taxpayer (as Mrs Beckett), lightbulbs for £32 (Mr. Brown) or Sky subscription at £99 (Mr. Brown).

These ministers (and now PM) might notice that ordinary people are generally not able to expense pergolas, lightbulbs and sky subscriptions.

No wonder they are scared. The rumour is that Mr. Brown's expenses contains a "mistake" on his part.....

Verity

Jim, I agree with you. Cameron will probably bugger everything up by winning (or Labour losing) the next election and being so anti-Conservative that the Tories only get one term or less. The man doesn't seem to understand the nature of conservatism. Or he understands it but it doesn't suit his personal programme.

Verity

How about that female MP - can't remember her name - who complained because she was asked to itemise claims for towels and face cloths?

yarnesfromhorsham

Never mind eh! We still have the Great Games of 2012 to look forward to. What an example we must be.

Hysteria

Mercifully we are spared the press calling it "Lordsgate"

(sounds a bit like a Barretts housing development..)

Hysteria

who is going to do the analysis and post the results of the receipts?.. and will this shine a light on the whole damned lot of them ????

Spike

Bye Bye Britain - encore! Do yourselves a favour old things. If you've got an exportable talent get out. Fast.
God Bless

S af Ugglas

Install the hereditary peers again and bust the labor crooks

H Osbourne

What a sorry picture it all is, a rotten corrupt and self serving government incapable of doing anything right, excepting feathering their own nests and with no interest in the true ethos of public service. The opposition offers no better prospect.
For what it's worth I believe we desperately need a reformed and reduced Commons; a fully elected Prime minister and second chamber with powers of veto over legislation replacing the Lords in entirety.
This should be underpinned by electoral reform, based on the number of votes any individual may have being earned and accumulated by citizenship and his or her personal contribution to society.
No doubt the unenlightened self interest of the political elite will prevent any meaningful reform until the growing social unrest we are being to see turns into widespread violent disorder and civil disaffection.

john problem

Lord Taylor of Blackburn has been a Lord for 30 years! A good ten year span after serious thoughts were being had about misbehaving lords. And he has been awarded an OBE and an MBE. After 20 years as a local councillor. Now he gets £330 per day attendance, has apparently enjoyed £400,000 in expenses and picks up £120,000 consultancy fees at the drop of an eyelid- plus other remuneration one may suppose. Smart fellow and clearly brighter than I am, suffering from tobacco withdrawal symptoms as I struggle on, looking in despair at my old age pension of £90 per week. Yes, that's £90 per week. The lowest in Europe. Our leaders need to do something about the fabric of our British society, before all we Old Age Pensioners take to the streets and invade Parliament Square, embarrassing the gilded socks off them, waving huge banners saying 'Bring in the UN.' And we've got a list of those who'll be first in the tumbril. Oh yes.

Bill Corr

The mainstream media miss some stories altogether. Deliberately, if they're to 'awkward.'

Lord Ahmed prevented his fellow-peers watching a screening of Geert Wilders' 'Fitna' in the Lords by threatening to summon ten thousand howling Muslims to the vicinity of the House of Lords.

The craven curs of the mainstream media concluded this lamentable true story too hot to handle.

Dad

This sums them up, take a bit if sorting out by the next lot though. Not sure whether the following blogs will appear with this, if they do they make a few points.

john garrett

Brown and the nu labor stooges were never up to the job of government and have no track record of having previous experience of work or running a business, out with these frauds and bring back the cottaging police they put out of work.

A. MacAulay

If Blair had turned the Lords into an honest senate, an elected one, even with a place for hereditaries out of respect for tradition, then he would have been a reforming hero. Instead this weasel, with the help of his smoke and mirrors managers, manages to do something deeply perverse with the english constitution, take bribes from ambitious climbers who then abuse their honours commercially. And the sanctimonious humbug goes on and on.

Checks and balances? Cheques unbalances more like it!