As well as it being rather amusing that a party officially committed to the abolition of the House of Lords has stuffed a few more of its grandees into the Upper Chamber, it’s worth looking will be wearing the ermine. There seems to have been a bit of a desperate hunt to find people.
The MPs who lost their seats or stood down might be fair enough. But some party figures are scratching their heads rather at the appointment of one party member who was a councillor for just four years.
Shas Sheehan did also stand as a parliamentary candidate (and lost, twice), but then so have many others in the Lib Dems and they haven’t been made peers. The Lib Dems offer this brief citation for her elevation to the peerage:
‘Served as a Councillor for the Kew ward between 2006-10 where she was Assistant Cabinet Member for energy and Climate Change. She is currently involved in a number of local community groups in Wimbledon and is a trustee of Merton and Lambeth Citizens Advice Bureau.’
One party figure is furious:
‘Today heralded the elevation of possibly the least capable or deserving person to ever be made a peer in the history of the Lib Dems. An example of cretinous ‘box-ticking’ politics so odious and naked I am ashamed to be associated with the party.’
Another person who worked with Sheehan in the party describes her as ‘one of the least qualified people I’ve ever encountered’.
Still, given the Lib Dems don’t believe in the House of Lords, perhaps it doesn’t matter who they appoint, anyway.
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