I was shocked to read this headline in the The Daily Telegraph today (which I just happened to have found on the train) …
MPs with questionable expenses claims may be barred from Lords
There I was, sitting on the train in the full vermin in ermine kit, as Keith Richard described members of our illustrious upper house, minding my own business, hoping someone would send me an email on my new Samsung Jet, and I just had to investigate further….
Apparently Lord Jay has got his letter writing set out again and has written to the leaders of the main political parties who are preparing to flood the Lords with retiring punkah wallahs who have either managed to serve in the House of Commons without being booted out, are ‘standing down to spend more time in their second homes or those that are likely to get booted out at the next election when the electorate wields the sword of truth and justice.
The Telegraph continued… “As many as 50 Labour MPs are said to have indicated to party bosses that they would like to be considered for a peerage, while 30 Tories, most of them senior with long service records in the Commons, are also said to be planning to stand down before the election, a number following public furore over their expenses.”
Inevitably, my mind went back to much earlier times in our history when various venal barons raced North, East, West and South in the biggest land grab in British history to secure ‘lands’ for themselves and the heirs after putting the boot into Harold… or, more accurately, an arrow into his eye. While I appreciate that Lord Archer has done a bit of jail time and Lord Conrad Black is doing jail time, and a couple of entrepreneurial lords have been suspended – I am fully in favour of men and women who selflessly built themselves moats and duck islands, worked themselves to near exhaustion furnishing second homes and shopping at John Lewis… and who served their country without thought of reward… being given the supreme accolade of being elevated to the highest rank in the land to join Lord SugarPuff and his fellow peers.
I only regret having to give mine back when the “Cash for Honours” scandal blew up… unfortunately before I even had a chance to make the longest maiden speech in the history of the House of Lords… I had been down to the fancy dress shop and bought the kit. This is why I wear it at every opportunity – on trains, trips to Sainsbury, even to bars in Soho…. I always get a seat… the kit does the business.
I believe that Lord Jay’s attempts to keep this band of brothers and sisters, this happy few, out of the Lords could be discriminatory, and possibly even, a breach of their human rights. I am preparing class action papers as I drink……
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