“We in the House of Lords are never in touch with public opinion. That makes us a civilised body.” – Oscar Wilde
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Done badly, the only thing worse than an unelected House of Lords might well be an elected one.
Don’t worry, this isn’t a defence of the current system whereby the laws of the UK are made, in part, by people who got the job by dint of patronage to the right party, correct worship of the right deity, or descent from the right person but the proposals to reform the Lords that passed in the House of Commons this week threaten to take the closest mechanism we have of holding absolute power to account and making it even more beholden TO that power.
The Common Green 