Member

It is important to understand that those people who came into this House from other occupations have huge amounts of life experience. We have had a nurse come in today, and we have had doctors, solicitors, trade unionists—a whole range of people have come in as life Peers. I am not denying the experience of the hereditary Peers in the offices that they have held—in fact, I have sat on committees with many of them—but those offices have not always been held by hereditaries. With the list that the noble Lord points to, if someone served on the Front Bench of the Labour Opposition for 12 years their experience would not be considered appropriate for being maintained if they were hereditary, so I think there is something partisan about how these have been selected.