Member

Given that, apparently, 150 members of the House of Lords are not particularly interested in turning up very often, or even at all in some instances, why do we not simply ask all the different groups—hereditaries, bishops and life peers—and all the different parties to reduce their membership by a similar percentage, so that there can be no accusation of gerrymandering, and reduce the size of the House of Lords to about 600 Members? That could be done very simply, given that so many people are quite happy to have a peerage but do not want to turn up. It could done by election, but those groups themselves could decide rather than the Government, and there would be no question of gerrymandering. They know who works hard, and they know who turns up. There would probably be no need for an election.