Lords peerage list 'polluting parliament' with donors and lobbyists

[amateur51]

With Baroness Worthington already there, we're only one short of the green witches cauldron. I can just imagine them together on the energy select committee.

Some imagination - as members of the House of Lords, they would not be eligible to sit on the Energy and Climate Change Committee of the House of Commons

[Ferretfancy]

Just for the record, there are 298 coalition peers, 216 Labour peers and 183 cross bench peers, so the tories have not yet succeeded in overwhelming the Lords, even if they probably would like to do so.

[An_Inspector_Calls]

Baroness Worthington was rather amusing during the House of Lords Grand Committee energy bill debate in her brush with Baroness Verma. I like the way she's suddenly become an advocate for gas when two years previously she was lambasting Dieter Helm for advocating the very same policy! More of this paired with Jenny Jones might just lift their debates to a Whitehall farce.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

it is not posible to pollute this parliament .... the stench of its corrupt self interest would obliterate the smell of the Thames prior to those excellent sewers and engines ...

on the contrary we should ensure that all these self serving gangsters are in parliament and then follow the example of a certain Mr Fawkes

[eighthobstruction]

it is not posible to pollute this parliament .... the stench of its corrupt self interest would obliterate the smell of the Thames prior to those excellent sewers and engines ...

on the contrary we should ensure that all these self serving gangsters are in parliament and then follow the example of a certain Mr Fawkes

Perhaps we ought to call in the Serious Fraud Squad to validate your assertions Calum....Whoops they are corrupt too, paying each other largehandouts to wipe slates clean....

[Stanfordian]

An extraordinarily long list of new peers has been announced today comprising in the main an array of party donors, aides, lobbyists and businesspersons, as well as some striking political campaigners have been given peerages in the working peers list nominated by the political parties.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/aug/01/lord-peerage-list-claims-nepotism

The only peerage I can see which has been achieved on merit is that of campaigner Dorreen Lawrence, who will take the Labour whip. Pretty well the rest of the list smacks of nepotism as party funders, aparatchiks, and policy wonks get their leg-up into this most perk-filled of day centres.

Given that none of the major political parties has successfully tackled the future of the House of Lords, isn't it time that no further additions should be made until the future of the second chamber is clarified, discussed and decided on. Otherwise the HoL will continue to fill up with more of these members of the business and Westminster-type folk without hindrance.

All-in-all a very British disgraceful state of affairs.

Hello amateur51
It's a scandal, Pigs feeding at the trough at the taxpayers expense and inviting more pigs in to scoff at the endless supply of swill. It seems that China is the only country with a larger government.

[french frank]

CIF from Katie Ghose of ERS:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/01/crowded-house-too-many-lords