Abolish the Lords!

So three million quid gets you a seat in the House of Lords? That’s according to the latest revelations about our sleazy second chamber. According to a Sunday Times and Open Democracy investigation, people who give big bucks to the Conservative party are virtually assured a seat on the red benches. Wealthy benefactors seem to be ‘guaranteed a peerage if they take on the temporary role as the party treasurer and increase their own donations beyond £3m’, the report says.

It stacks up. Fifteen out of 16 Tory party treasurers have been offered a seat in the Lords. And 22 of the party’s main financial backers, including those who have doubled up as party treasurer, have been offered seats. It stinks of ‘cash-for-access culture’ in the Tory establishment, says Labour. ‘You can buy your way into the Lords?!’, journalists cry out, horrified.

Here’s the thing, though – why are we shocked? Why, after all these years, are we still taken aback by the whiff of corruption that seems permanently to hover over the second chamber? Isn’t the Lords corrupt virtually by definition? After all, this is one of the most undemocratic parliamentary chambers in the world.