How to reform the Lords

THE suggestion to remove the hereditary peers and bishops would be a long and complex legislative nightmare (Letters).

It would impinge on the Crown’s relationship with Parliament: the hereditary head of state is also head of the Church of England. Removing the bishops would involve untangling 500 years of constitutional history.

The remaining hereditary peers know they are in the House of Lords on sufferance, but have a good voting record based on non-partisanship.

The real problem is the predominance of life peers. Thanks to the hundreds created by Tony Blair and his successors to push through policies, the red benches are occupied by placemen, failed MPs and nonentities who simply back the prime minister.

My solution to slim down the Chamber and make it less confrontational is to keep the bishops, hereditary peers and any life peers who are experts in their fields. An internal, non-partisan election would reduce the rest of the life peers to only 250. RICHARD MEREDITH,

Huntingdon, Cambs. I AM concerned at the vitriolic attacks on the House of Lords. These experienced people have given up their valuable time to review legislation and advise the country on critical matters.

As for the will of the people on Brexit, the people should never have been entrusted to make such a momentous decision.

Most were ill-informed and did not think through the disastrous consequences of their foolish, cavalier vote.

I hope the wise men and women in the House of Lords can come up with some way to reverse the vote to rescue the country from the inevitable abyss.

GREG JORDAN, Yeovil, Somerset.