VOICE OF THE MIRROR:

THE new rule for all those peers picking up £300 tax-free a day for doing, as far as we can judge, absolutely nothing worthwhile must be: “No say, no pay.”

The Establishment’s old excuse that there is more to being an unelected law maker than speaking in the gilded chamber of the House of Lords has worn thin as 73 of the ermined silent, including 17 picking up £400,000 between them, have never sat on a committee or tabled a written question.

With the only legislative body bigger in the world being the national congress of a China with almost 3,000 members, replacing the 798 inmates with a smaller elected body is essential to reviving British democracy.

The exclusive club for cronies and former Cabinet ministers would seem to be a medieval relic ripe for reform.

If the Lords won’t change itself fundamentally, elected MPs in the House of Commons must do it for us.