Moth-holed Woolsack

Baroness Smith of Basildon, the Labour leader in the Lords, suddenly fell silent one day last year. “Sorry,” was the first word she could get out. “I think I’ve swallowed one of the moths that have been flying round the chamber.” And it’s got worse. Moths have swept over Westminster like the Golden Horde over the steppes. “The mice I can cope with,” said Lord Vaux of Harrowden, whose historic family has faced sterner foes. “But the moths…” Perhaps word had spread in the moth world that the Upper House possesses a whole sack of wool. But historic carpets and upholstering by Pugin also suffer. In this, peers are at one with the people, for who has not suffered these featherywinged destroyers recently? If moth traps fail, parliamentary fittings need a good shake. It would do more good than decades of half-baked reforms.