MARTHA’S SAVING HER VOICE...

LASTMINUTE.COM’s elfin founder Martha Lane Fox — now Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho, if you please — says of life on the red benches: ‘Being in the Lords is a treat. There are so many diverse views, so you get to see things from a new angle. ‘I’m in favour of a more rig-orous application process, though. There are a huge number of people there who do a lot of hard work, but there are some who are less effective.’ Who could she mean? The noble Baroness ( left) managed to speak in only three debates in the past year and voted in barely a fifth of the divisions.