FLOORED BY FLAWED LORDS

The House of Lords is like the BBC. It enjoys nothing more than talking about itself.

They were at it again on Tuesday, discussing their own abolition, or at least Green peer Jenny Jones’s plans in her ridiculous Lords Reform Bill.

This proposes an upper House of 292 elected peers serving maximum terms of eight years. Sounds sensible, eh?

But it would mean the 272 independent peers known as Crossbenchers would also have to put themselves up before the voters.

They’d stand no chance because professional politicians would have party machines behind them. The wise counsel and independent thinking of the likes of former MI5 chief Eliza Manningham-Buller, ex-Cabinet Secretary Gus O’Donnell, Ian Blair, Met police chief between 2005-2008, and former head of the Army Richard Dannatt would be lost. Believe me, Parliament and the country would be worse without them.

The dottiest idea is for independents to form their own political party which is a contradiction in terms. D’oh! Philip Hammond was furious with

Theresa May for promising the NHS £20.5billion extra by 2023, seriously messing up his books. Now the Chancellor hints he’ll pay for it in the Autumn Budget by raising petrol and diesel duty after an eight-year freeze.

Spreadsheet Phil has let it be known he’s lost £46billion in revenue – twice as much as the NHS spends annually on doctors and nurses.

Fuel for thought.