HOW many times have you switched your television off the minute you find a political debate in progress?

Like me, you are probably utterly tired of the aloofness among those you see, and, as we've all been busy and stressed for the last 15 years. You've probably not had the time to notice the fact that there is hardly an MP who has been on the modern equivalent of the shop floor.

Today most MPs are career professionals. But, love them or hate them, there is a greater diversity of backgrounds and experience among members of the House of Lords.

The Prime Minister is tinkering with the Upper House, reining it in and diminishing it so he can plant more of his dubious cronies there. And then we shall have it: the nucleus for Republican Britain.

There will be a smaller hereditary contingent in the Lords which appears to satisfy Mr Blair's idea of the electorate, namely a populace too busy to think and too nave to take notice of self-seeking moves cloaked in the pretence of Socialism.

However, under Mr Blair's governing, the lives of people in this country will be constrained by a dictate of 'do I as I say, not as I do.'

For all their faults, the House of Lords has served this country well. Indeed, many of the families concerned have a far longer history than parliament.

At least the Upper House has stopped this country embarking on some of the more extreme paths.

Finally, as for the Lords who are going with Tony, a word of advice: Don't look into his eyes!

Ian Laidlaw Wilson,

Poppletongate House,

Millgates,

York.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.