The House of Lords announced the candidates to be its next speaker this week, says Gabriel Pogrund and Tom Calver in The Sunday Times. Change seems to be in the air. With around 800 sitting members, the upper chamber is the second-biggest legislative body in the world after China's National People's Congress.
Departing speaker Lord Fowler, 83, is an outspoken advocate for reform, which could see future by-elections in which hereditary peers are elected abolished. As Lib Dem peer Lord Alderdice put it, that would allow hereditary peers to "wither away". In the past five years, hereditaries claimed £144,000 on average, compared with £134,000 for life peers, and typically made 50 speeches against 82. In the past 20 years, hereditary peers have claimed £47m in expenses. Had some peers saved all of their allowances over the past two decades, they would be millionaires.
Kris Paterson is a writer for WhatNews
