Lord Prescott

Quite right, too. The first ever Labour Manifesto contained a pledge to abolish the House of Lords, but there has never been one since, so that Labour has never been elected on any such pledge.

If you believe in the voice of organised labour within the parliamentary process, then the House of Lords is now the place to go to hear it. Likewise, if you believe in the parliamentary voice of people from working-class backgrounds, or who grew up in the North of England, or who went to non-Oxbridge universities, or who went to the Secondary Moderns that were so much better than what has replaced them.

It was as wrong to silence the voice of the aristocratic social conscience by abolishing hereditary barons as it was to silence the voice of organised labour by abolishing trade union barons. One way or another, both of those voices must be heard again.