Peer Review

Peter Oborne need not worry. There will never be agreement as to a specific alternative, although on the simple matter of abolition itself it is worth noting that something is now at least the nominal policy of all three parties when 30 years ago it was a cause only of the Bennites.

Peter Oborne, scourge of the Political Class and of the London Likudniks, would make an excellent Peer and should apply to become one. His is just the variously provincial, rural, protectionist, church-based, conservative and mind-our-own-business Toryism with which we can and must co-operate as advocates of the Welfare State, workers' rights, trade unionism, the co-operative movement and wider mutualism, consumer protection, strong communities, conservation rather than environmentalism, fair taxation, full employment, public ownership, proper local government, a powerful Parliament, the monarchy, the organic Constitution, national sovereignty, civil liberties, the Union, the Commonwealth, the countryside, traditional structures and methods of education, traditional moral and social values, economic patriotism, balanced migration, a realist foreign policy, an unhysterical approach to climate change, and a base of real property for every household to resist both over-mighty commercial interests and an over-mighty State.

Co-operate, not least, in the House of Lords. Heaven knows, we currently have no other way into the parliamentary process. I was going to write, "So, where are you?" But, of course, I already know where at least some of you are. So, when are you going to get on with it?