Their Ladyships' House

March saw the publication of an authoritative list of Britain's 10 most influential black women, including fully three members of the House of Lords (with two in the two top spots), one of them Britain's first ever black woman Cabinet Minister, Baroness Amos. Three is one more than the total number of black women in the House of Commons, neither of whom was listed. And today, although Baroness Amos left the Cabinet, the second-placed Baroness Scotland joined it.

In this of all years, those who would fill up legislative time with pointless changes to the House of Lords (the problem of the sale of seats in which is a simple matter of the enforcement of the existing criminal law) should instead apply The Attlee Tests, and concentrate on the relief of poverty and of everything that accompanies it, leaving alone, or indeed positively using, any aspect of the Constitution which does not necessarily impede that relief, and always having in mind what impact any proposed change would have had on such measures in the past.