Okay, not so explosive after all.

[muriel_volestrangler]

24. They're more polite to each other than the Commons

I think MPs would have been heckling and laughing if someone stood up to say all that in the Commons. It's not common for this kind of speech to be made, but, as you say, they don't face re-election, so they can say pretty much what they want unless it seems so outrageous that the speaker stops it (MPs cannot be sued for libel in the Commons, so I think the same would apply in the Lords).

These days, nearly all people in the Lords have been appointed, which is for life. Some are retired MPs, some are people appointed by political parties, either for funding them, or because they're well known supporters. Some, who are independent, are appointed because they've run major charities, or are generally well thought of in the country. A few are still hereditary (when most of the hereditary lords were kicked out, they got to vote among themselves for the ones who remained). There are a few Church of England bishops as well.

However the financial world operates, the numbers Lord James mentions just don't add up - far more gold than the world has ever mined, and so on.