THE only chamber in the world that’s bigger than the House of Lords is the Chinese National People’s Congress. It meets for a couple of weeks each year with almost 3000 delegates representing the world’s largest population of 1.4 billion.

That’s one elected delegate for every half a million people in China. In the UK, we have one unelected peer for every 80,000 citizens. The Lords now stands at 830 members – which includes 92 hereditary peers entitled to sit from the House of Lords Act 1999.

Being entitled to make law in 2020 because hundreds of years ago one of your ancestors stole land from others and pledged fealty to the crown is truly bizarre. But is it any worse than getting the same job for life because you buttered the UK Government’s political parsnips? Life peerages were introduced in 1958 but have taken off in more recent times.

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Looking around the world, a membership of around 100 would be a good average for a country’s second chamber with a comparative population to the UK. In Europe, Germany’s second chamber has 69 members, France 348 and Italy 320.

Why is the House of Lords so big? The answer isn’t pretty. It has ballooned to enable more rewards to be given for political favours, support provided or huge party donations made to whoever is in Number 10. The doling out of patronage and honours is a powerful preserve of the Prime Minister (PM).

Should our democracy and constitution have at its core public privilege to be bestowed privately like grease on a wheel? The power of the PM to dish out honours is largely unfettered. There is a House of Lords Appointments Commission, but it can only advise on the “propriety” of nominees – in a nutshell, whether her or his tax affairs are in order.

Last week, Boris Johnson announced 36 new life peers to the Lords. Among them were nine former Tory MPs, his brother Jo Johnson, arch-Brexiteers such as Clare Fox, the cricketer Ian Botham, former work colleagues, pals such as Evgeny Lebedev and those who’ve donated large sums to his party, such as Michael Spencer.

Glasgow Times: The House of Lords The House of Lords

There was also Ruth Davidson MSP. In her eight years as leader of the Scottish Conservative Party she was never known to enunciate one single policy her party would implement if in government – until September 2017. Ms Davidson’s sole public policy contribution was to suggest a mass programme of council and affordable house building.

Very good, but her one synapse of wisdom was somewhat ironic as her party introduced the policy that led to almost half a million socially rented houses disappearing from the public sector in Scotland from 1980 onwards.

The PM’s spaffing of appointments last week has been rightly condemned as the greatest example of petty cronyism in many a year. Even the speaker of the House of Lords urged the PM to stop creating “mass” peerages and described the size of the second chamber as “ridiculous” following the nomination of 36 appointees.

In 2017, a Westminster report recommended reducing the number of people in the House of Lords to 600. Theresa May’s response to the Burns Report was to show restraint in creating new peers – she created new life peers at half the rate of David Cameron each year, so numbers were beginning to dip until Boris Johnson.

In 2010, the Tory/LibDem coalition government published an agreement stating that a group would be appointed to bring forward proposals for an elected House of Lords. The group, which consisted of frontbench spokespeople from those parties and Labour, was to prepare a draft bill.

That draft bill was published in May 2011 by the deputy prime minister. It set out proposals for a House of Lords made up of 300 members – 80% elected and 20% appointed. The bill was referred to a joint committee of both Houses, and by September 2012, the government announced it was binning the bill.

We need a second chamber, but it should be elected by the people. The taxpayer funds the Lords to the tune of almost £120 million each year. Every new Lord or Baroness can sit in the second chamber for around 150 days a year netting £50,000 per annum in allowances excluding travel expenses.

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For many, that’s an extra pension on top of a multitude of gold-plated public pensions.

The UK state pension – if you’ve made 35 years of full national insurance contributions – is only £9000 per annum. For most people retiring in the near future, that pension will only be accessible from 67 years of age.

The House of Lords is out of touch and out of time. An elected, smaller senate is long overdue.