just read these comments on FB Do YOU think the H O L'S is a justifiable expense in a cash strapped society

I think it's possible to feel pretty miffed about both.

I'm not a great expert with regard to political structures but I believe one of the the arguments for a second house is that it allows examination of proposed legislation from a supposedly more politically neutral perspective. In reality, I think it is probably the case that a good number of the members are nominated because of their political leanings, which in turn are often dictated by their own socio-economic status.

I'm not quite sure what the answer is but I believe the present system needs radical reform as its number increases year on year (I think currently it's over 800) and it appears to grant all sorts of ridiculously expensive and unmonitored privileges to its members.

Paddyann the daily stipend is only paid on days Parliament is sitting and only to those present in the house. One Lord was caught signing in then dipping out but that was stopped a few years ago.

I think the existence of the House of Lords is essential. SAlmost every legislature has a second revising chamber. Many of the Lords are people who are experts in their fields and can bring to discussions the expertise now so lacking in the lower house.

I think these deliberately emotive comparisons with the homeless, children etc etc are juvenile. It isn't a case of either or. We could spend all the government finances to give us a perfect welfare system, but what would happen to all the other services we need, including dustmen and diplomats, running the tax system etc etc.

Like any company the government must decide how to distribute taxes they collect, we could of course dispense with all the money used to run ministries, build and repair roads. Sell the Houses of Parliament for conversion into flats, stop running elections. How much would that make available for nurses doctors, the homeless, foodbanks etc?

We need an upper house but I think it should be elected and the numbers set and limited.

What is going to happen to the MEPs when they are redundant - will they all be given peerages and crammed into any available space in the HOL?

Our society isn't 'cash strapped'. The way that the government spends money or cuts spending is a political choice.

Rather than getting indignant about spending on the Lords you should be getting indignant about the government cutting spending and contracting the economy for the sake of their political ideology of shrinking the 'state'.

One rule for the rich... It's becoming more and more obvious, isn't it?