£90,000 worth of champagne ..

There are much more expensive bottles of champagne available in Tesco. I dont think Tesco should be abolished. There are many issues with regard to the HOL this isnt one of them.

More detail in this Guardian article and I still can't get excited about it, despite being a Guardian reader...

www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/jan/02/champagne-worth-90000-bought-in-house-of-lords-last-year-foi-data-shows

I can think of many reasons to reform or even abolish the HOL but this is not one of them. Are we saying if you can afford to spend £57 on a bottle of champagne you can’t sit in the HOL? A spurious argument. We would have nobody in the upper house and surely it’s a free country to spend your money how you wish, provided as MaizieD says it’s not being subsidised from public funds? ( They probably do get the champagne cheaper by buying in bulk from the wholesaler)

Surely they profit on the bottles of Champagne and serveral other items in the gift shop.
And yes I have paid over £57 for champagne.

Sounds more than a bit dog in the manger to me!

Quite honestly I cannot get in the least bit excited by this. If tourists and members of the Lords want to buy champagne at £57 per bottle it's entirely their own affair and their money that they are spending.

I don't see it as a exceptional quantity, either. Average sales of 5 bottles per day over a year?

OTOH, if the price of this fizz is being subsidised in some way from the public purse so that Lords can buy decent champagne cheaply then it would be a bit of a scandal.

Why on earth selling champagne in the gift shop should be grounds for abolition of the Lords is a bit of a mystery.

The upper house is a very useful moderator. Reform, yes - abolition, no. If people want to buy Champagne, let them. The quantity of Champagne purchased is not a valid indicator of the value or otherwise of the existence of the HoL.