The last 92 hereditary peers are being removed from the House of Lords according to the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill.

I should perhaps dance upon the transformation of this institution. Their intransigence in the 1910s led to the Home Rule crisis and shifted Ireland down a far more bloody path to independence than was necessary.

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But, I almost feel bad. The British aristocracy was physically decimated in World War I. Then, as a matter of tax policy, liberal governments set about to destroy it as a matter of social fact. Death duties have put the remaining hereditary aristocrats on their ass.

And what is the House of Lords now? Party leaders recommend names to the king. Or, in an “alternate” course, they submit the names directly to a body which rarely blocks them. Or, “alternately,” the PM selects from a list of “people’s” choices. It’s political all the way down.

Occasionally some interesting people get through, but on the whole, the body has gone from a humbled and threatened aristocracy to a self-satisfied oligarchy of the famous and well-connected.

© National Review