94% of Britons want Lords gone. The other 6% are Lords.

The People's Chamber · Commentary

Polling on the Removal of Peerages Bill has surfaced a result so neat it deserves to be stitched onto a tea towel: 94% of the British public would like the House of Lords abolished, while 6% would prefer it left exactly as it is. A bracing exercise in self-knowledge has been duly conducted, and the maths needs no further explanation. The Bill itself proceeds at the dignified pace appropriate to constitutional reform — that is, the pace of a particularly slow-moving glacier carrying a great deal of ermine. The Lords have agreed, as they always do, to consider the matter carefully. They are nothing if not punctilious about ensuring their own demise is conducted with proper procedural decorum. A select committee has been formed. Submissions have been invited. A timetable will, in due course, be published. The 94% wait. The 6%, of course, wait differently — in much more comfortable chairs, and at considerably less personal cost.