So four members of the House of Lords have been accused of using their position to enrich themselves. Basically offering to influence legislation in return for money. Naturally they deny it and we shall have to wait for more information before sitting in judgement. But I am not surprised. The old (post-war) House of Lords was a mixed bag of characters with some peers being convicted criminals, drug addicts, rogues, colourful characters as well as a good number having a wide experience of life in business, the armed forces. Of course many chose not to sit in the House or did so only on a few occasions. I suspect that although the ones who did sit were also a cross-section of humanity (apart from their blue blood of course) they were probably skewed towards those with positive characters and many served their country well.
Now the House consists mainly of people elevated from the Commons together with other placemen chosen by the government. They are not elected. As the Commons has a large number of rogues, slime dogs, scum, scoundrels it is obvious that a chamber derived from such a source will be equally squalid. Ad so it has proved.
