Our noble Friends again

The Baroness Royall, Leader of the House of Lords, is perhaps carried away by her eloquence in a Guardian article:

The House of Lords is an honourable and hard-working place. Peers are honourable and hard-working men and women.

Hard-working? Of the 735 members, the average attendance is 408.

Honourable? (Presumably not intended in the sense that Mark Anthony described Brutus.) No doubt some are, but the accusations made last weekend suggest that there may be others who are letting the side down. Oh look, there is another one outed in The Times today. And then we have the ex-cons, Lords Archer and Watson, who still get to perch upon the red benches from time to time.

But I must not be snarky ...