Decision day for the Lords

Will the House of Lords sabotage Osborne's proposed cuts in tax credits?  The Guardian reports:

In an attempt to persuade peers not to block the measures, the government warned the non-party crossbench group of peers, who hold the balance of power in the upper house, that rejecting such a large financial measure would provoke a constitutional crisis.

There were suggestions that Downing Street could flood the lords with new Tory peers or limit its powers if the cuts are blocked. If peers vote for a non-binding “regret motion” then the chancellor is expected to indicate that he would act to soften the impact of the cuts in his autumn statement on 25 November.

Bluffing?  Maybe.  After all, what would the voting public think about the prospect of creating hundreds of new Tory peers?  (Just think of  all those Tory donors wearing ermine.)  At what cost?   Would an expanded House of Lords have a future?  And all this in order to shaft the poorer sections of the working classes.

The Tories might want to think about holes and stopping digging ...