A century ago conservative Britons comforted themselves that their House of Lords was an anchor against the tempest of public opinion. A lord became a lord by appointment of the King, or by the happy chance of having a titled father. He owed nothing to any voter, and could afford (if he chose) to base his approach to any public matter on the dictum: "The public be damned."
But the damned public was not so easily ignored; through the years it had whittled the Lords' powers until the House had become little more than...
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