THE recent editorial regarding the House of Lords (Echo, Nov 1) simply highlighted the absurdity of the whole edifice.

Why should someone, whose sole claim to fame is that his ten times great grandmother was King Charles’ favourite mistress, have any say in the running of the country?

Surely what is needed is a house of representative experts who could comment more wisely on the government’s proposals.

These experts or representatives should be chosen from the widest possible areas.

A member for each of the main religions, one from each of the professional bodies, such as medicine, law, banking and local government, members from each of the main trade unions and other organisations representing the manufacturing industries.

Perhaps extra members could be selected from the universities and from scientific societies, and the arts. All representatives would be chosen in some way by the members of the individual groups.

As they say in parliament: “I commend this proposal to readers of The Northern Echo for further thought and suggestions.”

Eric Gendle, Nunthorpe