The House Of Patronage

Whenever you read or hear about such and such a member of the House of Lords you can be sure they are causing trouble, or sitting on a committee, in some way justifying the position of their snouts deep in the trough.
Their Lordships are at once the pinnacle and a microcosm of a society dedicated to working the system.
The important thing to becoming a Lord is to be well connected, to be able to sit on endles committees for endless hours, and to be greedy. You can rise through the system without ever being elected by peasantry. Elections are just so distasteful.
It is much easier to be a friend of a friend of a friend.
The House of Lords is just part of a network of corruption that is stifling this country.
It needs to be reformed. The political parties talk about reform, but it will never come to pass. It is a convenient place to reward your friends, a golden opportunity to bypass the electorate.
The House of Lords could easily be turned into a revising chamber like the American Senate. Two senators could be chosen from each county.
Finance bills would still have to originate from the Commons, so its primacy would not be undermined.
Such a solution is unlikely to come to pass in a country where the boot is on the bureaucracy's. Committee and quangos, rules and regulations plague the land, all leeching off the poor peasant.