Cash for Peerages

In many ways I'm surprised that anyone is shocked that honours are for sale - I'd always somewhat assumed that if you made enormous financial contributions to a political party not everyone was doing it just to be generous or philanthropic - they really expect something in return. There are two things that bother me though. The House of Lords is part of the legislature. If a couple of million quid just bought a title I for one would have no qualms. But buying a place in one of the two chambers in parliament is really not on. Are these new life peers regular attenders at the House? All life peers should only remain members of the House of Lords provided they turn up and vote (and preferably speak and serve on committees) on a regular basis. If they don't they should be excluded from membership. Paradoxically the reamining hereditary peers are probably making a much greater contibution than many of the new creations - this surely can't be right. Better still it is time that the House of Lords was directly elected - this has been an unfinished job for far too long - lets get on and really reform the second chamber.
And as for the Prime Minister? It increasingly appears that we're moving into a parallel universe - did we really end up with a British Richard Nixon in 1997 - we certainly didn't get a Labour Prime Minister (whether new or old).