DO you consider yourself more stupid than an MP? More morally corrupt than an MSP? Are you less diligent, trustworthy, experienced, honest, inquisitive, nuanced, balanced, courageous, responsible or resilient than any politician you can name?

If you do consider your personal qualities somehow lesser then I commiserate with your self-esteem and the tragedy of your life experience.

However, I guess most - if not nearly all - folk reckon themselves certainly equal to politicians in terms of character, attributes and talent.

Hold on to that thought a moment: that you’re as good, if not better, than any politician.

While that idea nestles, briefly consider House of Lords reform. This interminable thorn has been poisoning the paw of British democracy long before I was born. The issue disappears and reappears like El Niño, oscillating in and out of the political agenda yet never resolved.

The matter is back. A bill before the Commons promises reform. In truth, it does nothing of the sort. If passed, it will remove merely the last remaining hereditary peers.

Among the peers facing removal are Lord Ravensdale, great-grandson of Oswald Mosely, leader of the British Union of Fascists; Viscount Stansgate, whose father Tony Benn renounced his peerage to sit in the Commons; Lord Attlee, grandson of Clement Attlee; and the Duke of Wellington, whose great-great-great-grandfather wears a traffic cone on his head in Glasgow.

Read more by Neil Mackay

However, the "Lords Spiritual" will remain in the upper chamber - the archbishops and bishops of the Church of England who influence the legal framework which governs our lives.

Aside from the democratic........

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