House of lords takes bribes (unsurprisingly)

In an age where the mainstream media is little more than a megaphone for the government it's surprising to read what appears to be a genuine piece of investigative journalism. In an undercover operation the Times reveals that several members of the house of lords admit accepting very substantial back-handers from companies in exchange for having laws changed in their favour.

To me this isn't surprising at all, except for the fact that such a thing has actually been openly reported in public. I think in previous decades a story like this would have been quickly censored, or never made it past the newspaper editor (who may themselves have been part of the "old boy" network).

Although I admit that sometimes the house of lords does make sensible decisions I've never been a fan of that particular institution, since it's fundamentally anti-democratic - basically a peculiar kind of relic of feudalism. The traditional method by which people get into the lords is to make a substantial donation to whichever political party happens to be in power at the time, or to be an ex prime minister or senior cabinet member. In my opinion an institution like this is utterly anachronistic, and has no place in the 21st century, although I realize that this is not a popular viewpoint.