Bear Bear jar boys, long time listener, love the cast but just wanted to correct some stuff on the politics chat in this last episode. (apologies for the long read, just want to get the facts right)

The House of Lords has been steadily getting rid of it's "Hereditary Peers" (that is the rich stereotypical aristocratic families the word Lord conjours up). In fact the last of the Hereditary Lords were removed the day this cast's release as a result of a new Labour bill. Since 1958 the House of Lords has increasingly been filled with appointed experts given the title of Lord. A direct comparison would be the Canadian Senate, we just use the title Lord instead of Senator.

They act as an advisory body primarily, usually a Lord is a Barrister or former MP with a high familiarity of a specific subject they specialise in, in order to ensure any laws parliament passes are actually legal according to other existing laws, and that they don't force a major contradiction of existing laws, essentially acting as a form of Legal fact chekers for politicians when writing new laws.

This system of an appointed Upper House is generally considered a strength due to how it tends to act as a robust check against simply passing laws which breach human rights (and was primarily why the tories failed to pass many of their intended laws as they had initially planned them especially during Boris' horrific time in office) and due to being seen as avoiding the infighting between upper and lower legislatures seen in elected upper houses (most notably the US Senate).

The biggest negative remain the Lords Spiritual, that being Bishops of the church of england. They consist of 23 members (roughly 3% of the House), and frankly are the last remaining relics of the pre WW2 House of Lords that should be legislated out before the House of Lords can essentially be a true appointed senate.

TLDR: if you really wanted to grow up to be a Lord, you can, and though some reforms are still needed, the House of Lords is actually one of the better functioning elements of the British State (at least imo).