UK's aristocratic lawmakers prepare for life after the Lords

UK hereditary lawmaker Richard Fletcher-Vane, better known as Lord Inglewood, will soon no longer commute the few hundred miles from his country house in northwest England to the House of Lords in London -- and he is not happy about it. It is "out of step with modern Britain," government minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said in September as he introduced the legislation that will scrap the Lords' bloodline members. John Attlee, the 2nd Earl Attlee and grandson of former Labour prime minister Clement Attlee, is another hereditary peer preparing to hand back the red ermine-clad robes worn by lords. It notes that the Lords is "the second-largest legislative chamber in the world after China's National People's Congress", and calls for a "smaller, elected house" to work alongside the elected Commons. Fletcher-Vane said he thinks scrapping hereditary peers is a "crude" reform when he believes he contributes more than many life peers.