Lord Prescott indeed

Anthony Barnett (London, OK): According to a report in today’s Independent by Ben Russell, when John Prescott resigns from the Commons at the next election he is “expected” to “take a seat in the House of Lords”. This, it explains will be because “he wants to stay in his European role”? ‘What role is that’, you may ask? Why, he is the well known British representative on the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe... Apart from the absurdity of a non-elected ‘representative’ on this so-called parliamentary body, I thought that Labour is committed to an elected second chamber and will spell this out in its manifesto. Do I detect one of those all too British erosions of such commitments by the steady gatherings of commitments to 'old chaps'? How can a Brown strategy of strengthening democracy and parliament be taken seriously in the face of apparently well-sourced stories such as these? Why not announce an immediate moratorium on all appointments to the Lords in preparation for its abolition? Instead, the same report tell us that a leading contender for John’s safe Labour seat in Hull East is his son David Prescott. It seems that this is the same David once of “Geronimo Communications” who got a dodgy pass giving him access to the Houses of Parliament. I suppose that if he gets the seat it will at least ensure another success for New Labour family life as well as retain the hereditary element in the lower chamber as an insurance against it being modernised away in the upper one. Even the Apaches could congratulate us on the preservation of tribalism.