Budget Rent-a-Peer

As you'll probably have heard by now, some naughty, naughty Peers told the Sunday Times that they would, well, help along an amendment to a law in return for a bit of cash. Well, that is, they thought they were telling an Asian supermarket company this; the Times was being a little naughty itself, you see.

Anyway, corrupt politicians who don't need to get re-elected, and are very hard to get rid of; there are actual criminals in the Lords. So far so boring.

The sheer range of prices is impressive, though.

You can get Lord Snape here (no relation to Severus) for a mere £24,000 a year, while a higher-end peer will cost you 120 thousand. In the mid range, you can get an ex-MEP, Lord Truscott, a charming man who loves ID cards and hates climate change regulation. Same with Mr. Snape, there, actually. And so does Lord Moonie, who goes for 30k, and is presumably the one you got for when you don't want to spend too much, but don't actually want to go bargain basement. You know, he's the Marks and Spencer of corrupt peers.

Why the link between ID-card-philia and negotiable virtue, anyway? While the climate change thing is pretty obvious, it doesn't seem like anyone would be paying to further the cause of ID cards.

Please note that these people are also Britain's highest court. So if you're planning on murdering somebody, put a deposit down now!