IN a prime example of engaging mouth before brain, our government is committed to replacing the 'undemocratic' House of Lords because of the influence of unelected peers.

Just a minute, though, what about the influence of all those unelected spin doctors and Brussels commissioners?

Our Parliament, for example, said 'No' to approving the multi-billion Air France bail out. But an unelected transport commissioner, Neil Kinnock, said 'Yes.'

Where is the democratic rationale for abolishing an unelected House of Lords, only to approve and encourage a more distant prosaic, unelected, European Commission, where failed politicians take the decisions?

Whatever its faults, the House of Lords has British interests at heart, almost always above party politics.

The current House of Commons' obsession with teenage homosexual sex, compared with an apparent lack of initiative and direction for, say, solving the Sudan famine, needed to be exposed.

I am glad that The Lords did this; intentionally or not.

While Tony Blair's government preaches democracy, it clearly practises something else. Across the parties, parliamentary hypocrisy coupled with appalling government judgment, seems to know no bounds.

Perhaps the House of Lords is giving us a better service than we appreciate.

PHILIP CONGDON, Hindle Fold Lane, Great Harwood.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.