You might not know it, but this week a new hereditary peer will be voted into the House of Lords. Welcome to the UK’s most exclusive, and most utterly bizarre, election.
AP Photo/Geoff Pugh, Pool
Following the death of Lord Methuan, a new hereditary peer is to be elected to the House of Lords. Anyone can stand, as long as they have a hereditary title, and anyone can vote, as long as they're already in the Lords.
There are 92 places remaining for hereditary peers in the parliamentary body. Each time one of them dies, a gaggle of lords and ladies battle it out for a freshly laundered ermine cloak and a place in the prestigious hall.
The Lords is choosing Methuen's replacement from a panel of 15 candidates that includes some people who want to repatriate immigrants, a lord convicted of assaulting his wife, and a man who faithfully celebrates Margaret Thatcher's birthday every year.
Lord Sudeley, a candidate in today's hereditary by-election, goes for a jolly ride on a horse.
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The candidates tend to be very old, very white, and very conservative. Each has written a 75-word pitch to voters, with the exception of Lords Biddulph and Cadman, who are so confident they have boldly opted to say nothing, and Lord Harlech, who seems to have misread the instructions and gone over the word limit so he's been cut off.
