hereditary peers

Hereditary peers in the House of Lords have left their red leather benches for the final time. The majority of such peers, who inherit their titles through their families, lost the right to sit in the Lords in 1999, but 92 remained after a compromise deal with the Conservatives. Now the bell has tolled for those doomed hereditaries too, with a law to remove their seats taking effect as the current session of Parliament ended earlier. Lord Forsyth of Drumlean, the Lord Speaker, thanked them for their service, in a speech marking the end of nearly a thousand years of British parliamentary histor