Portillo on Lords Reform

"Cowardly politicians make bad decisions." So begins Michael Portillo in an excellent article for the Sunday Times on the subject of Lords Reform. Articulating a passionate defence of the Lords as it stands, en route he takes a swipe at the system of closed list voting (entirely beneficial to party leaders he says), and the Scottish problem that will exist for a Gordon Brown who might want to avoid too many overt comments on electoral 'legitimacy' while he uses Scottish votes for English measures.