ANOTHER dismal procession of political dross is set to take its place in the House of Lords.

So whatever happened to the New Labour pledge back in 1997, when it came to power, that it would abolish the House of Lords and introduce an elected second chamber, accountable to the electors?

No evidence of a clean-up in the latest list of peers. Cronyism continues. Hypocrisy reigns, nowhere more spectacularly than in the creation of archetypal class warrior John Prescott as a peer. Prezza maintains he’s only taken ermine so he can campaign on behalf of the environment. Cynics are pretty clear that it’s to placate his long-suffering missus who quite fancies the monicker Lady Pauline.

When Tony Blair resigned in 2007 he did not create a dissolution honours list, as is the prerogative of all outgoing prime ministers. His successor, Gordon Brown, has said he does not want a seat in the Lords.

But that hasn’t stopped a heap of political losers from wrapping their grubby paws around the promise of new-found grandeur and hugging elevation to the Lords to their greedy, inept bosoms. Especially the hypocrites who were happy enough to back reform of the Lords when they were in the cabinet.

How it must irk the military to witness a trio of former defence secretaries, none of them noted for standing up for the armed forces, on the latest list of peers.

Messrs. Reid — he was the one who forecast we would leave Afghanistan without a shot being fired — Browne and Hutton proved to be great messers indeed.

Even a former Blue Peter presenter and Madonna’s ex-mother-in-law have got the nod this time round. And there’s nothing quite so ludicrous as Sue Nye’s appointment, especially as she was the person who got the blame for Gordon Brown’s Gillian Duffy fiasco on that ill-fated day trip to Rochdale just before polling day.

There are one or two interesting new peers, notably the Rev. Ian Paisley and Helen Newlove, whose husband was kicked to death by thugs outside his home and who is now a leading campaigner against anti-social behaviour.

But what have the likes of political lightweights like Quentin Davies, Jim Knight, Tommy McAvoy, Beverley Hughes and John Selwyn Gummer, best remembered for coercing one of his children to consume a greasy burger, done to deserve their new found Lordly status?

It’s long overdue for the whole ridiculous and sorry anachronism to be changed. The latest list of appointments serves only to underline the need for reform, although I am not too sure that the newly-elevated Mr. Prescott would agree now he’s joined the toffs he once so reviled.

Prezza, the Lord of Bluster, shows that, when it comes to principles, our present day politicians are great at telling the rest of the honest, hardworking population something akin to “don’t do as I do, do as I say”.

HIDING BAD NEWS?

CUMBRIA County Council promises consultation over any final decision to close Keswick’s Ravensfield care home. To me it has the whiff of a fait accompli.

The council’s cabinet, when it meets at Carlisle on Tuesday, will have the most one-sided report I have seen in a very long time. Full of reasons why the home should close. Hardly a smidgeon of the positives why it should remain open to serve the local community.

It has the hallmarks of a cost-cutting exercise. Has the decision already been rubber-stamped? Is the pledge of consultation just a sop to angry locals?

I hope my scepticism is ill-founded and Ravensfield survives. One thing local people don’t like is the feeling that the council has used the floods last November as an excuse to draw the final curtain down around the home.

There’s nothing sneakier and more distasteful than hiding bad news behind a disaster.

ORANGE’S FAME IS PEELING

MY eldest daughter came on the phone all breathless. “It’s Jason Orange from Take That. He’s sitting in a car in the Market Square and told my mate he’s thinking of buying a house in the Lake District.”

After spending half an hour besieged by excited schoolgirls — my daughter was one of them back in the 90s — Jason sped off and never did buy that Cumbrian hideaway.

How strange the nature of fame. Now Jason Orange comes a very second best to that ultimate greaseball, Piers Morgan.

The pair were sitting having a coffee in a London hotel lounge when, according to Morgan’s newspaper column, they were spied by fans who came over to ask for autographs — Piers’s autograph only.

You are more likely to be recognised these days for having little talent and appearing on talent shows. However, one old dear who came in with her little dog did make a beeline for Orange. The pop supergroup member reached for his pen in anticipation.

“Would you mind looking after my dog while I go to the toilet?” said the old woman.

Poor Jason. Perhaps he should have bought that house in the Lakes after all and settled down to a life of quiet anonymity — or taken up a new career as a singing dog walker.

A POUND OF CARROTS AND A SHERPA PLEASE!

YOU can get most things in a Booths supermarket — even a Sherpa to get you safely up Helvellyn.

You’ve got to admire the spirit and resourcefulness of some of our mature residents, like the Cumbrian great-grandmother who recently decided to try and conquer her fear of heights with a little expert guidance.

She tried to climb Helvellyn via Striding Edge many years ago and turned back because she was nervous. Now she’s planning another try, with a real life Sherpa for company.

And did she have to fly to Kathmandu to find him. Did she heck. He was working in her local supermarket. Married to a local girl he met when she was out trekking in Nepal.

It’s certainly something different to put on the shopping list.

DOG CASE DISGRACE

SORRY sometimes isn’t enough. The owner of the pit bull which savaged his four-year-old nephew to death in Liverpool got just four months in prison for breeding and owning a dog banned under the Dangerous Dogs Act.

The court was told that he was sorry. No doubt he is now. But surely this case demanded a much higher sentence, if only to deter others who keep these dogs as some kind of extension of their macho image.

The only way to deter irresponsible owners, some of whom use their vicious dogs as a threatening weapon, is to hand out tough jail sentences.

I’M AN ACTIVIST

IS being an “activist” a legitimate job these days? More than 40 British activists were caught up in the Israeli attack on a convoy heading for Gaza. It’s difficult to know the truth surrounding this incident. Was this a peaceful aid flotilla or something more sinister?

The question I have is where these British activists come from and who foots the bill to enable them to go off on these supposedly humanitarian trips. Do they put down “activist” when asked to complete official forms seeking their occupation?

There were nearly 700 activists from different countries involved, a mixture of well-meaning peaceniks and hard line radicals by all accounts. The Israelis might have botched the operation. But it seems an odd way to run a peace campaign.