It’s the posh version of a factory worker clocking on then climbing over the wall to go home.

Except ordinary workers who pay taxes which fund the House of Lords would be sacked for gross misconduct – while the privileged elite in the Upper Chamber are a law unto themselves, gifted jobs for life.

They may be suspended, as two were today for lobbying offences, but they can’t be fired.

The House of Cronies is a disgrace in a modern country – a medieval anachronism ripe for abolition.

I don’t deny there are some good folk in the place, not least Doreen Lawrence. The very principle, however, of unelected lawmakers deciding how we live our lives is fundamentally wrong.

Especially when lawbreakers, the likes of Tory liar Jeffrey Archer and Labour fire-starter Michael Watson, retain their titles and automatically resume their seats on the plush burgundy benches after serving time at Her Majesty’s Displeasure.