That Democracy Problem (2)

There really isn't a more hideous sight than seeing politicians - having negotiated the greasy democratic pole themselves - desperately using their influence to deny the same privileges to those with whom they disagree.

MPs really don't get this democracy thing, do they?

Peers are to give MEPs special passes to allow them access to the House of Lords - after MPs removed their rights to Westminster passes.

When peers rejected the approach taken by the Commons last year, Labour's Lord Tomlinson said MEPs had enjoyed the right to passes "for the last 29 years without, as far as I'm aware, having produced any problems".

He suggested the issue could become "a very serious irritant between ourselves and the European Parliament".

At the time, the then Commons leader Harriet Harman said the decision had been made after a review of the rules relating to passes and concern about pressure on facilities.

The Palace of Westminster has shrunk, apparently.

But Labour MP John Mann said it would stop the BNP "parading round here as if they're legitimate politicians".

And there it is.

I don't know what John Mann's definition of a 'legitimate politician' is, but mine would be someone who, in a democracy - you know, where the public choose their representatives? - gains enough votes to be one. Just in case you weren't aware, nearly one million people 'democratically' and 'legitimately' voted for the BNP in June last year. John Mann (who only gained 25,018 votes himself) is arrogant enough to believe that his view trumps that of those one million combined.

Of course, UKIP gained nearly 2.5 million votes. More than Labour, in fact, but they're excluded too. How convenient.

Could someone please tell me why the Lords, who seem to understand democracy vastly more than the quite astoundingly dull-minded self-centred individuals in the other place, are somehow deemed irrelevant and old-fashioned?

Could it be because they irritatingly keep adhering to common sense and reason?