Labour’s Maggie Jones says it’s not unusual to work across party lines in the Lords because no party has a majority. “We can’t win anything on our own, so you have to make the case and win the argument,” she says.
Members of the House of Lords are also not beholden to constituents in the same way as MPs, so they don’t need to grandstand during debates just to show they’re doing the job to stand up for local issues. That means that “even the most heated debates in Lords are incredibly polite,” says Harding.
“It’s a soundproof box by and large,” says Clement-Jones about the Lords. “Professional organizations and civil society organizations know what we do. But you know, outside of that not many people, I mean, very few journos cover what we do.”
With sessions often going on for hours into the evening, however, there’s often a need to keep morale up with jokes and witticisms — something Clement-Jones, in particular, seems to excel at.
“Oh God, you’ve got to keep yourself amused. I mean, otherwise you’d die,” he says.
