SIR – Successive Prime Ministers have dished out a life peerage to so many officials of powerful organisations (117 last year) that the Upper House of our bicameral Parliament is still filled to capacity during important debates, despite having undergone a two-stage process of reform involving the removal of hereditary peers in 1999.

Many of these ex-apparatchiks are skilful orators, so if they wish to delay procedure, they simply take on the role of a filibuster.

Regular viewers of BBC Parliament will have witnessed this ploy time and time again, but it begs the question which government will complete the reform of the House of Lords and in the meantime stop ennobling any Tom, Dick and Harry?

David Rhodes, Croscombe Walk, Bradford