Ermine and pearls

Plaid Cymru peers will soon be sized up for ermine before nestling into the well-padded red leather benches of the House of Lords.

I was once shown through the cloakroom outside the second house where hereditary peers were allocated a hook on which to hang their swords during a session, presumably in case debate became overheated.
One such convenience was reserved for HRH the Prince of Wales.
Reform of the House, starting with the virtual removal the hereditary privilege, continues to be slow work in progress.
Plaid’s ideological disdain for the unelected chamber prompted many within the party to work themselves into a collective lather when Dafydd Elis-Thomas was ennobled in 1992 and sits as a non-aligned ‘cross-bencher’.
Now a new pragmatism is persuading the established party elite that the words nose, spite and face in close proximity, while entirely principled in the context of protest for reform, left them political denuded in one of the state’s two legislatures.
That fact was brought into sharper focus by the complex processes instilled in the Government of Wales Act, demanding approval by the Lords of fresh devolved powers for Cardiff Bay.
The party will now choose from an approved register of candidates for nomination, which would include its list of those who have stood for, and stood down from, the National Assembly, such as Dafydd Wigley, Cynog Dafis, Janet Davies, or Owen John Thomas.
The idea of selecting someone with Assembly experience would ease the liaison with Cardiff in the business of introducing new laws in the Westminster parliament.
That now takes precedent over the ideal of waiting for reforms to turn the Lords into an elected house, or the Assembly into a full law-making body.
Plaid leader in the Commons Elfyn Llwyd, 56, said: “If we are going to wait for the place to be reformed then time will pass us by.”
Not everyone is happy. New-ish AM Bethan Jenkins,25, at least retains a youthful zeal, blogging: “As a party that spearheaded the cash for honours inquiry alongside the SNP, we should be distancing ourselves from this institution, not actively legitimising an undemocratic body.
“Nevertheless, the reality is that the party has endorsed representation at the Lords.
“I can take a good guess as to some of the names that will be considered. Can you?!”