A severe though not unfriendly critic of our institutions said that the cure for admiring the House of Lords was to go and look at it.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I have a huge admiration for the House of Lords, I have a huge admiration for the people who work in the House of Lords, they're great public servants and they do an absolutely tremendous job.
The House of Lords has many fine aspects, but at its heart, it is a betrayal of the core democratic principle that those in the enlightened world hold so dear - that those who make the laws of the land should be elected by those who must obey those laws.
We must restore faith in politics. Reform of the House of Lords is only one part of the answer, but it is a vital one.
Anything looked at closely becomes wonderful.
I am not going to the House of Lords. Never. That's not who I am. That's not where I am.
Nothing surprises me about the Lords.
The House of Lords, an illusion to which I have never been able to subscribe - responsibility without power, the prerogative of the eunuch throughout the ages.
If we are too friendly to nice, decent bishops, we run the risk of buying into the fiction that there's something virtuous about believing things because of faith rather than because of evidence. We run the risk of betraying scientific enlightenment.
Critic's delight: scolding the Mighty Dead.
I just look at it, as it's something that I had to do. I had this vision that really, Graceland is suited for a king and it is his castle. And people really should see it, as he loved it.