The list of the new working peers has been announced by Downing Street. Following the withdrawal of supportive businessmen due to the 'loans for peerages' scandal, Blair has turned to old stalwarts and defeated candidates. The honour is recast as a reward for electoral failure or "advice". Perhaps long-standing governments become prisoners of their patronage, providing all gongs to those the electorate rejected as the undeserving candidate.
The Tories contribution is more interesting. Cameron shifts away from "Buggins turn" and uses the opportunity to bolster conservative voices in the Lords with Sandip Varma, a former candidate and Mohamed Iltaf Sheikh, Chairman of the Conservative Muslim Forum. He has also included David James, the famous Dome "troubleshooter".
Media articles on the list have naturally led with the exclusion of Labour and Conservative candidates who lent or donated money to the party. However, six of the seven Tory peers had given money to the Conservative party, and they outnumber the number of Labour peers by one.
While none of the new Labour peers has any substantial personal financial relationship with the party, several of the new Tory lords have donated money to their party. Chief among them is Jonathan Marland, the current Conservative treasurer, who has given the party more than £150,000 in recent years, according to public records.
Other Tory nominees include Mohamed Iltaf Sheikh, the chairman of the Conservative Muslim Forum, who has given £37,501. David James, the corporate advisor who helped draft the Tories' election attacks on Whitehall waste last year will also become a lord; he has given £18,550.
The Scotsman notes that Blair has abandoned the annual ritual of appointing more Labour peers in order to overcome the larger numbers of Tory peers in the Lords. Labour and the Tories now have a almost matching number of peers in the House of Lords. Knowing the unscrupulous actions of this government, appointing more Labour peers may have been postponed until there is less of a public light shone on the Lords. Or perhaps they are going to do away with the Chamber in its current form.