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House of Lords Bill [HL]

This has been an interesting debate and my noble friend has done a great service to the House. This is not the first time that your Lordships have debated the title of this House. I recall an amendment moved by the noble Earl, Lord Ferrers, in 1999 on the question of the name of the reformed House. He made a number of suggestions and I think his amendment proposed that it should be the House of Peers and Peeresses. That was anticipated by Gilbert and Sullivan many years before in the alternative title to ““Iolanthe””: ““The Peer and the Peri””. The definition of ““peri”” is those who are descended from fallen angels who have been denied paradise until they have done penance. We are indeed doing penance today.