Is Ashcroft a Working Peer?  

Anyone out there with a working definition of a “working peer”? In a House of Lords briefing on the subject it merely says the term is used by the press to describe a peer appointed by a political party in the expectation that they would attend regularly. In a letter dated 2 March 2000, William Hague told the Chair of the Political Honours Scrutiny Committee, Lord Thomson of Monifieth: “I am putting his name forward once again because I value his abilities and wish to make political use of them as a working peer within the House of Lords to which, I believe, he would bring new strengths.” Hague goes on: “I am sure that you will appreciate that, in the light of what has gone before, I would not be renominating Mr Ashcroft if I had any doubts as to his suitability and was not anxious to make use of him on the Conservative benches in the House of Lords.” My...