Letter: Too few Lib Dems in the Lords

Alan Watkins comments on the Liberal Democrats being "generously represented" in the House of Lords (28 September). Our numbers are well short of proportionate if votes in recent general elections are taken as the basis, though recent appointments have gone some way to balance the few new Opposition peers in the Thatcher years.

It had never occurred to me that our "infiltration" of the Lords was the guilty secret Alan Watkins suggests. Many of us take every opportunity to argue for the reform of the Lords, but would feel we were abandoning our responsibilities if, as a party, we did not play a full part in it.

Baroness Hamwee

House of Lords