ANDREW PIERCE: Was Conservative peer to blame for Lords fiasco? 

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After two bruising defeats on working tax credits in the Lords, David Cameron is determined his hastily convened review will severely curb the powers of the Upper House.

He’s asked his former Cabinet colleague Lord Strathclyde, the Rt Hon Thomas Galloway Dunlop du Roy de Blicquy Galbraith, to give him his full moniker, to put the peers firmly back in their place.

In interviews the hereditary peer, a former Leader of the Lords, accused the Upper House of ‘deplorable’ conduct in twice rejecting £4.5 billion of cuts in tax credits.

David Cameron has asked his former Cabinet colleague Lord Strathclyde (pictured), to put the peers firmly back in their place

Senior Tories complained peers had broken post-war convention that measures pushed through Parliament as ‘regulations’ or ‘secondary legislation’ should never be opposed. Regulations have the advantage for a government of limiting the time for proper scrutiny.

But Strathclyde, steeped in the traditions of the Upper House having served as a minister as far back as Margaret Thatcher’s premiership, has only himself to blame for the Opposition insurrection.

In a long-forgotten lecture in 1999, two years after the first Blair landslide election victory, the then Shadow Lords Leader Strathclyde told the Politeia think-tank: ‘The convention on political regulations first arose as a political convenience. But it has become a serious obstacle to the liberty of Parliament . . . the tide of secondary legislation has become a torrent.’

After two bruising defeats on working tax credits in the Lords, David Cameron (pictured) is determined his hastily convened review will severely curb the powers of the Upper House

His view was entirely forthright: ‘I declare this convention dead.’

He went even further in a private meeting of 200 staff in the Upper House when he became Leader of the Lords after the 2010 election. He said the ‘convention’ dating back to 1911, dictating that Peers never vote down financial measures, should also be reviewed.

Despite all this, you can be sure that when Strathclyde publishes his inquiry conclusions — expected by Christmas — he will be doing Cameron’s bidding and clipping the wings of peers.

Jeremy Corbyn (on minus 20) isn’t the only party leader who should worry about his approval ratings. An Ipsos MORI poll puts the Lib Dems’ Tim Farron on minus seven after a month in the job. Menzies Campbell was a plus five at this stage — and he lasted only two years.

Lord (Nigel) Lawson, one of the more illustrious Conservative Chancellors, walked out of the Margaret Thatcher Lecture dinner during comedian Jim Davidson’s routine last week.

Davidson, spotting him leaving, said: ‘Don’t worry, Nigel. I’ll come round to your house and walk out while you’re performing.’

Lord (Nigel) Lawson, one of the more illustrious Conservative Chancellors, walked out of the Margaret Thatcher Lecture dinner during comedian Jim Davidson’s routine last week

At 2.30pm last Monday, Shas Sheehan, an obscure Lib Dem activist from South-West London, was introduced to the Lords and swore the oath to the Queen. 

Four hours later, as Baroness Sheehan, she helped inflict the two embarrassing defeats on the Government. It shows David Cameron should never have given the Lib Dems 11 new peers in the Dissolution Honours, when they have only eight MPs. 

Culture Secretary John Whittingdale’s favourite heavy metal band, Iron Maiden, will be headliners of next summer’s Download Festival at Castle Donington. ‘The organisers are looking forward to welcoming Mr Whittingdale,’ a spokesman says.

Whittingdale knows about other iron maidens, too, having been Mrs Thatcher’s political secretary.

A Tory absentee from the tax credits battle was Baroness Harding, aka Dido Harding, an Oxford friend of David Cameron’s. 

As boss of TalkTalk, she was dealing with its cyber attack. If she loses her job in the fallout, it should do wonders for her voting record. She has taken part in less than a third of the divisions. 

Are BBC cutbacks finally beginning to bite? At the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, Christine Langan, head of BBC Films, the Beeb’s Hollywood wing, enjoyed a £1,528 stay at the licence-fee payers’ expense at the Hotel Cristal. For this year’s festival she claimed only £750 for three nights at the relatively cut-price Radisson Blu. 

Oh yes! It's a bunch of losers 

What have the following got in common? Ryan Coetzee, a special adviser to Nick Clegg, who was an architect of the Lib Dems’ disastrous election campaign. Will Straw, the son of the former Labour Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who failed to win Rossendale and Darwen at the election, which Labour regarded as a shoo-in. And Peter Starkings, who was a key figure in Baroness Jowell’s doomed attempt to become Labour’s London mayoral candidate?

They have all been given big jobs in the Britain Is Stronger In Europe campaign. The No campaign must be delighted.