How should you address a "Lord"?

[Ilovecurry]

is it The Right Honourable ???

What sort of lord? and are you writing or speaking to? Formally (as part of work) or informally (fellow parent at school)?

In person or in a letter?
Letter is addressed to The Lord Whatsit, then Dear Lord Whatsit.

Right Honourable is for Privy Council members and dukes etc, but only for envelopes.

In person the easy option is wait for them to introduce themselves but 'Pleasure to meet you, Lord Whatsit' would be fine. Generally they'll say "Call me Bob"!

That would depend what his actual society title was eg The Eldest son of a duke is a Marquess but addressed as Lord (spoken or written).

The Right Hon is a title usually reserved for The Prime Minister, but only as a title or on an envelope you wouldn't call him the Rt Hon to his face.

It depends - for a certain 4 of them, how about "Your corrupt and unacountable -ness" or "Have you no shame- ness" or even plain old "dishonourable"

Sorry, citrus, a Duke would always be addressed as a Duke not Thr Rt Hon.

The younger son of an earl would be an Hon (but not a Rt hon)

Its within text:

"The Ceremony was attended by THE RIGHT HONOURABLE Lord Whatsit???

PS. I know MP's are address as the Right Honourable etc...

Sorry, I was quoting Debrett's they I stand corrected.

so shoudl I say

The Rt Hon. Lord +++?

oi, lordy?

I'd cheat and google the relevant individual and copy what's been used elsewhere! - or for someone who is the same "type" of lord - ie whether hereditary peer, or political life peer, or some other smaller category like Scottish judges

done that and for him it doesnt say anything!!!

Ok, what about similar sorts of lords then?

You could adopt the whole Quaker ethic and just address letter to John Smith (or whatever his name is) with no titles.
Is not offensive as that IS his name....

Ah, I see it is in text. Ho hum, have to play the game then, I suppose.

What sort of Lord is he -- a Duke/Earl/Baron/something else?

Call him Big Boy - they all love that

Lord Dearing

Im laughing my head off here!!!!

House of Commons MP's are surely not addressed as the Rt Hon? Only Working/Life Peers from the house of Lords? I know that when MP's are speaking they say, "The right honorable Mr Whomever (opposition MP) said X, but actually he's a ponce..." but I just thought this was a way of softening their rebuffal/insult without causing offense.

I have met many MP's in my previous life and never referred to one in this fashion when at No 10 (or thereabouts)we just called them by their name, except the PM and we called him PM .

Debretts only gives Envelope - The Rt. Hon John Smythe MP, The Prime Minister/Letter Dear Prime Minister/verbal Prime Minister.

Zazen, surely that only works if you are wearing leather and carrying a whip (of the whiipping kind not the political type)

OK, He's a life peer (a Baron).

Burke's Peerage says that he should be referred to in print as Lord Dearing, The Lord Dearing or The Rt Hon The Lord Dearing in ascending degrees of formality. Also that "Some peers and peeresses do not use the prefix Rt Hon on the grounds that it more properly belongs to Privy Counsellors".

So I'd be inclined to go with just "Lord Dearing" unless you're writing something very formal, like the Court Circular.

MS, isn't it a privy councillor thing? - ie, if you are one of the MPs who's also a privy councillor, then you get the Rt Hon?

Separately, Wikipedia says this about life peers such as Dearing:

Forms of address
Life peers, such as the actor Sir Laurence Olivier, typically have achieved wide fame prior to being ennobled. Because they have done this while still being known as Firstname Lastname, there is a strong tendency, after their ennoblement, to refer to them as Lord or Lady Firstname Lastname. This, however, is incorrect and they should be formally styled as "The Rt Hon The Lord/Baroness X" and referred to as "Firstname, Lord/Baroness/Lady X", or less formally, "Lord/Baroness/Lady X". X is often the holder's surname at the point of ennoblement, but it need not be.

Cabinet members become Right Hon, but that's only for the envelope - the salutation in the letter is still "Dear Miss Widdecombe" - for example.

[has had to write many a letter to MPs...]

Lords I've worked with have generally been life peers and all 'Call me Larry', at which point everyone goes 'Yes, Minister'... followed by trying not to laugh.

Lord Dearing is a life peer and according to theyworkforyou.com, is addressed as 'Dear Lord Dearing'

Hooray got there in the end! I will just go with Lord Dearing.

Wikipedia refers to Kenneth Clarke as Rt Hon MP QC and Ed Balls as Rt Hon

Thanks for your help

(I love the web-wrangling (which I have just gone and looked at) about Is It Councillor or Is It Counsellor)