Peers get £334 a day to attend, around £53,000 a year, to do what exactly?

[FiveOrangePips]

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/politics/10439805.stm

FFS?

Review legislation.

Yes, they're a reviewing body that examines proposed legislation - very important back-stop to the work of the Commons. In principle, if we expect anyone to do a job for free all it means is that they have to be independently wealthy as well as public spirited. There's also a higher risk of corruption among unpaid officials. Many peers these days are not independently wealthy, e.g. anti-crime campaigner Helen Newlove Would you work for nothing?

They can and do block barmy/undemocratic legislation. That alone is worth £50,000 per year per Lord.

They have an important role scrutinizing legislation but there are far too many of them and they cost far too much.

Actually Callisto, they can amend or suggest change, but surely the Parliament Act (of hundreds of years ago) allows the Commons to push something through regardless.

It doesn't get used very often, but can be done (perhaps the 'scrutiny' went too far at some point - and anything proposed in making changes to the Lords might be 'rejected' by the Lords so Commons has final say).

Reducing the numbers has been a proposal for a while, longfingernails.