And I was going to abolish them...

They may be unelected twerps, but every now and then the House of Lords comes up with the goods, rejecting the Manchester supercasino (and throwing out the other new casinos to boot.) Its highly likely that this little piece of contentious legislation, having now caused the government such problems, good disappear for good. The spurious arguments about "regeneration" (also, if you remember, Tessa Jowell's justification for any and every overspend on the Olympics) have clearly not worked in this case; since anyone with half a brain would at least question the logic of creating a gambling maelstrom in one of the most socially disadvantaged boroughs in the country.