And the now-ennobled, Sir Edward presided over the election of the first woman Speaker.

BBC: Obituary: Sir Edward Heath

Into this bewilderment has strode a voice of more-or-less clarity, an ennobled one, no less.

ECONOMIST: To sir, with confusion

But many life peers, both Labour and Conservative, have been ennobled for similarly dubious services to modern governments.

ECONOMIST: The end of the peer show | The

Trevor-Roper, ennobled as Lord Dacre by Margaret Thatcher in 1979, was ludicrously talented.

ECONOMIST: A historian created and destroyed by Hitler

Local Democrats may have thought themselves ennobled by their suffering, but here, as everywhere, they are happy for the change.

ECONOMIST: Washington's festive, hectic, crowded week

It ennobled Creole and made it legitimate.

UNESCO: Jean-transcript | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

Labour have attacked this a "a hotchpotch of planning measures" and have pointed to the fact that the Coalition lead in the debate is Communities Minister Lady Hanham, not the newly-ennobled Lord Deighton, who was brought into the Treasury as Infrastructure Minister.

BBC: Week ahead

Unelected he may be, but Mr Macdonald is far from being the first minister who has been brought into government by the gift of a life peerage: Margaret Thatcher followed just this route when she ennobled Lord Young and then employed the successful businessman in a variety of ministerial jobs.

ECONOMIST: Peer pressure