Frank Dobson, the health secretary, has not thrown many Tory placemen off health trusts in favour of council representatives, as many had hoped he would.
Ruling parties habitually try to unseat their predecessors' placemen amid howls of protest from opposition parties who did much the same when they were in power.
The House of Lords should be elected: it is absurd to have political placemen shaping the laws of the land, let alone people who owe their seats to their family tree.