Vote winner
You include Lord Palmerston among the “colourful characters” and “outright rogues” who have sat in the House of Lords (your report, 24 April). But Pam, whose peerage was Irish, sat in the Commons throughout his exceptionally long political life.
In 1864 he still had a year to live as prime minister, during which he won a general election.
True, he was an old adventurer, but even to straitlaced Victorians that made him a vote winner.
Willis Pickard
Lockharton Gardens