Sketch: Our elders and betters in the other place enjoy their last hurrah before they are modernised

But considering the age of many of the noble Lords and Ladies, you had the impression that at least some of them had seen it all before, although maybe not as far back as 1911 when the then Liberal government first suggested that the other place really ought to be elected.

And the Lords chamber itself does not exactly seem well-fitted for modernisation. The portraits and wooden panelling, as well as the Victorian garb, give you the feeling that you have stepped back 150 years – and even that might be dangerously modernist.

Modernisation would also do for the weird and wonderful titles that solemnly walk in with the Queen’s process and would not seem entirely out of place in a Monty Python sketch.

In an elected House of Lords, would there be room for the Cap of Maintenance, the curious object held by Leader of the Lords, the noble Lord Strathclyde – the cap itself appears to be a prop for a Punch and Judy festival.

A whole range of implements would also potentially become redundant. Maybe this is why the Lib Dem deputy government chief whip, otherwise known as the Orkney hammer, Alistair Carmichael, was holding on so tightly to his ceremonial white rod. The Princess Royal may get to keep her Gold Stick, but what would happen to Black Rod and the contempt of the Commons for the so-called Upper House?

Those of us in the Lords Chamber get to miss another tradition of Labour MP Dennis Skinner, the Beast of Bolsover, giving his terse remark to the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod, before refusing to join fellow MPs on the procession.

But what you do get in the Lords Chamber are the long minutes of uncomfortable silence, while the Queen has and the noble peers await the Commons herd to be fetched. The stony silence was broken by the chattering voices as the MPs, led by David Cameron and Ed Miliband, saunter in.

Once the Lords is full of elected people, no doubt they will demand greater respect from the lower chamber and the ordinary people’s contempt for their so-called betters will be consigned to history too.