Lord Bonkers' Diary: My hereditary peer peers

"Beaver Castle" eh? I think I can see what's going to happen this week. 

Meanwhile, I am reminded that in the early days of these diaries Lord Bonkers wrote that the Duchess of Rutland "kindly showed me her Belvoir".

Tuesday

I have been touched by the number of people who have written to express their concern about my position if Starmer expels my hereditary peer peers from the House of Lords. Please do not upset yourselves: I hold a Rutland peerage, and thus under the Treaty of Oakham am guaranteed membership of the House of Lords in perpetuity. 

Sadly, the same treaty guarantees the pre-eminence in this county of the Duke of Rutland, even though he lives in Leicestershire. His home is at Belvoir Castle, which, by an irony I find in no way amusing, is pronounced ‘Beaver Castle’.

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10.

Earlier this week in Lord Bonkers' Diary

• The only estate in England with a breeding population of corkindrills