House of Lords

Parliament with Big Ben. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)

The House of Lords was one of the two houses of England's, later the United Kingdom's, Houses of Parliament. The houses ratified laws and gave assent to British monarch if they wished to raise taxes. (GAME: The Gunpowder Plot)

History

If Catherine Waverly's father had died after 1963, she would have inherited his seat in the House of Lords. (AUDIO: Manhunt, Sins of the Father)

Sir Alec Douglas-Home was a member of the House of Lords before he became Prime Minister in 1963. (AUDIO: State of Emergency)

In 1966, Lady Lillian Hawthorne's father was a member of the House of Lords. (AUDIO: The Veiled Leopard)

In the Eleven-Day Empire

In Faction Paradox's Eleven-Day Empire, Parliament convened in the House of Commons, with no one willing to enter the House of Lords or even admit to knowing what lay inside. The Book of the War speculated that it was a focus for the Empire's loa.

The only recorded member to have entered and left the House was Cousin Anastasia: seizing the speaker's ceremonial mace, she walked across the central lobby, swung the mace three times, and entered the House; one hour later, she reemerged, covered in blood and missing a finger, and announced the formation of the Thirteen-Day Republic. However, Anastasia never spoke of what she encountered inside the House. (PROSE: The Book of the War)

Other references

When Amy commented that Githians had had problems maintaining their gene pool, Lucie Miller remarked that that was a bit like the House of Lords. (AUDIO: Phobos)

Behind the scenes

• In his work of modern British history, State of Emergency, Dominic Sandbrook notes that Terror of the Autons was debated in the House of Lords due to the controversial inclusion of the Auton policeman, which was seen as too scary for younger viewers.