MPs are right to abolish hereditary seats in the upper house. However, Britain needs a representative second chamber fit for modern democracy

More than a century ago, the 1911 Parliament Act restricted the House of Lords’ powers under threat of a flood of Liberal appointees. The act boldly declared that “it is intended to substitute for the House of Lords as it at present exists a Second Chamber constituted on a popular instead of hereditary basis, but such substitution cannot be immediately brought into operation”. This “temporary” measure has become a historic understatement, frustrating those who seek reform – including this newspaper .

MPs took a step forward this week, voting to abolish hereditary peers in the Lords. The bill aims to end the 92 seats reserved for those inheriting titles through paternal lineage – a long-overdue decision. It completes what Tony Blair began in 1998 when ministers tried to expel those in the Lords by birth. The hereditary principle is a relic. While royalty endures ceremonially, inherited political power undermines equality, representation and accountability in government.

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Ravi Jayaram say he lies awake at night wishing he had spoken up sooner after walking in on Letby shortly after Child K’s breathing tube had been dislodged

A consultant paediatrician whose testimony helped convict Lucy Letby has said he “should have had more courage” and voiced his concerns about the nurse sooner.

Ravi Jayaram told a public inquiry that he lay awake at night thinking about why he did not say something at the time.

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Medical charity says its staff members were violently attacked by police and vigilantes 100 meters from hospital

The medical charity Doctors Without Borders ( MSF ) has said that at least two of its patients were killed after one of its ambulances was stopped and attacked in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince .

MSF said its staff members were violently attacked on Monday after “members of a vigilante group and law enforcement officers” stopped the ambulance, which was transporting three young people with gunshot wounds.

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Exclusive: Mia Mottley, who has championed climate action, says she would seek common ground with US president-elect

Mia Mottley, the climate-championing prime minister of Barbados, has invited Donald Trump to a face-to-face meeting where she would seek “common ground” and persuade him that climate action was in his own interests.

“Let us find a common purpose in saving the planet and saving livelihoods,” she told the Guardian at the UN’s Cop29 climate summit in Azerbaijan. “We are human beings and we have the capacity to meet face-to-face, in spite of our differences. We want humanity to survive. And the evidence [of the climate crisis] we are seeing almost weekly now.”

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Inquiry into ‘spy cops’ scandal hears Bob Lambert caused £340,000 of damage while posing as animal rights activist

New evidence has emerged to suggest that an undercover police officer set fire to a high street department store while posing as a committed animal rights activist, causing damage worth £340,000, a public inquiry has heard.

The accusation against Bob Lambert, who also fathered a child while undercover and later became a senior police officer, is contained in testimony from one of the conspirators in the arson plot.

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Transparency around this emergency process has been miserable as company looks for approval to borrow £3bn more

Congratulations to Thames Water: it is not going bust early in the new year. Probably. The necessary three-quarters of A-class bondholders have backed a proposal for the company, already drowning in £15bn of debt, to borrow another £3bn at the nose-bleed rate of 9.75% plus a hefty serving of fees on top. And, critically, the numbers are looking good to get permission from bondholders to access £400m of cash reserves.

A court still has to approve the new £3bn of “super senior” funding – meaning debt that ought to be super-safe because it ranks above both the A class of bonds and the junior Bs. But if that hurdle is cleared next month, Thames will have shoved its debt mess around another U-bend. The script then imagines a more permanent restructuring of the finances – surely with hefty debt write-downs – at some point in the next 18 months. The company may also take a detour to the Competition and Markets Authority to appeal against Ofwat’s final proposal (also due next month) on bills for the next five-year period.

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PMQs showed leader of the opposition is yet to demonstrate detailed preparation, timing and a razor-sharp mind

On balance, Keir Starmer can probably live with this. The first four months of his time in office may not have been quite as straightforward as he would have liked – he must have been hoping for a six-month honeymoon period – but at least he can tick off prime minister’s questions as something he doesn’t have to worry much about.

Kemi Badenoch is turning out to be the gift that keeps on giving … to the Labour party. Put simply, the more you get to see of her the less there appears to be.

Taking the Lead by John Crace is published by Little, Brown (£18.99). To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com . Delivery charges may apply.

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AGS Airports, joint venture of Ferrovial and Macquarie, to be sold to AviAlliance for £900m along with £653m in debt

The owner of Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton airports is being sold in a deal worth more than £1.53bn.

The Spanish construction company Ferrovial and its partner Macquarie have agreed to offload the AGS Airports joint venture to AviAlliance, a German-headquartered airport operator.

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Colin Montgomery says people are tired of being told how backwards they are if they don’t play along with priggishness, while Martyn Thomas ponders societal changes. Plus a letter from Dan Rainey

In John Harris’s article ( From Trump’s victory, a simple, inescapable message: many people despise the left, 10 November ) there is a nugget of text that best describes the abominable mess the “left” (a catch-all descriptor which is in itself part of the problem) finds itself in, because it beautifully expresses both the problem and solution for those of a progressive bent in one fell swoop – albeit he delivers them in reverse.

It came when Harris spoke of an agenda often “expressed with a judgmental arrogance, and based on behavioural codes – to do with microaggressions, or the correct use of pronouns ...”. That rings true with many people who aren’t that fussed with identity politics (or politics in general) and feel alienated by those who are.

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