 I think the biggest myth about the House of Lords is that it is a lot of old men, dressed in ermine robes, sipping tea and that they're all hereditary and that couldn't really be further from the truth. I came into the House of Lords in 2004. My background is in international development and human rights and I think that that is always a useful skill to have when one is debating and revising legislation which after all does affect people and their lives. I get to work at House Lords between 8.30 and 9. In any one day I might do several of the following. Have meetings. I meet with the political leaders in the House of the Chief Whips. I meet with the senior authorities in the House of Lords. I meet with individual peers who come in to talk to me. I meet with school children. I will meet with various interest groups. I most probably will meet with the speaker of another parliament. I then sit on the wool sack. Now this is a major part of my day. I process through the house and I follow the mace into the chamber of the House of Lords and I open the house. So I'm always in the house when all all questions take place and this is the most lively part of the House of Lords day. And then in the afternoon I might have a foreign ambassador come see me, a foreign speaker. In the evening there may be probably two or three receptions. The speaker also has a ceremonial role. For example, when the Burmese political leader of the National League for Democracy on Sansu Chi came to address parliamentarians and I was able to give her a vote of thanks and I will make a speech of welcome or whatever it might be. Just sort of add a little bit of glamour let's say to the to the state visits. So it's a very, very full day and I very rarely leave the house before let's say 9, half past 9 in the evening. I would think that the majority of my day is spent having conversations with people of one sort or another. Talking to the public at large and then school children in particular and different groups is rewarding in part because it means that you're in touch with the wider community. I learn how current legislation is actually affecting the work that they do and to some extent I can feed that back because during my day I tend to meet all the political leaders in the House of Lords. I'm constantly exchanging views with them and hearing what they have to say but also expressing my own views which I've gathered in talking to those groups. The thing that really is very heartwarming is to watch the way in which individual peers in the House of Lords have such extraordinary expertise and you're working together peers from all the political parties to achieve a particular outcome. And I think what it demonstrates is that the House of Lords is predominantly concerned with issues rather than with party political matters. So it is driven by the content of bills rather than the fact that it has to vote according to a party political dictum. I really do feel it's quite a privilege to be able to be on the inside of political decision making of watching how politics progress, how bills are achieved and how they affect the wider community.