There's William Hague, the former Conservative Foreign Secretary, whose neocon interventionist policies helped destroy Libya and Syria, and who must take a large share of the responsibility for the refugee crisis currently affecting Europe.
Stuart Polak, Director and Honorary President of the Conservative Friends of Israel — a cheerleader organization for a country which killed over 1500 civilians (including 539 children) in its bombing of Gaza last year, and whose forces, in the words of Amnesty International's report "committed war crimes and human rights violations."
Former Minister Douglas Hogg, who infamously billed the taxpayer £2,200 for clearing the moat of his country estate — and for the costs of tuning his piano and the services of a mole-catcher.
Former Energy Minister and multi-millionaire Greg Barker, who made £320,000 in 2009 after selling a flat he bought with the help of expenses.
Former Minister of State, James Arbuthnot who, in 2009, was asked to pay back £12,241 in gardening, cleaning and maintenance claims that were deemed to be "excessive".
What a crew they are! And to think — they'll all be able to call themselves 'Lord'!
But even though Shaw's adage has been proved correct again, the case against the House of Lords is not primarily about personalities — it's about the principle of having an extremely costly unelected second chamber, in a country which styles itself as a 'modern democracy'.
David Cameron said that he wanted to cut the cost of politics, but his appointment of 45 new peers adds a further ¢1.83 million (£1.2m) a year to the running costs of a chamber which already costs taxpayers around $153 million (£100m) a year. Comparisons with other western countries show just how crazy the British system is.
The USA has a population of 318.9 million, and an upper house which has 100 members. Germany has a population of 80.62 million and a 69-seat second chamber. The UK has a population of 64.1 million and an upper house with 826 members.
The House of Lords is the second largest legislative chamber in the world, after China, which does have a rather large population.
It's ludicrous to think we need so many people in our upper house, when other, larger countries do perfectly well with considerably fewer people in theirs.
Appointment to the House of Lords helps people, who are usually already very wealthy, become even richer.
Members are allowed to claim £300 a day just for turning up, as well as travel expenses.
The Electoral Reform Society found that during the 2010-15 Parliament — £360,000 was claimed by peers in years in which they failed to vote once.
This would be bad enough at the best of times, but at a time of austerity, when the government is imposing swingeing cuts in public spending in other areas, the money wasted on the House of Lords is truly scandalous.
We — the taxpayer — are footing the bill for a bloated, glorified rest home for failed politicians and political apparatchiks, at a time when our local libraries are being closed, and social services are being cut across the country.
As to the Lords' authority, the late, great Tony Benn, a man born into the peerage, but who actually renounced his title, had it absolutely right when in 1979, he wrote:
"It is inherently wrong that the laws of this land should be submitted for approval to a body of men and women who lack any democratic mandate at all."
Benn called inherited seats an "anachronism", but he also stated that the "powers of patronage", which are used by Prime Ministers to appoint people to the Lords "by personal preferment" were "equally offensive" — which indeed they are.
Benn's solution was simple — we need to abolish the Lords. We can, and should, have a public, democratic debate about what, if anything, replaces it. Hopefully, House of Lords abolition will be back on the agenda, if Jeremy Corbyn, a man who shares Tony Benn's democratic perspective, becomes the next Labour leader.
"I don't think there should be any more appointments to the House of Lords… We should have an elected upper chamber which would be representative of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the regions of England," Corbyn said in reaction to Cameron's announcement of 45 new peers.
Whatever does replace the House of Lords, it has to be an improvement on the current system. For you really couldn't think up anything worse.
You can follow Neil Clark @neilclark66
