One of the stranger parts of British politics is that much of the stupidest, most long-term-destructive things (Such as their virtual prohibition of self-defense) originated in the House of Lords, not the Commons. It becomes easier to grasp when you realize that rather than being the Conservative bastion one might think, Lords is heavily peopled by folk who have a paternalistic attitude to the populace and are thoroughly-indoctrinated products of the British academic Left (Which gave us such great patriots as Kim Philby and his ring of spy friends...well, they were great patriots for the Soviet Union, anyway!), many of whom are old money and completely out of touch with the value of actually having to earn their way in the world.