See? We can all be Lords now

Five "non-dom" members of the House of Lords have resigned their seats in order to avoid UK taxes but are still able to use their titles, writes Peter Rhodes.

Some MPs are demanding new laws to force the peers to stop calling themselves Lord.

The former Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, declares: "I cannot believe there isn't a method of doing it."

You had better believe it, Charlie. There are all sorts of people who choose to call themselves Lord or Lady.

The late Screaming Lord Such and Lady Gaga spring to mind. And what of those self-important worthies who buy some ancient bit of land which carries a swell title and insist that they are now Lord Boggy of Boggy Down or some such nonsense?

Finally, there is the fact that, thanks to England's very relaxed laws on names, anyone can call himself Lord.

There is nothing to stop you giving your sons "Lord" as their first name. So long as they never use it fraudulently, they have nothing to fear.