All these things that I have done

I agree with what you're saying as far as democracy goes - it's actually quite similar to a scheme I had once - but what I meant was more "is voting for people to make the laws the best way of choosing them?" I felt that debates like that over the anti-terrorism bill showed that there were distinct benefits to the Lords not being beholded to either the court of public opinion or the parties for their re-election. Trouble is I can't think of any other fair/reasonable ways of selecting them