Imagine sweeping through green fields, floating five feet above ground, sun on your face as you

slide by on track to your

there,

to care in the world as you simply lean back.

And before you know it, you're there.

This is how travels should feel,

and on our trains it does.

Avanti West Coast feel good travel. I first started reporting on politics about nine years ago when I covered Parliament full time. Even though I had studied politics at

university and I knew technically what the House of Lords was, much of their daily comings and goings struck me as completely alien once I had to cover them.

I don't think I need that ministers face questions there every day, why government defeats

were more frequent there than in the Commons, what emotion to regret was. Unlike the Commons, which I also

covered as past my job, there seemed to be a lot more unguarded moments, frank criticism and flashes of

downright weirdness.

My name's Esther Weber and I'm the reporter for Red Box and over the years I've become

slightly obsessed with understanding and explaining the House of Lords.

And for some reason in their infinite wisdom the Times has decided to let me make a podcast all about it so I've tracked down a few

members of the House of Laws who are hopefully going to help me. As you will already know Parliament is made up of the Commons and the Lords.

You vote for your MP, they go into the Commons and they complain about a lot of staff.

When they're not complaining, they're helping to shape or oppose the government's legislation.

And a major part of the Lord's job

is to scrutinize and refine that legislation.

It's a pretty important job and you wouldn't want to

...