Most often the situation faced can be characterised not by the story the evidence tells but by what is missing, here only experience can detect the way to truth. Was I out of date? As time went by law and the practice of good seamen did of course change with technical advances. Basic good seamanship however remains little altered, most maritime claims can be reduced to causes the Nelson would recognise.

Is experience in legislators desirable? The answer is certainly YES.

Show me an 18 year old who has been at sea for 2 years, visited Antwerp, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Bremen, Le Havre, Las Palmas, Cape Verde, Rio de Janeiro, Santos, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Rosario, Santa Fe, Bahia and Ilehus. Worked 72 hours without break, steered a ship, stood a watch and seen people injured fatally – I would not suggest I was fit to enter parliament at 18 – I suspect few 18 year olds to-day have enough experience.

We need parliamentary reform; no one should be eligible for a seat unless they have worked in the real world for at least 10 years, no one should be allowed to be an officer of state unless they had worked in the real world for at least 15 years. The real failure of politics to day is the arrival of the “Elite” who have made a career of politics.

I also think that one of the key-effects of the 1958 Life Peerages Act (2008 marks the 50th anniversary of the Act) has been the fact that members are drawn from a broad spectrum of professional expertise and experience.

I am convinced that this has better enabled the Lords to fulfil its constitutional functions, i.e. to scrutinise legislation, to hold the government to account and to have well-informed debates about controversial issues.

Of course, I share Lord Tyler’s concerns that – in a fast-moving knowledge society in which we live today and in which life-long learning is essential – knowledge and expertise tend to be outdated rather quickly. Nonetheless, I shall like to say that it is vital to have people in Parliament who have spent a great deal of their time and professional life outside politics and who can use this basis to make a significant contribution to the political process. In an age when the career politician in the Commons appears to have become the norm, it is reassuring to know that most Lords have pursued a career outside politics before and that certainly give Lords the ability of sound judgement to which Baroness D’Souza refers to.

But yes, Baroness D’Souza is right, it is mostly our sound judgement that we hope is useful, a judgement that arises out of a specific field of expertise but which can be applied to a whole range of problems.

However, I wonder if it isn’t that what we seek (and more often than not get) in the House of Lords is judgement? The ability to weigh up arguments – to concede minor points in order to get more major amendments throught, and/or the general experience gained from a life time of work of how to co-operate with others for mutual gains?

I am rather shocked to hear the rumour that the age limit for a parliamentary candidate may in future be lowered to perhaps 18 years? I love the young and believe them to be wise in ways we were not at their age. Nevertheless I also want those who will make decisions on my behalf to have perhaps a decade of working experience and knowledge of how the world works.