1.   Members of the House of Lords sat by virtue of birth, holding hereditary peerages.

2.   The family spawned no less than five hereditary peerages, a record since the Middle Ages.

3.   As the debate got underway Monday afternoon, one Tory MP, James Douglas-Hamilton, dramatically renounced an hereditary peerage to guarantee Major an extra vote.

4.   Labour also wants to eliminate hereditary peerage in the House of Lords, limiting it to membership by merit, not birthright, a fundamental change in a monarchy.