When Boris Johnson’s peerage nominations were announced, there were months of negative media briefings and pearl-clutching Lobby exasperations over the whole list – particularly over the appointment of youngest peer, Charlotte Owen. As Guido said at the time, given that the average age of the Lords is 71, the appointment of some fresh faces hardly the biggest issue with the House of Lords (which no doubt needs reform)…

Last week, as is their occasional right, Plaid Cymru nominated 27-year-old Carmen Smith – also a former political staffer, with a basically identical CV to Johnson’s aides – to join the upper house for life. How did it go down with the righteous scribes of SW1?

Carmen was treated to a glowing write up in The Times, which subjected the lifelong lawmaker to scrutiny by noting she is ‘principled’ and ‘a good laugh’. It stands in contrast to The Times’ treatment of Johnson’s peers – the paper ran a number of stinking leaders railing against them, with the op-ed pages and Lobby team deployed to generate reams of outraged copy over every cough and spit of the process. The BBC decided to nose their piece on Tory donors instead. The Guardian, which twisted itself into paroxysms of apocalyptic outrage over Johnson’s nominations, has mentioned Carmen’s nomination in just one line of copy. Tortoise, which ran a highly personalised single issue campaign on the matter, has not even covered the development. This is all despite the fact that Plaid Cymru opposes the existence of the House of Lords and Carmen herself thinks it should be abolished. Guido has nothing against Carmen Smith – her age is not her fault. It simply proves for the lefty establishment media, it’s one rule about how to treat Boris, and another for everyone else…

Charlotte Owen, Boris’s former staffer and later Downing Street SpAd, has become the youngest life peer in British history at the age of 30. No doubt the chorus of voices celebrating Keir Mather’s election last week will be pleased to hear another young voice in parliament…

This week there has been a coordinated attempt to drive the outrage bus over Boris’s resignation list, it hasn’t really got going – probably because the list is a lot shorter than most suspected (so much for the so called ‘lavender list’ warnings that Boris would try to appoint 50 peers) and the fact the MPs on it are deferring any by-elections. Which is a peace-making gesture to Rishi that he would be unwise to spurn…

This morning’s Telegraph picks on Charlotte Owen, whose crime appears to be that she is a young woman in politics, reporting disapprovingly that she is 27 years of age, she is actually 29. The Times complained yesterday that Ross Kempsell was in his twenties, he is 30. If you are going to thunder about someone’s age, best get it right.

There are many issues with the Lords and how appointments are made that need reforming, appointing younger peers is surely not one of them. The average age in the upper chamber is 71, 13 members are aged 90 or over. The highest concentration of members from all parties is in the 70–79 age band, except the bishops, whose members mostly fall into the spritely 60 – 69 age band. The house is regularly referred to as a retirement home, which it should not be, considering it is a working legislature. Injecting some youth might be energising…

There are recent precedents for young advisers in their thirties being appointed by departing PMs; Cameron made Nat Wei a Lord at 33 and his press secretary Gabby Bertin was 38 when she became a Baroness, Jo Jo Penn was 34 when Theresa May put her in ermine. Let’s also not forget that the previous youngest person ever to receive a life peerage at 32 years of age, Lord Redesdale, was proposed by the LibDems in 2000….