Two cheers for the Lords

The Lords defeated the government's terrorism legislation last night in what was, apparently, the most decisive rejection of a government Bill by the Lords on a whipped vote. I'd said before, the surprisingly spirited performace of the Lords illustrates the point that liberty shouldn't be confused with democracy - although I'd prefer a democratic second chamber. They perhaps would have the democratic legitimacy to be even more rigorous in their opposition to these terrorism plans because while welcome, the concessions still leave this Bill in a mess: house arrest on the say-so of a judge is better than on the say-so of the Home Office and the "balance of probabilities" better than "reasonable suspicion" - but it still stinks...