THE loans-for-lordships scandal is extremely disappointing. Tony Blair set the rules on donations to party funds and then appears to have deliberately circumnavigated them by seeking donations.

It is most disappointing for those in the North-East who have supportively watched Mr Blair's rise over the last 22 years since he became MP for Sedgefield. This time, the trail leads directly back to the Prime Minister. There is no Peter Mandelson, David Blunkett or Alastair Campbell figure for him to hide behind.

The perception is that he sought loans, which his rules allow to be anonymous, and in return offered honours.

However disappointing this is, there is still a lot of nonsense being talked.

It is extremely unlikely that the Metropolitan Police will make any charges over the affair - unless those charges are of wasting police time against the opportunists who have sought to involve the law in a purely political wrangle.

It is also worth remembering that Mr Blair has been caught out by his own appointments commission, which he set up to do exactly what it has done. And it is also worth asking why the Conservative Party hasn't revealed who gave it anonymous donations before the last election.

Plus - just look at the House of Lords. The place is stuffed with peers who have effectively bought their seats, from Tory lords to union barons. Indeed, the union barons - who didn't even hand over their own money but rather the hard-earned subscriptions of their members - are as bad as any of them.

Except the remaining hereditary peers.

Surely someone like Sir Gulam Noon - nominated for a peerage by Mr Blair after loaning Labour £250,000 but who arrived in this country with £50 to create a business empire with a £90m annual turnover - is more deserving of a peerage than someone who was accidentally born at the end of the right branch of the right family tree. We want people in government with Sir Gulam's kind of genius rather than someone with the right line of genes.

When this dismaying kerfuffle dies down, whoever is left in power must complete the reform of the second chamber.