Lord Mandelson, the First Secretary of State, has acquired the largest Whitehall department anyone can remember, with 11 ministers, six of them peers. There is nothing wrong with Lords being appointed as ministers; indeed, their expertise is often greater than that of their Commons counterparts. But it is somewhat hypocritical of a Government that has sought to emasculate the Upper House to appoint more peers to senior posts than at any time since the 1950s. As William Hague said in the Commons on Wednesday, the growth of the unelected portion of Her Majesty's Government is further evidence of the need for the dissolution of Parliament. There is waste here, too – not in the name of better government but of political expediency. More than £7 million was spent in just 20 months establishing and then winding up the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills. This is not "democratic renewal"; it is bureaucratic extravagance.