0 someone who became a peer (= a high social rank) when a parent died, and who can pass it on to their oldest child --
It is a fact of political and social life that one very rarely meets an unpleasant hereditary peer.
After all, although a hereditary peer he is not an upper class twit.
Of course, every hereditary peer is descended from a peer who was appointed, so there is not much difference.
I entirely accept that any hereditary peer can stand and vote in local government elections.
It would continue to have a majority in the other place even if we abolished the voting right of every hereditary peer tomorrow.
The only person who cannot is the son of a hereditary peer.
It has, after all, a bus conductor as a hereditary peer.
The essential qualification for candidates is to be have been born a hereditary peer.
