The eleventh hour of the eleventh day
After nearly a century of piecemeal attempts to reform the House of Lords, the axe finally fell on the old chamber on November 11 1999.
At a stroke, more than 660 hereditary peers lost their right to sit and vote in the Lords, as the government's reform bill was given Royal Assent.
In fact, the mood in the Lords that night was muted. Much of the high drama of the hereditaries' struggle for survival had already taken place.
The Tories' leader in the House of Lords, Lord Cranborne, had, the year before, negotiated directly with Number Ten to save some of his fellow hereditary peers.
The following Spring, the government went ahead with its bill to reform the Lords - with one big compromise.
Ninety two hereditary peers would be allowed to carry on in the Lords, after being elected by their colleagues.
Each hereditary candidate was asked to provide a 75 word manifesto to help his colleagues choose. One argued the case for muzzling cats outdoors, to preserve Britain's wildlife. Another promised fresh flowers.
These "elected hereditaries" are still at work in the Lords today, and include the current leader of the Conservatives in the upper chamber, Lord Strathclyde.
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