I WAS one of the 3,151 failed nominees to become a non-political member of the House of Lords.

Born in Colne, I attended Lord Street School until I was eleven. My grandfather, father and uncles all worked in local textile mills and my mother taught at Primet.

I have a degree in political theory and institutions, am a 45-year-old who is qualified to command at sea in the Royal Navy. As well as being a Russian interpreter, I have been an accredited diplomat and British Sea Fisheries Officer.

I have worked in the English and Scottish ship-building industries and through my wife I know a little of the ways of the NHS, therefore, feel a little qualified to answer Pendle MP Gordon Prentice's comments (LET, April 27) which seem rather ill advised, ill-informed and totally out of touch with reality.

I volunteered for the Lords out of a very real sense of duty and tremendous regard for our political institutions, with the firm belief that my education and career experience had relevance to assisting in the drafting and debating of legislation.

I was absolutely delighted to be given the opportunity to do so and knew that if chosen I would be politically and financially indebted to no one. Mr Prentice, please note.

So what to say to Pendle's elected representative who apparently considers the Commission's choice a farce because of the absence of lollipop ladies and bus drivers? If those people have other relevant educational and job experiences in which they have excelled, then of course they should be eligible but experience and hard work in just one field is simply not enough.

Mr Prentice's suggestion of having more elected politicians to fill the upper house terrifies me. On the contrary we need more independent peers like those recently selected -- independence of thought and action by those most talented and most willing to serve is an essential ingredient if the political recipe of our nation is to continue to be wholesale.

The Lords Appointments Commission, who ought themselves to be elected by cross benchers, has reversed, if only in a small way, the tremendous personal patronage held by the office of the Prime Minister.

This is a good thing. So is the fact that now, those most experienced to do so, peers themselves, are independently choosing some (regrettably not all) of their successors.

C C WATSON, (Lieutenant Commander, Royal Navy), San Antonio, Texas, USA.