Name-calling has been elevated to a title fight in Westminster as Britain tries to decide what to do with its embattled aristocracy.
In a belated attempt to introduce a greater level of democracy to the British Government, the second chamber of Parliament is to see its biggest changes since the 14th Century.
Hereditary peers who are to lose their right to a seat in the House of Lords are trying to at least establish the exclusivity of their titles.
The 750 or so members of the hereditary peerage, whose rank is a result of the success of their forebears, will no longer take part in the workings of Parliament.
Life peers, however, who have been awarded their titles as a result of their own endeavours are to continue to sit in the chamber to keep a check on the government by scrutinising bills passed in the House of Commons.
But the departing aristocrats are anxious that the members of an appointed second chamber should not be allowed to enjoy the grandeur of their style and believe they should be denied the titles lord and lady. Instead the hard-working political peers will have to be content to put the letters 'ML' after their name to indicate they are members of the House of Lords, in the same way that the elected members of the House of Commons are known as MPs.
Many of the humble-born life peers, however, are reluctant to relinquish the splendour of their newly awarded titles that allow them be addressed as 'milord' and 'milady'.