“But until they’re actually seated, they can’t support anything. And what High Ridge and his cronies are up to right now is building a sufficiently strong majority among the members of the existing peerage to resist any such action. According to the latest figures I’ve seen, the number of current peers opposed to the required constitutional amendment gives them at least a fifteen-percent edge, but that number could erode. And even if it doesn’t, two general elections will put enough San Martinos into the Lords to overcome it, assuming their support for the amendment is solid.

“So in addition to trying to increase their own margin of support among the peers, High Ridge and his allies are trying to cut into the Centrist majority in the Commons, as well. Since it’s the Commons who vote to confirm the creation of any new peerages, High Ridge hopes that if he can increase his clout in the lower house, he may be able to influence the approval process in a way that confirms peers he figures can be co-opted to support of the continued dominance of the Lords.

“The fact that San Martino MPs are going to be card-carrying Centrists or Crown Loyalists lends that particular concern added point. Technically, San Martin still doesn’t have any MPs, either, but their ‘special representatives’ in the Commons are serving a lot of the same functions, even if they can’t actually vote yet. And there’s no question where their loyalties lie. Nor have any of the peers failed to take note of that little fact.

“And that, Mike, is why otherwise reasonably decent members of the House of Lords are actively supporting a piece of work like High Ridge and let him get away with his damage control on the Manpower Scandal. None of them really like him, very few of them have any illusions about the ‘thoroughness’ of his investigation of Countess Tor’s charges, and most of them wouldn’t trust him or any of his allies to look after their dogs, much less their children. But their general position is that even if the present Constitution is imperfect, the system it’s created has served the Star Kingdom well, and at the moment, he’s the one defending the status quo. I doubt that many of them are blind to the degree of self-interest inherent in their opposition to changing it, but that doesn’t make their opposition any less genuine.”

“I see.” Henke leaned back in her own seat, facing Honor across the passenger compartment of the luxurious vehicle. It still startled her whenever she heard Honor Harrington, of all people, analyzing politics so clearly and concisely. It shouldn’t, she supposed, given how acutely Honor had always been able to analyze military problems, but for almost forty T-years, it had always been Henke who understood the Star Kingdom’s internal politics better than Honor did. Of course, Henke’s understanding had been based on her own family connections. As the Queen’s first cousin, she’d absorbed that understanding almost by osmosis, without ever really having to think very much about it. Which, she admitted now, might be part of the reason Honor saw the current situation so much more clearly than she did, for Honor hadn’t been born into those rarified circles. She’d come to them with a lack of instinctive insider awareness which had forced her to really think about her new environment.