Last Tuesday the Lords heard a maiden speech from their latest recruit from these parts – the Right Reverend Nicholas Reade, Bishop of Blackburn.

There are 26 Church of England bishops in the Lords. The top four – The Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the Bishops of Durham and Winchester – sit there as of right.

The others arrive on a sort of buggin’s turn – the 22 diocesan bishops who have served longest.

As they are the only members of the Lords who retire, they always seem to be coming and going.

It all goes back to the earliest days when parliament as summoned by the King consisted of representatives of the two estates of the nobility and the church.

The government side of the House (where the bishops still sit (the left-hand side facing the throne) is still technically known as the spiritual side. The opposition and Liberal Democrat benches are on the temporal side!

Last Tuesday’s debate was one of the days we spent discussing the Queen’s Speech (technically known as the debate on the Loyal Address).

I spoke immediately before the new bishop and welcomed him as another voice from this part of the world. The House of Lords is much too London and South East-biased and the North of England needs every bit of help it can get.

I was not disappointed as he told their lordships of the day he had driven the Archbishop of Canterbury (“the primate of all England”) along Blackpool prom in an historic tram car.

Yes – he got to drive the tram! I suppose that’s the kind of perk you get for being a bishop.

I was delighted then he went on to praise the work of SELRAP and their campaigning to reopen the railway line between Colne and Skipton.

He said that reopening the line would help “to reconnect communities separated by historic decline and, through that restored connection, to enable social and economic renewal”, and said that reconnection would help to reduce marginalisation of the area.

Linking the campaign to his own job, he pointed out that “SELRAP argues that the 33 per cent of the Blackburn diocese without access to mainline rail travel is noticeably poorer”.

Another voice for Lancashire in Parliament. It can't be bad.