An alarming outbreak of constitutional vandalism The lynch mob that David Cameron led to Fred Goodwin's door has acquired the taste for blood. The latest targets are the chief executive and senior management of Network Rail, who are being urged to turn down their potential bonuses. Today, Ed Miliband will advocate the same treatment for Bob Diamond, head of Barclays, and executives at other banks which weren't bailed out. In the wake of the Goodwin affair, and the campaign against Stephen Hester, the Prime Minister could soon find himself invited to judge the merits of any honour and any salary. As we have argued, it was capricious and hypocritical to strip Mr Goodwin of his knighthood, a measure previously reserved for traitors and dictators. Yet it was also a worrying sign that the Government has adopted one of Labour's less savoury habits - a willingness to cast aside constitutional tradition for the sake of temporary advantage. For example, the move to fixed-term parliaments may well be sensible. But its introduction, with the requirement that only a Commons "super-majority" could force an election, reflected the Coalition's immediate needs, rather than a wider constitutional imperative. Nowhere is this attitude more evident than with the House of Lords. It is true that their Lordships have not been the best of neighbours recently; the increasing number of wreckers on the Labour benches has made relations particularly difficult. Yet applying for the Welfare Reform Bill to be considered for financial privilege in the same way as the Budget, in order to deny the Upper House a chance to insert more amendments, feels disproportionate. We thoroughly disagree with the Lords" opposition to a benefits cap. But it is their right - and their duty - to scrutinise legislation as they see fit. Similarly, the idea of creating new peers to ensure a government majority ignores the fact that the Coalition already outnumbers Labour in the Upper House (although the increasingly belligerent cross-benchers are a complicating factor), and that its own rebels enabled the welfare defeats. All this pales beside the Coalition's barmiest plan: the introduction of an elected Second Chamber, which Nick Clegg appears bizarrely determined to push through. If the problem with the Lords is that it is becoming gradually more politicised, how can the solution be to replace its inhabitants with another tier of politicians? All that will do is create a rival to the Commons - and divert vast amounts of parliamentary time, energy and money from the country's pressing problems. We expect no better from the Lib Dems. But the Conservatives, at least, should appreciate the value of leaving well alone. Instead, they seem depressingly determined to give Labour's constitutional vandals a run for their money.