Because then, to quote Lord Harvey, you will give the benefit of the doubt not to Giles Barrington, but to Harry Clifton, as the odds, if not the pedigree, are stacked in his favour. 'And so, my lords,' said Preston as he began his peroration, 'when you cast your votes to decide which of these two men should inherit the Barrington title, do not base your judgment on convenience, but on strong probability. If you are thinking of reversing that decision, my lords, before you do so, you must be certain that they have made a fundamental error of judgment. But I will remind you that, in their wisdom, the Law Lords came down in favour of Harry Clifton inheriting the baronetcy. It is because Giles Barrington is appealing against a judgment made by the seven leading legal minds in the land, something else Lord Harvey failed to mention in his heartfelt speech. 'Finally, my lords, we should ask ourselves why we are here today.
The Labour benches erupted as one, and Lord Preston waited until the House had fallen silent once again.
But the Germans couldn't kill off Harry Clifton quite that easily, my lords, and neither should we.' 'Anyone who has read Mr Clifton's moving words in his book The Diary of a Convict, knows how he ended up serving in the US Army, where he won the Silver Star before being badly wounded by a German landmine only weeks before peace was declared.