Scrap system – and the taint of scandal
THE Horizon Scandal is thankfully well documented now, but only thanks to the brilliant ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office.
However why is it we seem to tolerate the lack of decency by Sir Ed Davey to apologise for his own part in it. No one feels sorry for Paula Vennals finally doing the decent thing by handing back her CBE, so why doesn’t Sir Ed
Davey hand back his knighthood? Because of the Horizon scandal people may now see him as one of hundreds of politicians just covering their backsides.
Then we have Sir Keir Starmer taking a £25,000 jet to the Climate Summit while lecturing every man and his dog on the perils of climate change. Let’s not forget the footballers pontificating about the breaches of human rights in the Middle East before flying off to collect their tainted riches at the Qatar World Cup. Oops!
Then Sir Tony Blair comes to mind, who is partly responsible for sending hundreds of troops to their deaths in the Iraq war of 2003 while finding no weapons of mass destruction. It seems a shame to leave out Sir Jimmy Savile, whose crimes apparently went undetected for years... really? Frankly the whole honours system is tainted beyond repair. Who are the handful of faceless bureaucrats and alleged independent people who decide the merits of such individuals? Where is their accountability? As it appears Theresa May was instrumental in Paula Vennals’ appointment then maybe she could write a new memoir and add this achievement to it. Yes, there are many good people who deserve awards, like Sir Stanley Matthews and, ideally, Lou Macari
– but of late these awards are surely blighted by so many discredited recipients.
In my opinion the whole honours system is tainted and we should start from scratch with a system decided by the general public, not by those on the greasy pole of life, freemasons and unaccountable civil servants. We have a new King, why not a new honours system? Perhaps while the country is on a roll with the outrage suffered by the subpostmasters we could try to abolish the House of Lords. I think a second chamber is always useful to provide periods of reflection before major decisions are made but why can’t it be made up of elected people instead of loads of peers, who get there via being put out to grass, donating millions to political parties or forming a company that makes bras. Naturally this will disbar me from an award for services to diplomacy but, hey, it’s worth the risk.