After coronavirus (which might be quite a long way away), or at least when the world settles down to a new normal, there are some things that I’d like to be different. So over the next days and weeks I’m going to write them down. They will mostly be to do with our relationship with the natural world (but not exclusively).
If you would like to have a go at writing a guest blog on a thing that you would like to be different then please take notice of these general guidelines for guest blogs and send it to me at [email protected] for consideration. I’ll give priority to offers that relate to the natural environment, and/or to those that are well-written (IMHO).
An end to the Honours System
For those of us who would very happily say goodbye to the Honours System Boris Johnson’s latest crop of cronies getting seats in the Lords probably brings that forward a bit.
Whereas the ‘ordinary’ honours, the Queen’s Birthday honours, have been postponed until the autumn to take account of coronavirus, there was no such sensitivity involved in shovelling a load of Brexiteers into the House of Lords. Leavened with some Brexiteer Labour MPs and a few Tory Remainers (including his bro JoJo and birder Ken Clarke), this is a highly political list.
I look forward to reading Lord Botham of the Butts’s maiden speech when he graces the Upper House. Will he touch on his view that ‘England is an island’ I wonder? or will he tell us again that Living a Lie was not easy and will he be telling the truth? Or will their noble Lords hear about the day his Twitter account was hacked but it wasn’t his stump cam that was on view? Or might he try to sell a different meat and two veg, with lead-shot game meat, to the Upper Chamber. I think we should all keep an eye on what Lord Botham says in the Upper House, how often he says it, and what his expense claims look like.
I don’t have a lot of time for Botham as I just don’t think his public persona persuades me that he is a very admirable man except on the sporting field, a long time ago. Speaking as one who grew up on the Somerset side of Bristol or in Somerset itself I was a big fan of Botham in his cricketing days – he was amazing. I remember going to watch a one-day game at Wellingborough School when Somerset played Northants and enjoying watching Botham and Richards despatching the ball to the short boundaries through a hot afternoon. But if you were looking for a peer, to sit in Parliament, there are so many talented cricketers with more brain power than Beefy. Who? David Gower, Mike Brierley and Mike Atherton for a start but the list would go on as Botham was difficult to beat on the cricket pitch but not so sharp in rational conversation. Botham was probably included as the joker in the pack and for disctraction purposes.
Botham’s peerage probably tarnishes the system a little bit more in my opinion.
But the whole Honours System could do with scrapping. Aside from the link to the British Empire, and the randomness of awards, and the croneyism inherent in the system it is an inherently corrupting system. I’ve seen people not do things, that were their jobs to do, in order to keep their noses clean in the hope that an honour was coming their way. And an awful lot of honours go to people for doing their jobs competently and many of them have been very well paid over the years anyway.
I’d scrap it and I’m not sure what I would replace it with. Do we need anything like it? Are not the friendship of your friends (despite all your faults and all theirs), the admiration of your colleagues and the condemnation by your enemies rewards enough for any person?
I have to make two further points here, as I always do when I write on this subject.
I get huge pleasure when people I know and admire are included in the Honours List. Two recent examples are Natalie Bennett and Chris Packham but there are many more over the years. And I have helped people to get honours by writing letters of support or parts of the stuff that accompanies a recommendation (and let it be noted that ‘my’ success rate is very high with the ones with which I have been involved) but that doesn’t mean that I think the sytem works or works well.
And no I wouldn’t accept one myself, though a peerage would be tempting as it is a job not an honour if you put yourself into it. And as evidence of my spurning of such things I can remnd you that I have a £50 bet with a former colleague that I would turn down an ‘honour’ if offered one – I’d much rather have the £50. And also over a decade ago, at dinner with someone in the system, it was put to me that the person could put my name forward and I told them not to bother since I wouldn’t accept one. So, for those reasons, and more critically that nothing would ever be offered to me these days, don’t look for my name in the lists. But I will be scanning them for my mates’ names as long as the tawdry system continues.
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Like you Mark I don’t have much time for Botham. He should have stuck to cricket, something he was quite good at.
The whole honours system is totally out of date and needs major reform. People should not be given honours for just doing their job. However this grossly over due reform should be accompanied by a major reform of the so called House of Lords. I have to say I rather resent any of the so called Lords having a say in running the country. The House of Lords should become a democratically elected upper chamber like the Senate in the USA. Election to it should be by the general public NOT by appointment by the Prime Minister and his biased party. Keep the politicians out of it as much as possible. As said on a previous blog about royalty, I would scrap all royalty titles from princes, dukes ,to lords. On this basis, previous so called lords would no longer allowed sit in the upper chamber unless they were democratically elected,vminus title
Can one see Johnson and the Tories making these reforms? Not in a million years because, yet again, it would damage their vested interests.
How many Tony Cronies were there? Didn’t he keep going until he had a majority?
Elected upper house is the answer. Not by postal vote though but.
Filbert – it is over 13 years since Tony Blair was Prime Minister… Gladstone was a bit of a crook too…
I wonder how many of the Cronies are still there. 374 life peerages created on his watch so unless 13 was an unlucky number of years …
But that is the nub of the problem. Blair came in and found or felt that the House of Lords was stacked against him so he stuffed it with his own placemen and women. Now Johnson has done the same thing to tilt the scales in favour of his government. The fact that Blair did it does not excuse Johnson or vice versa. As long as membership of the House of Lords is in the gift of the Prime Minister of the day this kind of thing will go on. We need a properly elected second chamber. There are plenty of two-house Parliamentary systems around the World so it it should not be beyond the wit of man to investigate the strengths and weaknesses of the various ways in which they are elected and the terms under which they operate and then come up with a modern system that works for Britain.
We should move to all postal votes. There is no reason to be sending people to individual polling places in the current day and age. It is a relic of a bygone age. Postal voting raises voting engagement and makes elections more representative and more safe, not less.
Given how badly democracy has failed, and been utterly subverted by rightwingers both here and in America, over the last forty the last thing we need is an elected second chamber to give us the illusion of democracy when it will just end up being another arm of the same cronyistic tyranny. Even the HoL as it stands now, up to its earlobes in shite and corruption is better than the illusion of democracy which is just used to keep us agitators in line. Even the HoL prior to the Blair reforms is better than that. At least then the corruption is on full display, naked and unhidden.
A reform of the HoL would be better spent giving professional organisations, significant charities, and unions seats in a second chamber, with it being left to the individual organisations as to how they filled them. Then we could play divide and rule on them, instead of it being the other way around. Take the churches out of it, though. Religion and politics should never mix, religion should be kept inside the head of the person who believes in it and nowhere else.
While we are at it, lets have genuine local government with real power. Proper devolution too. Just reduce Westminster down to an liaison role and writing the treasury cheques.
This must be the worst lot of honours since the infamous Wilson / Marcia Williams lavender list. We certainly need a massively reformed second chamber. Lesser honours that don’t give people a title seem fine to me as long as they are impartially awarded and are not for just doing the job you are meant to be doing.
I’m sorry the Empire is so out of fashion. It was a different time. A lot of good things were done as well as a lot of bad. And a lot of good people dedicated their lives to the service of their country and improving the lives of the people they were looking after, not to mention the wildlife with the setting up of national parks etc. Having travelled a bit to former colonies I’ve certainly enjoyed the wildlife reserves that were created and been sorry to hear about some of the other things we did. Let’s not forget the good as well as regretting the bad.
I too have friends who have accepted and deserved honours, when granted I was immensely pleased for them. However I am not a fan of the current system for all the cronyism, Buggins turn and politicians and senior civil servants getting them for doing their jobs (or loosing an election) . The system should be scrapped and replaced with a better system, perhaps chosen by committee but how that would be constituted I’m not sure. One thing is for sure any reference to empire with all its unpleasant overtones must go.
Aristos, lords peers of the realm and indeed royalty should be consigned to history as not relevant to a modern forward thinking democracy (although we aren’t that under any Tory gov’t). The house of Lords should have a new name and be elected. I used to like the Billy Bragg idea as to how it could work, it would require a long explanation look it up.
As to Botham, a wonderful cricketer but not admirable as a human being at least to me and far from the sharpest tack in the box. As a friend once said “I admired you as a cricketer but now you are just a twat.”
An exemplary reason why the honours system is a busted flush
Well maybe they took into account the £30 millions plus he made for charity with his walks. None of the cricketers mentioned came anywhere near that.
His money probably saved children’s lives as most went for leukaemia research I believe.
How sad to see someone’s faults so terribly brought up all the time, typical internet dialogue.
Would really have thought that as this blogs progression now include ever more intellectuals then they would have more respect and do less beefy bashing.
Even the Mafia have given money to charity. Botham’s a proven liar and an enemy of all that those who respect our natural heritage hold dear.
Whose money was that?
Also, don’t forget, he played for Scunthorpe United.
Dennis – the problem is that Botham is being made a peer which means he is being given a seat in Parliament with the right to participate actively in the development of our laws. That is quite different to being given an OBE or even a knighthood which in effect are a rather grand pat on the back. I don’t object to Botham being the recipient of a knighthood (as he already was) in recognition for his services to cricket and his charitable work but I do not think that he is in any way a suitable person to be made a legislator.
As I understand it Dennis, you are someone who strongly objects to the continued persecution of hen harriers by the grouse shooting industry in which case it is hard to understand why you would be supportive of Botham becoming a member of the House of Lords. Botham’s ‘You Forgot the Birds’ campaign, for example, was a disgraceful and pathetic attempt at derailing the campaign against hen harrier persecution by disseminating deceitful smears and red herrings against the RSPB and other conservationists. Is that really the kind of person you wish to see in the House of Lords?
Jonathon, you usually jump to some conclusion that to me seems innaccurate, I cannot see where I supported beefy going into the H O L, what I object to is the nasty campaign against him by intellectual people who have probably got skeletons in their own cupboards or are they perfect??.
In my opinion he has probably saved children’s lives and there are many in the H O L with plenty of faults.
For instance was the previous Labour leader fit for purpose, apparently not according to the present one more or less paying large damages to people for anti-Semitism while he was the leader.
The truth of the issue is that payments have been made not as “damages to people for anti-Semitism”, but to the so-called “whistleblowers” as settlement for alleged defamation. But why let facts get in the way when using whataboutery to defend a charlatan and criminal sympathiser like Botham.
“the nub of the problem”
… is that it’s a never-ending game of Tit-for-Tat. Who is Tit and who is Tat depends on the start year
Yes