PMs can never tell right from gong
The thing about gongs is people can sneer at them, condemn them, even campaign against them, but the minute THEY get offered one all bets are off and it’s down to the shops for an outfit that can take a bit of prostration at the Queen’s feet.
Because, despite the controversy that surrounds them, honours mean something. They set people apart. They instil pride. They’re supposed to recognise outstanding achievement, distinguished service or charity work. And THAT is why Cameron’s crony resignation list is so disgraceful – because it cheapens and demeans all of the above.
And what this list of his mates, pro-Remain donors, spin doctors, stylists and organisers says is that, having had to resign, Cameron didn’t give a stuff what awarding honours to people who patently didn’t deserve them would look like.
He didn’t care that this would deeply offend the electorate because they had defied him in voting for Brexit – so sod what they think.
And this list has absolutely confirmed what many think: that politics and politicians are dodgy. That rich people just have to write a big cheque to get a knighthood in return. That Westminster is a club that benefits the privileged few, where a PM’s cronies are rewarded not for doing the right thing but for supporting him even when what he’s doing might be the wrong thing.
Look at the people who received them – Shami Chakrabarti for instance, that supposed champion of equality and civil rights. She’s accepted a peerage (proposed by Jeremy Corbyn, who said he’d never send anyone to the Lords) just weeks after her report into Labour Party anti-Semitism which, funnily enough, mostly cleared the party of any blame and omitted to make any mention of Jezza at all.
Ms Chakrabarti justified her elevation by saying: “It’s an opportunity to hold the Government to account.” Which is tosh, as a much more effective way to do that would be as an elected MP. But then that doesn’t come with the status, the permanence or the sucking up that a damehood does.
Then there’s Will Straw, son of ex-Home Secretary Jack, who was leader of the Remain Campaign. He’s been rewarded for failing to keep Britain in the EU despite having had the entire government machine to help him do it.
Sam Cam’s stylist Isabel Spearman got an OBE, as did Cameron’s speechwriter Julian Glover. Thea Rogers, the woman in charge of George Osborne’s image, got one too (another reward for failure).
Osborne himself got one of the most prestigious honours in the land and Ed Llewellyn, Cameron’s chief of staff and mate from Eton, copped a peerage.
All of them – and many others – have been honoured simply for doing their job.
A Downing Street aide tried to justify it, saying: “These people worked under enormous pressure.”
What? And other people don’t? Try grafting 50 hours a week on your feet in a shop or restaurant for the minimum wage – THAT’S pressure.
And Cameron isn’t the first outgoing PM to debase the honours system. John Major gave a Downing Street cleaner and his chauffeur gongs.
Labour leaders have been no better, which is why it’s ludicrous that deputy party leader Tom Watson is now telling people the Chakrabarti damehood was a mistake when it was his own leader who made it happen.
The system as it stands is wrong. It puts too much power in the hands of the PM who will of course use honours to bait, to bribe and to reward people who’ve done his bidding.
Of course he’s going to give gongs to his Eton mates and his wife’s buddies – for the simple reason that he can.
And that’s what needs to be changed. There should be a limit on how many any PM doles out and maybe the Queen, with an independent team, should decide who gets the rest.
Because Prime Ministers cannot be allowed to hand out honours in the same way punters hand out cash to prostitutes – for services rendered!
Cam’s crony list cheapens achievement