Dr Peter Moore: Honours system needs to be taken out of the hands of politicians

It might have been my terrible handwriting on the form but a few years ago I received an insurance policy addressed to Sir Peter Moore.

Initially I thought I would keep it. It sounded rather good.

But then I realised that, if I ever had to claim they might refuse to pay. I had given false information and so I wrote to the company saying, 'not yet'.

But are the awards helpful to the country? There has certainly been some controversy.

I believe that the principle of awards for service is sensible. It is right that the country should have a way of saying thank you to people who have often given so much to others.

Many of the lower awards such as the British Empire Medal (BEM) or OBE are given to people who have worked hard for their local community or a charity. There are people in Torbay who have quite rightly been rewarded for amazing service.

Even here some cynicism has crept in. Does OBE sometimes stand for Other Bu*** Efforts. At school I was deputy head boy. I put in a substantial amount of effort behind the scenes but, whenever the headmaster stood up in assembly he would praise the head boy, whose only skill seems to be delegating.

He has now had a very successful career in public relations and received an OBE. I wonder who really did the work.

At the higher end such as knighthoods, there are also many deserving people. Our greatest musicians from Sir Arthur Sullivan to Sir Edward Elgar and more recently Sir Paul MacCartney have received knighthoods as well as singers such as Sir Cliff Richard, Sir Elton John and Sir Mick Jagger. These people have given a huge amount to our musical lives.

There are also top scientists such as Dame Sarah Gilbert who developed the Covid vaccine.

Occasionally the honours system makes mistakes such as Sir Jimmy Savile, Rolf Harris CBE and the traitor Sir Anthony Blunt but their crimes were unknown at the time.

But are all the honours justified? Some backbench MPs appear to have received knighthoods or damehoods for, what appear to be, to quote Gilbert 'always voting at my party’s call and never thought of thinking for myself at all'.

Other honours appear to be for giving donations to political parties. Although cash for honours is illegal, this has been a problem for over 100 years starting with Lloyd George, who charged £10,000 for a knighthood which led to the Honours (Prevention of Abuses Act) 1925.

Despite the act, questions were asked of both Harold Wilson’s 'Lavender List' and some honours given by Tony Blair.
Edward Heath refused to promise honours to his backbenchers, and he failed to win their support when challenged for the leadership.

Bizarrely most of the honours which are not deserved are the higher honours. No one is going to pay money or always vote 'the right way' for a BEM.

Is there a solution? I still believe that the honours system is important but it needs to be taken out of the hands of politicians.
We already have an independent honours committee made up of senior civil servants and other people independent of government. A representative from 10 Downing Street is invited to attend. There are separate committees looking at nomination from arts and media, community and voluntary service, health and many others.

We need a system where the Prime Minister is unable to nominate anyone for honours. No MP should be bribed with the idea that if they vote as instructed, even if it is against their conscience, they will get a mention in the honours list.

I am still waiting to be mentioned in the honour’s list. This seems unreasonable as the only argument against becoming Sir Peter Moore or even OBE is that I’ve done absolutely nothing to deserve it.