Tuesday, March 07, 2023
Patronage in extremis
As resignation honours go, Boris Johnson's must rate as the most shameless since Lloyd George first hit on the idea of selling them for cash. As the Independent reports, even senior Tories think Johnson’s “absurd” plan to give his father a knighthood will discredit the system and “corrode public trust”.
The paper says that former cabinet minister David Davis told The Independent: “I think it’s ridiculous. It’s discrediting the honours system, which is rather a good one in that it doesn’t cost money and it recognises achievements of ordinary people.":
“There has been progressive corrosion of public trust in this system, so it doesn’t help to undermine that trust further just because of a family favour. It’s corrosive,” said Mr Davis.
A former Tory minister added: “The idea of Sir Stanley would be ridiculous nepotism, completely without merit. The trouble with Boris is he tarnishes everything he touches. And now he is discrediting the entire honours system.”
The senior figure said: “The honours committee should weed out the majority of these names and spare Rishi Sunak the embarrassment of having to veto them and correct Boris’s bad judgement.”
It really does take some brass neck to have submitted this nomination, but then that is something Johnson has never been short of.
The paper says that former cabinet minister David Davis told The Independent: “I think it’s ridiculous. It’s discrediting the honours system, which is rather a good one in that it doesn’t cost money and it recognises achievements of ordinary people.":
“There has been progressive corrosion of public trust in this system, so it doesn’t help to undermine that trust further just because of a family favour. It’s corrosive,” said Mr Davis.
A former Tory minister added: “The idea of Sir Stanley would be ridiculous nepotism, completely without merit. The trouble with Boris is he tarnishes everything he touches. And now he is discrediting the entire honours system.”
The senior figure said: “The honours committee should weed out the majority of these names and spare Rishi Sunak the embarrassment of having to veto them and correct Boris’s bad judgement.”
It really does take some brass neck to have submitted this nomination, but then that is something Johnson has never been short of.
