No replies to this topic

[Guthlac]

http://hitchensblog....dgy-knight.html

Don't forget, it takes a cynical knave to create a dodgy knight

I really used to think a knight was something  special. I dimly recall meeting my first one, at some prehistoric school speech day, and being badly disappointed by this wheezy, portly person.

But, coming from the last generation to be brought up on Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sir Nigel, I knew that a feeble appearance could conceal a heart of fire – so I was able to imagine that the pinstriped buffer I saw might once have led a charge or sunk an enemy ship against all odds.

Probably he had just done long service on some committee, or obeyed the Tory whips down the decades, with misplaced loyalty. But a little chivalry still hung around the ancient title.

As I grew up, I came to realise that chivalry was generally unwanted in modern Britain. And I also noticed that knighthoods were now awarded for several bad reasons.

It seemed ludicrous to me (and still does) that I actually knew men who were knights. ‘Him?’ I would chortle, as I read the lists.

Perhaps the politicians wanted to suck up to re- ally famous people – rock stars, actors and comedians. Perhaps they wished to reward donations.

Then there was the mysterious world of the higher Civil Service and the senior ranks of the Armed Forces, where you got rewarded for good behaviour, like long-term prisoners.

In the end, the only decorations I took  seriously were those given for valour in the field – and even they are unfair.

But the awarding of knighthoods has for years told us far more about the politicians who hand them out than about the people who receive them.

The governments that bestowed titles on Nicolae Ceausescu and Robert Mugabe shamed themselves. Who can blame tyrants for taking what is offered? They should keep what they are given. What we need to do, every time this comes up, is to name the politicians who approved the award.

There’s little doubt that some of those honoured by the current Government will in time turn out to be embarrassing.

And that is what they should be – embarrassing.

I think ‘Sir’ Fred Goodwin should have kept his title, just as I think ‘Lord’ Archer should keep his, as a perpetual embarrassment to those who hoped to gain by dishing out these  cynical baubles.