bang the gong
With the leaking of his resignation honours list, what a dastardly cad Mr Cameron finally showed himself to be. From knighthoods for Remain-supporting cabinet members and cash-donating businessmen, all the way down the murky scale to OBEs for the ‘stylist’ who managed Sam Cam’s diary & wardrobe, and Gideon’s former aide most well-known for getting him to change his haircut to the current ‘Caesar’ coiffure.
The blatant cronyism on display compelled me to dig around to ensure, and confirm, my belief that this is a purely modern-day tory tactic, and, hey presto, it’ll come as no surprise that there’s nothing new in any of this. As it turns out, Lloyd George awarded a peerage to a convicted fraudster for £30,000, Harold Wilson’s ‘lavender list’ was stuffed to the gills with business ‘donors’ , ol’ Milk Snatcher made Denis a Baron prior to her tearful departure, and the less said about Tony ‘cash-for-honours’ Blair, the better. However, Cameron’s double-speak can’t be denied: In opposition, call-me-Dave vowed to reform a “broken” system and “remove big money from politics” whereas, in power, he couldn’t have made a better job of entrenching it.
There’s now a perverse and cynical argument doing the rounds stating that it’s far better to award these harmless gongs & shiny baubles as they are done so at no cost to the public purse and ensure the recipient is far less likely to seek back-handed lucrative government contracts and cash bungs in brown envelopes: that selling flattery is less corrupt than selling influence. Pah! Is it wrong or overly naïve of me to believe everyone should do the job to the best of their ability, that public service should be undertaken for its own merits and reward (not to mention the fantastic pension & benefits package) and that donors are free to do as they wish but without any anticipated quid-pro-quo reciprocation? As an exercise in cementing the public’s belief that all things Westminster are all things corrupt, this disgraceful honours list could not have been better placed.
