Times letters: call to ‘tidy up’ our tainted honours system

Sir, Libby Purves favours “tweaking” the honours system, for which there is obviously a case. Others wish to remove the system altogether, but that would mean that other ways would be found for the recognition of distinguished service, and they would be even less transparent. We already have the problem that peerages, places in the legislature, are sometimes given as honours to people who, although distinguished, have no intention of devoting their time to the duties of a legislator.

It is clear that in the small minority of cases such as those you highlight, the honours that have been annulled would never have been awarded had future behaviour or undisclosed past behaviour been known about at the time. Any system to regulate too closely the annulment process risks becoming a second trial or sentencing hearing for criminal offences that have already been determined in court. These decisions require a degree of discretion, whose exercise will clearly be influenced by public and media objections to honours being retained by those who have brought them into disrepute.
Lord Beith
House of Lords

Sir, Libby Purves’s wish to “tidy up” the discredited honours system omits two singularly offensive aspects. First, the kind of honour one receives depends on one’s professional and social status, not one’s contribution. Thus the head of a hospital trust or a surgeon may be appointed CBE or given a knighthood or damehood, while a nurse will receive an OBE or MBE, and a hospital porter the lowest-ranking BEM. Second, while you correctly reported (“Honours erased in decade of disgrace”, Apr 6) that Joseph Kagan was stripped of his knighthood he died a member of the House of Lords because peerages cannot be removed. Thus today there are at least two law-breakers remaining in the Lords passing laws that affect the rest of us.

The Companion of Honour and the Order of Merit should be retained, as they are now, for a limited number of people exceptionally distinguished in public life, while other honours should be reduced to one list, perhaps the equivalent of the CBE.
Terry Philpot
Limpsfield Chart, Surrey

Sir, Libby Purves is no doubt justified in her critique of the honours system. Yet it is a system that, despite its faults, does occasionally add to the gaiety of the nation. Thus the subtle distinctions between honours are explained by Sir Bernard Woolley, the principal private secretary to Jim Hacker, in Yes Minister: CMG means “Call me God”, KCMG “Kindly call me God” and GCMG, “God calls me God”.
John Kidd
Brisbane, Queensland

ROUTE OUT OF LOCKDOWN
Sir, There has been heated debate as to whether pubs, theatres, cinemas and other indoor venues should be allowed to open soon, and if vaccination passports (letters, Apr 7) would be a feasible solution. The risk of catching the coronavirus is greatly reduced in the open air or in well-ventilated spaces. There is a simple and inexpensive solution that could be applied to indoor venues and was highlighted by your science editor (“Is your house Covid-ready? Scientists offer their top tips”, Sep 24, 2020). This is to use a carbon dioxide meter to measure the degree of ventilation. Establishments that can demonstrate they are well ventilated should be allowed to open; those that cannot should not.
Duncan Todd
Appleton, Oxon

LABOURING IN VAIN
Sir, Daniel Finkelstein (“Labour isn’t the party it pretends to be”, Apr 7) suggests that Sir Keir Starmer should follow the “profound piece of political wisdom” of James Watt, President’s Reagan’s interior secretary in his first administration. Watt had urged politicians, like Reagan, to be themselves: “Let Reagan be Reagan.”

Watt’s political career came to an ignominious end shortly thereafter, possibly because he decided to take his own advice and “let Watt be Watt”. In a press conference announcing a new leadership team for the interior department, Watt said that no one could accuse him of not appointing a diverse team, as it would comprise “a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple”.

He resigned shortly afterwards.
Stephen Hetherington
London N4

MEDICAL TRIBUNALS
Sir, Every year the Medical Defence Union (MDU) supports doctors with GMC fitness to practise proceedings. These investigations can be a distressing time for a doctor, especially if the case proceeds to a medical practitioner tribunal. Hence we were delighted when, last month, the government published proposals to reform the regulatory process. Among the reforms proposed was the removal of the GMC’s ability to appeal against a decision of the tribunal. The government committed itself to this legislation coming into force in the spring of next year.

owever, in your report (“Stop GMC blighting careers by challenging medical tribunals, doctors plead”, Apr 5), it was suggested that this reform should instead be included in the Health and Care Bill. Yet the government’s proposed timetable means legislation to reform the GMC should be enacted before the bill, which is only scheduled to begin being implemented in 2022. The medical profession has waited a long time to see its regulator reformed. We now have a commitment from the government to do just that. We agree with medical royal colleges that reform is needed: it is now time to seize it.
Dr Christine Tomkins
Chief executive, MDU

RACISM DEBATE
Sir, The Rev Jesses Jackson’s opinions may be respected and relevant to the issue of race in the US (“Britain must face its racist past, says Rev Jesse Jackson”, Apr 6). However, his comments concerning the UK are unhelpful. We cannot ignore the slave trade (albeit, in Britain’s case, remote exploitation on a vast scale rather than the very visible domestic oppression in the US, especially in the southern states). Today’s race issues are complex; while recognising that progress has been made we must focus on what still needs to be done rather than take Jackson’s binary and somewhat inflammatory approach.
Lucinda Lubbock
London SW6

Sir, I disagree with Dr Sue Stevens’s understanding (letter, Apr 6) of the term “white privilege”. It has nothing to do with whether you have central heating but, for example, indicates whether you, as a white person, have the good fortune, or privilege, to be able to walk down the street without having racial abuse hurled at you or being told to “eff off” back to where you came from.
Nigel Cooper
Winchester

Sir, Once again Trevor Phillips (Apr 5) offers sound common sense. Nobody denies that racism exists but evidence trumps emotion and it is a shame that some university staff want to denigrate Tony Sewell’s report in order to exaggerate the problem. A black American academic, Dr Thomas Sowell, put it even more succinctly: “Racism is not dead but it is on life support — kept alive by politicians, race hustlers and people who get a sense of superiority by denouncing others as ‘racists’. ”
Don Webber
Bembridge, Isle of Wight

TROPHIES OF EMPIRE
Sir, I was delighted to read Matthew Parris’s Notebook (“I won’t be decolonising, I’ve no shame about empire”, Apr 7). I am, no doubt like many Times readers, the scion of many forebears who selflessly served this country as governors or the like, and consequently my home is the repository of numerous trophies from the years of their service, including elephant tusks, rhinoceros horns, tiger claws and much more besides. I even have a straight sword (still with bloodstains) wielded with valour at Trafalgar by one of Nelson’s captains. But none was acquired in any way that would today cause anyone offence. I hope.
Timothy Elliott
Woodchurch, Kent

FLYING THE FLAG
Sir, I strongly disagree with Sara Tor’s remark that the Union Jack is just “a colourful piece of cloth”, and that flying it outside a school “implies a rejection of all that is not British” (Notebook, Apr 6). Britain embraces all cultures and the flag should be seen as an inclusive symbol of all backgrounds, as well as pride in this country. To suggest otherwise creates division where we should be looking to pull together.

My ancestors did not originate from Britain but I am extraordinarily proud to be part of a country that embraced and welcomed them.
Janie Lee
Ilford, Essex

VACCINATION RECORD
Sir, While the government’s vaccination rate is impressive compared with that of the EU, it is worth recalling that 18 million people out of a population of 21 million were vaccinated in ten days in Yugoslavia to quash the last outbreak of smallpox in Europe in 1972.
Peter Ashcroft, FRCS
Winchester

CROSSING A RED LINE
Sir, At my grammar school in the 1960s, not only were our skirt lengths reviewed (Apr 7) but also the position of our bright-red felt bowler hats. They were to be worn straight on top of the head, not pushed back, which was seen to be jaunty and provocative. This distinction, however, seemed lost on the lorry drivers passing us on the way to school, who lent out of their cab windows and shouted “Red hats, no drawers” regardless of how the hats were worn.
Rita Golden
London SW13

CARING CASANOVA
Sir, Further to your editorial and report (“Memoirs show Casanova wasn’t all cad”, Apr 6), the Venetian libertine Giacomo Casanova may have been a doctor manqué but his name lives on in medicine. Fracture of the calcaneus (heel bone), as would be caused by jumping from a bedroom window when caught in flagrante delicto, is known as a “Casanova fracture”. Medical students treasure such aide-mémoires.
Dr John Doherty
Stratford-upon-Avon

UNUSUAL TRANSLATION
Sir, As a bus conductor in Bristol in the 1950s I soon got used to hearing the Bristol “l” at the end of words finishing with the letter “a” (letter, Apr 6). Typical examples are cinemal, zebral crossing, bananal and aromal. I once heard of a lord mayor who was reading a lesson at a memorial service, during which he quoted from Revelations as follows: “I am the Alphal and the Omegal, the beginning and the end.” I hope such regional variations never die out.
David Shearlock
Beaminster, Dorset