Memorandum by Mike Parr (HON 46)
Should recommendations for honours be more open?
Yes. Why have any secrecy at all. To what end
does it serve.
What is the honours system for—to reward
service or pre-eminence, or to encourage high national values?
This raises the more general question: to whom
are honours awarded, and why. As it stands the honours system
appears devalued. Quite why it is necessary to give awards to
television/film/media/sporting personalities is difficult to understand.
Success in any of these fields should be an end in itself. By
contrast, I knew a chap that received an OBE, for services rendered
to the local lifeboat organisation plus a long time contribution
to local youth clubs. Perhaps a greater focus on such individuals
and an elimination of the "usual class of suspects"
will restore some dignity to the system. Furthermore, such a refocusing
could encourage higher national values. Pictures and articles
in national newspapers about people that have provided unstinting
service to the community (either as public servants or ordinary
citizens) is likely to do more to public attitudes (by providing
appropriate role models) than watching yet another A/B/C grade
celeb receive an OBE or whatever at Buck Palace. I would add,
that although many sporting personalities are wholly admirable
people and make excellent role models, the more successful already
have considerable media exposure—I would suggest that they
don't need more. Perhaps the focus of the honours system needs
to be more on the "ordinary people" that provide the
glue which holds society together.
Does the honours system really motivate public
servants?
Different things motivate different people.
To be motivated by the idea that you will/may be given an honour
suggests a person that is unbalanced. The honours system with
respect to public servants should be used to make awards to those
"public servants" that in the view of their peers have
provided outstanding service—to the public. The impression
at the moment is that it is used to improve the status of the
"Humphrey Applebys" of this world. People lower down
"the scale" but who none the less provide wonderful
services at the "public coal face"if such a thing could
be imagined, should be given greater prominence.
Is there any need for an honours system at all
in the UK?
The list of honours available is amazing (I'll
take two MBEs and a KGB please plus a topping of OBE). The echoes
of Empire are, in the 21st Century laughable. I believe that there
should be a simple set of awards for public servants. There should
be another set of awards for the public for either extraordinary
service in extraordinary circumstances or for life time service
in a voluntary capacity. Perhaps the government should give some
consideration to either the French or German systems of awards.
Frankly, at the moment, I'd rather have a Legion D'Honeur that
any of the awards being offered by HMG/HM.
I have noticed that many of the honours are
in the gift of the queen. It should be made clear that this is
the case and the government should separate itself from these,
thus achieving the clarity (and integrity) which is now missing.
February 2004
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