Arise an elderly pop star, a couple of TV cooks, some cricketers and one of the most odious and unpleasant politicians who has ever walked this earth. Welcome to our New Year’s honours list, as out-of-date and out-of-touch as it has ever been.
Look, I have nothing against ‘Sir’ Elton John. I’ve even got one of his albums, Madman Across the Water, and he was the first singer I ever saw live. I’ve never quite gotten over his bizarre American accent, given that he was born in Pinner, but then, he’s not alone in that. But in addition to his knighthood, he’s now a Companion of Honour. Of course he is.
I rather like Nadiya Hussain and Ainsley Harriott, who are both honoured for cooking things. And our cricketers who won the world cup this year. It’s hard to argue with that. But ‘Sir’ Iain Fucking Duncan Fucking Smith? I mean, really?
Whatever you think of Brexit, Duncan Smith has been a prime mover in making it happen. He’s always hated Europe and has been more than merely an irritant to every Tory leader up until the current one. But it’s not just Brexit that tarnishes his character; it’s Universal Credit.
He is seen as being its architect which is more than a slight exaggeration. In reality, he told civil servants to go away and cook-up a new benefit that would incorporate a number of existing benefits. UC is what they came up with. And what civil servants came up with was good and would have worked, but for massive cuts of circa £4 billion made to the project by chancellor George Osborne. UC was, is, a good idea, but it is the same with anything: if you don’t fund something properly, it won’t work. Duncan Smith resigned when things started going tits up, which shows the character of the man. ‘Sir’ Iain Duncan Smith, the friend not of the poor, but of poverty.
Look through the lesser honours and you will find the real heroes. Old soldiers who fought for our country and built a land that should have been fit for heroes, but which turned into one fit for liars, shysters, hucksters and slimy little toads. Like Iain Duncan Smith. Unlike the old soldiers, who are the best of us, Duncan Smith is the very worst of us, a man devoid of principle, of pure decency, of empathy towards his fellow man. In all but the literal sense, he has blood on his hands and lots of it.
If this is the best we can do with rewarding people in our country, let’s call it a day. Or let’s just be more honest and let the powers that be, the establishment and illiberal elite, openly hand out gongs to their friends and fundraisers on the basis of patronage and privilege instead of pretending there is some merit to the current system.
