The absurd honours system should have died with the British empire

Yes, a Prime Minister whose tenure was outlasted by a lettuce has been granted leave to reward her local party apparatchiks, bag-carriers and assorted toadies, some of whom will retire to the House of Lords to live, like the reptilian Baron Foulkes of Cumnock, a life of pampered slothfulness at the taxpayers’ expense.

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Yet the pea-brained Ms Truss is not by any means the first Prime Minister to reward colleagues or acolytes. Premiers from Lloyd George onwards in the last century have all been criticised for lavishing honours in a partisan or myopic fashion. The system is patently open to abuse and should not be regarded in isolation but as part of a ridiculous and archaic order of patronage that perpetuates the idea that titles matter. The British empire is long dead and the absurd honours system ought to have died with it.

In addition, the granting of a knighthood to an individual like Tim Martin again demonstrates that awards are not based on merit, common decency or indeed the virtues of those receiving them, but on personal whims and on cronyism. This is a man with utter contempt for workers’ rights, a hard-nosed Dickensian libertarian who epitomises the core of social inequality that lies deep within the pernicious depths of the United Kingdom. It is astonishing to even consider advocating that any supporter of independence would sit in the House of Lords with people like him and all they represent.

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The Lords are an archaic and corrupt affront to democracy and only an independent Scotland can rid us of this political cesspool that constrains inclusion, equality and fairness in our society. The House of Lords and the antediluvian honours system, along with the cultural tumour that is the UK royal family, will continue unabated for many generations to come, unchallenged by the UK hoi polloi, political parties and a fawning media. The only way to escape this centuries-old class prejudice and social imbalance is to achieve our own sovereignty. There is no other answer.

Owen Kelly
Stirling

GIVEN the grim weather warnings in this post-Christmas period, what a delight it was to read about the recipients of the New Year’s Honours List.

As always, those who genuinely represent real communities and/or have performed heroic rescues etc are at the bottom of the list receiving mere “membership” of the British Empire.

Those higher up the ladder on what has increasingly become a Ruritanian farce are either (shamefully) the nominees of Liz Truss, the Lady Jane Grey of faux UK politics, or in a category which appears to have nothing to do with public service – quite the reverse in fact – “services to shareholders”. A number of these people also appear to have made donations to the Royal Opera House: a deserving cultural institution perhaps, but not when people are literally freezing or hungry in what is meant to be an advanced economy.

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The choice is between laughing at this continued delusional practice in our ever more unequal society or sheer anger at the smug and out-of-touch behaviour of our purported leaders.

I choose to laugh, as I myself have been in quick succession Lady Marjorie (changed when Michelle Mone’s yacht was Lady M), the Countess of Camberwell when I lived in South London, and latterly in my apotheosis Regina of Royal Terrace.

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

Marjorie Ellis Thompson
Edinburgh

AM I the only one who thinks that celebrities, politicians and sports persons are over-represented in the honours list? It seems this happens every year, as those in the public eye get more official recognition while ordinary people making a huge difference go unnoticed. The message seems to be: get on TV, get a gong.

Can we have just one year where showbiz, politics and sports don’t feature, to balance this tendency?

Stephen McCarthy
Glasgow

THE usual practice of lining up places in the House of Lords for Tory party donors and supporters yet again underlines why it would be politically foolish to send SNP representatives to this unelected insult to democracy.

There is nothing to be gained by the SNP joining the corrupt UK political parties in filling the Lords with their supporters and donors. It would turn more independence supporters against the party, and even raising this possibility is a danger to achieving any cohesion between supporters of independence.

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Hopefully the usual round of appointments to the Lords will kill off any idea that the SNP could further Scotland’s cause by sending people there, and we can instead renew our focus on actually doing something to achieve independence as soon as possible.

Cllr Kenny MacLaren
Paisley

SINCE 1951 – with minor interruption and the interlude of the war criminal and unashamed child of Thatcher (Blair) – the Tories have had one aim: to undo the post-war gains made by Clement Attlee’s administration.

Six years of the only pro-working class government Britain has ever truly known have finally been erased, as we will all see when Sunak leaves Number 10 in disgrace and the absolute ruin of the final 13 years is laid bare.

Yes, its taken three-quarters of a century to undo those precious six years. But my god they’ve done it.

Amanda Baker
Edinburgh