Yesterday's blog about a group offering to provide honours for cash brings the whole rotten system into further disrepute.
I can tell you how to get a gong. If you are rich it's simple. Give £millions to charities and don't be shy about letting everyone know about it. The best value is giving to royal charities like The Prince's Trust. A £1 given to them is worth £50 given to a non-royal charity. Soon honours will be for sale for any association with Cameron's dying Big Society wheeze. Get involved with some doomed Big Society scheme soon. The scheme will flop but the gong will arrive anyway.
If you are a billionaire, you can get any honours you want including knighthoods and a place in the Lords. It may cost anything from £10 million to £100,000. But the honour is guaranteed. Smaller amounts will guarantee an OBE or an MBE under the Government’s new sale of gongs for philanthropy. As the Government is starving public services out of cash they are hoping that private giving will fill the gap. It's corrupt - no difference to selling honours in the style of Lloyd George.
It would be more honest to just sell the awards to the highest bidder. More profitable too.
Comments