---

Honours System (Reform)

: He was a Staffordshire man, and I am inherently well disposed towards awards for Staffordshire men and women, living or dead. My hon. Friend talks of a reformed honours system, but we do not have such a system. If we did, however, I think that we would find a way to consider such issues. I have talked about some of the difficulties involved in sorting our the criteria, and Sir David King, the Government's chief scientific adviser, told us that the test was whether an honour added lustre to the award. That is probably the best test that we will get. Will giving someone an honour add lustre to the award and the honour itself? Many honours will pass that test, but some will not. When Harold Wilson was Prime Minister, he used to say that he did not like dull honours lists and that he liked to sprinkle a little stardust across them. However, a bit too much stardust has been sprinkled across honours lists, and there has been too much desire to ensure that there is a bit of celebrity recognition. The more we go down that route, the less lustre we add to the award—indeed, the more lustre we will remove. That is the nearest that I can get to a seriously objective test.