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Honours System (Reform)

: I am sure that the hon. Gentleman has read the report. We deal with the point that the system is part of our history. It is a story of endless reinvention. We endlessly reinvent things and then claim that they are an integral part of our long, ancient history. In fact, the honours system has had two major periods of reinvention, the latter of which was in the first part of the 20th century and issued, crucially, the Order of the British Empire. That was an act of democratic reinvention at the end of the first world war, so there is no reason that we could not reinvent again a century on, as we have in the past.