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Honours System (Reform)

: The hon. Gentleman is kind in giving way again. His mention of Sir Hayden Phillips brings to mind the suggestion that only dukes should be allowed to chair royal commissions because only they cannot be rewarded for coming up with the result that the Government want. Is the hon. Gentleman really suggesting that a committee would be more capable of providing an appropriate honours list rather than a list that would find widespread support? Is there not always a danger of committees being too conservative? The hon. Gentleman might dislike this, but Harold Wilson was at least adventurous in the way that he scattered stardust on the honours list. Other Prime Ministers may be so in other ways, but at least we can vote them out. We cannot vote out a committee.