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Honours System (Reform)

: I agree entirely. My point is that both those considerations should be reflected in the upper echelons of the honours system, but they are not. If they were, we would see some of those millions of heroes being made knights, dames, companions and commanders. That would show that we reward and honour service at an equivalent level to achievement. Are we really saying, through the way in which the upper echelons of the system work, that the only people who go that extra mile—to use the hon. Gentleman's definition—are to be found only in the upper echelons of the civil service, in the royal colleges or among head teachers? Absolutely not—none of us believes that, yet the honours system appears to send out that message.