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Honours System (Reform)

: I realise that this is a controversial proposal to come from those on the Liberal Democrat Benches, but presumably the hon. Gentleman would not justify, in this modern century, the fact that the wife of a man who gets a title—a knighthood, for example—immediately gets a title, whereas if a woman gets a title there is no reciprocal arrangement? Surely, the person to be honoured should receive the title, but other people in the family should not automatically be honoured just because they happen to be hitched to somebody?