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Honours System (Reform)

: The simple point that I am trying to make is that if we had an honours system that followed the six principles set down in our report, I suspect that few people would reject it. I am just surmising; there is no way of knowing. It is because the present system is so opaque and there is no clarity about who should be preferred over someone else that many people think it is—I hesitate to use the word—corrupt, with a small c, and do not want anything to do with it. We have made reference already to the hereditary baronetcy that John Major conferred on Sir Denis Thatcher. However, what has the recipient of that patronage, Mark Thatcher—just looking at the six principles, Mr. O'Hara, because I see you frowning at me—