The & Now: Going going gong

July 1922: Prime Minister David Lloyd George was at the centre of the 'Honours Scandal'. Since 1917, following his split with the mainstream Liberal Party under H H Asquith, he had been using the Honours List as a way of raising money for the Lloyd George Political Fund. The Order of the British Empire was created, and 25,000 OBEs were distributed in four years. The 8th Duke of Northumberland raised the matter in the House of Lords:

'. . . the Prime Minister's party, insignificant in numbers and absolutely penniless four years ago, has in the course of these four years amassed an enormous party chest, variously estimated at anything from pounds 1m to pounds 2m. The strange thing about it is that this money has been acquired during a period when there has been a more wholesale distribution of honours than ever before, when less care has been taken with regard to the services and character of the recipients than ever before, when whole groups of newspapers have been deprived of real independence by the sale of honours and constitute a mere echo of Downing Street, from where they are controlled. (He quotes from a letter offering a knighthood for pounds 12,000 and a baronetcy for pounds 35,000).

' 'There are only five knighthoods left for the June list . . . If you decide on a baronetcy you may have to wait for the Retiring List . . . It is unfortunate that Governments must have money, but the party now in power will have to fight Labour and Socialism, which will be an expensive matter.' '

February 1993: The Prime Minister John Major announces minor reforms to the honours system but honours for 'political services' are to continue.