Boris’s resignation honours are the latest in more than 100 years of corruption and cronyism

The honours system is as broken as just about every other system in this country, and has been for more than a century, writes Guy Walters

Most historians agree that the rot started 101 years ago (PA)

Somewhat charmingly, the Cabinet Office has a website in which it invites people to “nominate someone amazing for a national honour”. The honours system, the site tells us, “Celebrates the people who go above and beyond to change the world around them for the better”. These are people, the Cabinet Office claims, who have “gained the respect of their peers” and “displayed moral and physical courage”.

You do not have to be immensely cynical to find it hard to reconcile the stated purpose of the honours system with how it works in reality. Take, for example, the honours list of Boris Johnson, who resigned on Friday in a manner that can described as considerably less than “honourable”, let alone “amazing”. Like the former PM himself, whose departure along with two of his allies has already triggered three by-elections and created an enormous headache for his party, it is difficult when looking at his list to find the “respect”, “morality”, and certainly “courage”.

In truth, the honours system is as broken as just about every other system in this country, and it has been for more than a century. Far from being a mechanism to reward the “amazing”, it instead gives defunct prime ministers the ability to dole out the ermine robes to their biggest toadies, and to give gongs to those who have given them sacksful of cash. Fundamentally, it is a reward system for those with the very brownest of noses.