by Kevin Meagher
How many times down the years has British politics had one of those sporadic bouts of angst – some of it even real – about the system for awarding political honours?
Those moments when we just know the system is being abused and that so many of those awarded honours are thoroughly undeserving.
Inevitably, infuriatingly, the moment passes. Nothing is done, until the next time a dodgy peerage or questionable ‘k’ surfaces.
David Cameron’s resignation honours, published last night in full, should now be a line in the sand.
They are probably the most egregious shopping list of acolytes, time-servers, hangers-on and financial backers that an outgoing PM has ever sought fit to reward.
Can you imagine the furore if Tony Blair had given Alistair Campbell a knighthood? Cameron has given one to his press secretary, Craig Oliver.
There are awards, too, for a ‘conference planner,’ a Conservative Central Office bureaucrat, a Tory activist, chauffeurs, spin doctors and policy wonks. Meanwhile, there are six peerages for former special advisers and for Andrew Fraser, the treasurer of the Conservative Party.
