James Kirkup James Kirkup

The vices and virtues of Theresa May’s honours list

An awful lot of Theresa May’s resignation honours list is awful. In no particular order:

Knighting Geoff Boycott would be a horrible act for any PM, let alone one who actually did some good on domestic violence. Who cares if he punched a woman repeatedly in the face, he played great cricket, eh? A gruesome choice, even though he continues to deny the offence.

Knighting the communications Director who failed to communicate your central policy would be a misjudgement at the best of times. But Theresa May adds hypocrisy to the mix: she once cruelly and very publicly mocked David Cameron’s press chief for precisely the same honour. I was not the greatest fan of Sir Craig Oliver but I think he would have done a better job of selling the Withdrawal Agreement than Sir Robbie Gibb managed.

A peerage for Liz Sanderson? A peerage for a second-string media spad? Is May actively trying to make the Cameron honours list look good?

CBEs for Fiona Hill and Nick Timothy just look odd. They were far more important to May’s career than many who were given greater honours. Yes they left after that doomed election but if they were downgraded over that failure, how can greater prizes then go to those who were present for the greater failures that followed? CBEs on this list look like a dismal halfway house. They should have had peerages or nothing.

And yet. Much like the woman herself and her premiership, the May list has virtues that should not be overlooked:

The peerage for Kim Darroch is a fine decision and a good response to the poison he faced from a small group of nasty Brexiteers, simply for doing his job as ambassador to Washington.

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