Henry Lui is a restaurateur. He is the proprietor of the Chinese restaurant called the Kar Ling Kwong, which is situated in East Street, Farnham, Surrey. For decades Mr Lui has selflessly, tirelessly, successfully but quietly fund-raised for local charities. A couple of years ago he was awarded a well earned MBE. The awarding of an honour in this particular instance shows our Honours system working as it truly should.

Contrast this to the granting of honours to donors of political parties. The gongs handed out to these people are worthless. They are but cheap baubles. The awarding of knighthoods to senior civil servants and their like is not much better. These establishment personnel are paid well for their service to the Country. It is not only a matter of their handsome salaries and perquisites, the power, the kudos, just look at their pension entitlement. There is too much establishment back slapping of this kind. It is unedifying, but Tony Blair just does not “get it”.

The general population understand and applaud a well earned honour. The bravery exhibited by an individual, devotion to duty or selfless hard work for the community or a particular cause for instance, set an example to the rest of us. There should be some element of personal sacrifice suffered or exceptional service before anyone is considered for an award. The handing over of a sack full of dosh for a baronetcy is just cheap.  Substantial reform of the Honours system is needed.[1]

[1] See the article by Andrew Pierce in The Times, “Lords nominees are blocked in Labour loan row”.