Let’s start with an impression. Move towards the window, shake your fist and yell “Aaaaargh”. Then “Waaaaaaaah!” Now scream “Grrrrrrrrrrrr … I don’t believe it”. Well done, that’s the cry of the rightwing Tory/Reformite bird today, reacting to the news that London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, has received a knighthood.
We all do it a bit. There never was an honours list to delight everyone. The very fact of an honours list annoys very many people and that’s fair enough, because the system is heroically flawed in terms of who gets them, how the recipients are chosen and what they are called (congratulations to Ken McCallum, director of MI5 – you’re now Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath).
