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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Letters

Was Euan Blair’s MBE for services to education or self-enrichment?

Euan Blair
Euan Blair has been awarded an MBE for services to education. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

Is our honours system a little wonky? Euan Blair gets an MBE for “services to education” (Euan Blair: from PM’s son to £700m business and an MBE, 1 June). Doubtless he’s a fine fellow. I’ve been doing “services to education” for more years than he’s been alive (I was at Oxford with his dad).

I’ve done – if I say so myself – a few good things; I like to think that I’ve helped people make their lives better. Education, I imagined, was about service – not business.

I never sought to make shedloads of money out of it; an adequate salary has been plenty. My perfectly nice house isn’t worth £22m. I didn’t endow my children with elite networks or startup capital. My dad didn’t start an illegal war. I’ve never had an honour. QED? Unworthy thoughts? Probably; but many others have equal grounds for cynicism.
John Holford
Nottingham

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