You could take a leaf out of Prince’s book and call him ‘the Goodwin formerly known as Sir’

Anyway, I believe Martin Salter is a dangerous and illiberal MP who has happily spread rumours and outright falsehoods in the past so long as it gets him some nice coverage in the tabloids, something I don’t imagine members of this website appreciate. I am referring, in particular, to his stewardship of the recent anti-pornography law, which was not evidenced based and involved hyping up the dangers that the internet and free sexual expression pose.

Having said that, I would happily put those grievances aside and support the motion, so long as “not-sir Derek Wanless” were added to a potentially long list of bankers/establishment stooges to be stripped of their honours: http://www.order-order.com/2009/03/gordons-favourite-banker-has-14-million.html

Just to be fair.

Salter sunk his own argument pretty quickly by saying; “the honours system is there to reward service not selfishness”. Since when?

Strip the lot of them of their so-called ‘honours’ and let’s start again.

Would that be “the avaricious, amoral and universally-disgraced, Not-Sir Fred Goodwin”?

Didn’t the honours system grow out of the need to reward mercenaries (a la Swiss Guards), colonial invaders and pirates?

@2: yes. Anyone who supported the ‘jailing people who film consenting bondage’ law is a far worse threat to society than a mildly crooked banker.

@4, yes. Fred Goodwin is entirely within the spirit of the honours system; removing his knighthood is akin to repealing the Act of Settlement in terms of ‘utter point-missing’.

Interesting debate. When this forfeiture committee meet, they could be burning midnight oil. In addition to Not-Sir Fred Goodwin, there is also Not-Sir Derek Wanless and Not-Sir James Crosby to also consider. Having created all this work for the committee, I trust that GB will pay for the tea and sandwiches needed to sustain them through their long deliberations.

An interesting footnote about Not-Sir Derek Wanless concerns his various biog’s. His 7 year stint at Northern Rock has been completetly airbrushed from his history ! There is much glowing reference however to his 1st in Maths from Cambridge. May I suggest he considers enrolling on a 6 month maths teacher training course. He, better than anyone, should know that debs need repaying !

This is childish. The Honours system is devalued on the one hand by the populist showering of honours on celebrities and sportspeople and on the other by attention seeking calls for the withdrawal from people who performed to the best of their ability with disastrous results.

Do you strip the confetti honours from the footballer who goes on to miss the shootout?

Anyway, if stripped he would be the first person to have sold his honour for a pension.