A Spectator's Notebook
THE NEW YEAR HONOURS provided the best and least embarrassing list for many years; still, it is hard to scan it without coming to the con- clusion that if it went the way of presentation parties for debutantes the loss would be small. As usual, the chief trouble is that the currency has been devalued. An Opposition politician—George Benson—is deservedly honoured by the Govern- ment for his public services; but who, apart from his friends, will recall the circumstances of his knighthood in a few months' time? It will be assumed that he became Sir George because his own party recognised his devotion to duty and the Whips. In sport and in the theatre the mechanism by which honours are distributed has gone par- ticularly agley. Honours are bestowed on indi- viduals whose talents and resolute interest in what Mr. John Osborne's Archie Rice calls `NO. 1' have brought them to a point at which, it might be thought, honours would be superfluous—or even humiliating, if no handle is included. The point of the New Year list, surely, should be to honour people for work over and above the course of duty. Politicians are the exception : with them it is right to honour the failures rather than the suc- cesses—in order to get them out of the way and into the House of Lords.
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