Weekend headlines for a "Silly Season"
Ordinarily the "Silly Season" comes in the summer when there is nothing for journalists to write about.
This weekend's headline have been daft for reasons which have nothing to do with a lack of news.
Let's take the way the papers presented the story that former Test Cricket legend Ian Botham is apparently in line to get a peerage in the next honours list.
Reading the headlines - though not if you read the articles in full with your brain in operation - you might get the idea that this was a reward for supporting Brexit.
The Times, by no means the only offender, had a headline which reads "Botham given peerage as a reward for Brexit loyalty."
Really? How daft do the journalists pushing this one think we are?
All nominations for honours these days are vetted by an independent scrutiny committee which tries to make sure that honours are not given out which will bring the award system into disrepute. I am given to understand that it looks first at whether they have done things to deserve the award, and then at issues like whether they have paid their taxes, respected the law, been good citizens, etc.
I'm told that the committee doesn't demand an extreme standard of perfection but does tend to block nominations from people who have things on their record that most of the country would regard as well out of order. For example you can get away with having tripped a speed camera while driving a few miles an hour over the limit if you hold your hand up, 'fess up, pay up, and do your speed awareness course, but if you were nicked doing twice the speed limit and pay an expensive lawyer to get you off on a ridiculous legal technicality you're unlikely to subsequently ever get an honour no matter how many people write in and nominate you. Ditto if you set yourself up as a limited company so you can pay less tax than most people on a tenth of your income pay.
There could be one reason, and one reason only, why that committee would have approved a peerage for Ian Botham and it is his enormous lifetime contribution to British sport.
And if this honours list supposedly consists entirely of people who are being rewarded for supporting Brexit, why are the names of Kenneth Clarke and Philip Hammond apparently also on it?
I do wish the press would stop insulting our intelligence with this sort of nonsense.
This weekend's headline have been daft for reasons which have nothing to do with a lack of news.
Let's take the way the papers presented the story that former Test Cricket legend Ian Botham is apparently in line to get a peerage in the next honours list.
Reading the headlines - though not if you read the articles in full with your brain in operation - you might get the idea that this was a reward for supporting Brexit.
The Times, by no means the only offender, had a headline which reads "Botham given peerage as a reward for Brexit loyalty."
Really? How daft do the journalists pushing this one think we are?
All nominations for honours these days are vetted by an independent scrutiny committee which tries to make sure that honours are not given out which will bring the award system into disrepute. I am given to understand that it looks first at whether they have done things to deserve the award, and then at issues like whether they have paid their taxes, respected the law, been good citizens, etc.
I'm told that the committee doesn't demand an extreme standard of perfection but does tend to block nominations from people who have things on their record that most of the country would regard as well out of order. For example you can get away with having tripped a speed camera while driving a few miles an hour over the limit if you hold your hand up, 'fess up, pay up, and do your speed awareness course, but if you were nicked doing twice the speed limit and pay an expensive lawyer to get you off on a ridiculous legal technicality you're unlikely to subsequently ever get an honour no matter how many people write in and nominate you. Ditto if you set yourself up as a limited company so you can pay less tax than most people on a tenth of your income pay.
There could be one reason, and one reason only, why that committee would have approved a peerage for Ian Botham and it is his enormous lifetime contribution to British sport.
And if this honours list supposedly consists entirely of people who are being rewarded for supporting Brexit, why are the names of Kenneth Clarke and Philip Hammond apparently also on it?
I do wish the press would stop insulting our intelligence with this sort of nonsense.
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