YP Comment: A lack of honour?
Once again, the validity of the honours system finds itself being undermined – Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon and Scarborough-born chief whip Gavin Williamson were other noteworthy recipients – and detracts from all those worthy of wider recognition because of their humbling and ground-breaking work.
The most obvious example is youth worker Jayne Senior who collected a MBE yesterday, a deserved award significantly inferior to Sir Patrick and Sir Michael’s knighthoods and the CBE given to Mr Williamson for serving as the former PM’s bag carrier.
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Hide AdWithout this remarkable woman’s courage, it is doubtful whether the full shocking details of the Rotherham sex grooming scandal would have emerged. Now hundreds of abuse victims ignored by the authorities for too long are finally getting justice of sorts. Given this, it is surely time for honours to community champions to take precedence in future over awards to politicians and career bureaucrats only doing their job.