It is starting to dawn on me that I will soon be the only commoner I know. I am racking my brains trying to think of anyone I have even met in recent years who has not been ennobled, and at present I am drawing a blank. Each time I am out of the UK I return to find another honours list and another batch of peers. By the time the magazine has gone to press this column’s sub-editor will probably have been called to the Upper House.

Should the Upper House really be a chamber filled with failed MPs, council leaders and spads?

This is not – I would like to stress – sour grapes. I have no personal desire to be in the House of Lords. Indeed it always surprises me that anyone would. They can’t have ever been there. I also vaguely share Kingsley Amis’s views about accepting titles. Before he did accept one, Amis expressed doubts – the main one being a fear of embarrassment. Amis feared the idea of entering the writers’ room in heaven and the names of people being announced as they came in. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, Vladimir Nabokov. Marcel Proust. Sir Kingsley Amis.’

In any case, the list of peers grows and as it does so it becomes ever less distinguished. Last year there was some kerfuffle when Charlotte Owen was put into the House of Lords by Boris Johnson. People complained that the then 29-year-old former adviser at No. 10 might not be the most qualified candidate. What is more, if she lives a long life we can expect to see her in unelected office for a good six decades to come.

Last week’s list included somebody younger and even less distinguished. Carmen Smith is 27. She has been nominated to enter the Lords by Plaid Cymru.

QOSHE - Left in the cold / I’ll soon be the only commoner I know - Douglas Murray
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Left in the cold / I’ll soon be the only commoner I know

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15.02.2024

It is starting to dawn on me that I will soon be the only commoner I know. I am racking my brains trying to think of anyone I have even met in recent years who has not been ennobled, and at present I am drawing a blank. Each time I am out of the UK I return to find another honours list and another batch of peers. By the time the magazine has gone to press this column’s sub-editor will probably have been called to the........

© The Spectator


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