And so the new year honours list is out. The people – some of them at least – have spoken: here comes a fresh tranche of the great and good.

Many questions remain about this process of elevation, but it’s worth saying that in the past, there were many more. As we think about the probity of politics now, from PPE procurement scandals to a one-time MEP bribed by the Russians, one might frown – but things have been degrees worse.

A hundred years ago, if you wanted a knighthood, say, a baronetcy or even a peerage and, worthy or not, were prepared to pay for it, you called on a man named Arthur Maundy Gregory, who had set up in a large office almost directly opposite Downing Street.

Liveried servants, their uniforms so closely modelled on those of House of Commons messengers that you could not tell the difference, would usher you into Gregory’s office, where the man himself, immaculately dressed and usually wearing a monocle, would greet you and point out the framed photographs of the crowned heads of Europe on his walls. They included the future King........

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