The New Year Honours List prompts a look back at a mixed 2017

The New Year Honours List always prompts a vigorous debate about the merits or otherwise of some of the individuals selected, and of the honours system itself. That debate is healthy and democratic, even if the honours system itself may not always be.

The awards to politicians tend to prompt the most criticism. This year knighthoods for Conservative MPs – Graham Brady, Christopher Chope and Geoffrey Clifton-Brown – are just about balanced by those for two Labour MPs, Mark Hendrick and Lindsay Hoyle, and a former Liberal Democrat MP, Nick Clegg.

The Independent has little interest in such political honours. Our indifference is stirred slightly by Mr Brady’s imminent upgrade. As the chair of the 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers he is an important part of the substructure of the Prime Minister’s power. If her position as leader of the party is challenged, Sir Graham will be the umpire in that contest. It does not seem right for the Queen, on the advice of her Prime Minister, to confer an honour upon him at this stage.

However, our indifference is also set aside a little – in his favour – for Mr Clegg. He was Deputy Prime Minister after all, and if political honours are to be handed out at all, he has a better claim than most. It was, perhaps, only after the coalition government ended in 2015 that we were able to appreciate the extent to which the Liberal Democrats acted as a brake on the worst instincts of the Conservatives.

When David Cameron and George Osborne were given free rein in the short-lived government of 2015-17, for example, they announced deep cuts in welfare spending. If we are prompted by the Honours List to look back over 2017, it is worth noting that the inconclusive result of the election in June had a similar restraining effect on the Conservative Party.

It was one of the small mercies of the year that some of Theresa May’s worst ideas – the dementia tax, more academic selection and the return of fox hunting – were dropped, as her party was once again deprived of its parliamentary majority.

We are also prepared to lift our doubts about political honours for the winner of that election, Professor Sir John Curtice, the genius of the exit poll, which once again proved extraordinarily accurate. Many congratulations to him.

Some controversy has also been generated, as we look back over 2017, by the failure to recognise in the Honours List the bravery of the emergency services in the terrorist attacks during the election campaign and in the Grenfell Tower fire after it.

We understand that the wheels of the machinery of protocol turn exceedingly slow, and that the deadline for nominations for today’s honours was in some cases as early as March, but that merely points up one of the absurdities of the process. Despite repeated attempts to modernise and democratise the honours system, it remains cumbersome and slow to respond to public opinion.

As for Ringo Starr, however: his knighthood is totally deserved. A happy new year to you, Sir Ringo.