Government departments have been asked by Downing Street to urgently identify and put together honours nominations to reward “unity and defiance” to this month’s riots. Guido can reveal that Starmer has instructed civil servants to find “community leaders” who “made sure targeted groups felt safe” and members of the public who showed “community spirit.” Departments are also told to consider public sector workers who went “above and beyond” in their response to the unrest. The latest in the PM’s project to fill his “societal black hole”…
Extraordinarily, departments were only informed of this “urgent commission” yesterday with a deadline to submit nominator forms by… Friday 30th August. Permanent Secretaries will then take this weekend to submit finalised nominations by Monday 2nd September. Civil servants have been told that the process is on “extremely tight timescales” and that “Citations are not expected to be as detailed as usual, given the time frame.” Reducing the usual timeline for background checks for nominations…
This suggests the civil service is in a massive rush to get the list sorted in time for the upcoming New Year Honours. The usual selection process takes 12 to 18 months – this has been given 3 days. Hardly enough time to follow due process. One sceptical Westminster insider says: “Typical – Starmer has created a two-tier honours system, rushing it through for political advantage, the King could end up handing a gong to a wife-beater”.
UPDATE: The Cabinet Office says anyone can nominate someone for an honour at any time. Not at the specific request of Starmer to Permanent Secretaries with a 3-day deadline, though…
Statement by Paul Dacre, Editor-in-Chief of Associated Newspapers Limited, following Harry’s loss in court today:
“Prince Harry wrote a sad book which boasted about his killing of 25 Taliban, his drug-taking and, in cringe-making detail, how he lost his virginity. There isn’t a laundry in the cosmos big enough to wash all the dirty linen he has aired about his own family. For him, to complain about HIS privacy being invaded takes, not just the biscuit, but the whole tin. Poor Harry. I feel sorry for the way a confused and angry young man has been drawn into this case. The bitter irony is that his mother, Diana, liked the Mail. We were her paper. We took her side in her acrimonious break up with Charles. She and I would speak and meet. The Mail’s superb royal reporter was her friend and confidante. The truth is that this trumped-up action – which has cost well over £50 million and wasted a huge amount of valuable court time – should never have been brought to trial. That it did, raises profoundly disturbing questions about the conduct of elements of the legal profession. Today’s verdict is not just a victory for Associated’s magnificent journalists – several of whom have had a terrible toll imposed on their health and lives – but a free press generally. Make no mistake. This was a conspiracy, supported by Hacked Off, to destroy a paper. Financed by the orgy-loving, racist Max Mosley and involving the actor Hugh Grant, it was also a sinister bid to resuscitate Leveson Two and impose statutory regulation on the press which, even now, is rearing its ugly head in Labour’s Media Green Paper.”