… and who put the ‘Right’ into ‘Right Honourable’?

Another snippet from Quentin Letts’s analysis of the Privy Council (see previous post) revealed an interesting ambition on the part of Michael Portillo: to secure membership of this august yet mysterious body in order to become ‘Right Honourable’ rather than merely ‘Honourable’.  With current scrutiny of Parliament suggesting that most members are anything but honourable, Portillo’s ambition showed just how important a part titles and awards can play in marking our sense of achievement and recognition by society.  As he explained, while all MPs are deemed ‘The Honourable Member for …’, only Privy Councillors are entitled to style themselves ‘The Right Honourable’.  Portillo went on to say that getting a peerage or a knighthood was nothing when compared with the exclusivity of becoming able to style oneself thus.

As a useful counterpoint, Clare Short revealed a general contempt and cynicism for the whole process, so there are undoubtedly some who hold to Groucho Marx’s dictum of not caring for membership of any club that will have them as members.