The Order of St Patrick also has no business being dormant so long as Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom.
Only prime ministers who have served a full term – be that four years or one parliament – should be entitled to make such nominations.
The awards are understandably concentrated on the fight against Covid-19, but Oliver Lewis and Earl Howe are also recognised.
This is a less politically significant list than the recent one, but it recognises an important Parliamentary figure in the campaign for Brexit.
My open letter to the Prime Minister proposes the award to recognise the astonishing efforts of those working for our healthcare system.
This is a carefully-calibrated balancing exercise that honours two rebels who have recently come home.
Whichever adviser wrote May’s joke about his knighthood is likely now in his shoes after the publication of her resignation honours list.
The former award explodes the conspiracy theory that honours are being given only to backers of May’s deal.
A Brexiteer backbencher and former minister, who has not yet signalled how he intends to vote on the deal, has been knighted.
There has been a tendency to suppose that because Britain’s power has declined in relative terms they must have become totally useless.
The honours appear to be some compensation for both men having been shuffled out of government roles over the summer.
I called publicly for the collective award of the GC to the NHS fully 15 months ago – within a month of the nation going into its first lockdown.