Alan Bates deserves more than a knighthood; he could redefine public service for peers.
Read the article by Marina Hyde in the Guardian, where she writes, "The PM says the campaigner should have a knighthood, but why stop there? He could show feckless peers what public service looks like."
She adds, "Bates’s 20-year campaign for justice for post office operators has finally got the recognition it deserves thanks to ITV’s extraordinarily consciousness-raising drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office. But why not offer him a peerage?"
And of course, "None of which is meant to imply that all peers are workshy or venal or self-aggrandising – very far from it."
Marine Hyde also notes, " Isn’t he precisely the sort of person most people would like to have in an upper chamber worth its salt? Dogged, steely, unshowy, and unemotional by design, Bates is almost tailor-made of the characteristics we ought to seek in public servants. (Whether or not he’d want the role is naturally a separate issue.)."
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Thank you again for reading this piece, and full credit to Marina Hyde, for her piece in the Guardian.