Fairness needed in honours system

To maintain the integrity of the British royal honours system Freddie Goodwin, the former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, has been relieved of his knighthood by order of Queen Elizabeth II.

The Honours Forfeiture Committee, a statutory body of senior civil servants and government lawyers with the powers to recommend rescinding an honour, recommended the relegation of Sir Freddie to plain Mr Goodwin for bringing the awards system into disrepute over his actions as RBS boss.

Mr Goodwin had been deemed partly responsible for costing British taxpayers £45 billion and therefore the retention of his knighthood could not be sustained.

In June 2010, in response to the findings of the Saville Report into the killings of Bloody Sunday in which 14 innocent people were shot dead by British soldiers, British Prime Minister David Cameron, issuing an unqualified apology to those killed, injured and bereaved, described these killings as “shocking, unjustified and indefensible”.

Six months after Bloody Sunday, Lieut Col Derek Wilford, the officer commanding the Parachute Regiment which was responsible for these unlawful killings, was awarded an OBE. Forty years later he remains an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.

Can we take it that the Forfeiture Committee places a higher premium on lost money than lost lives?

Tom Cooper

Knocklyon

Dublin 16