Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

My northern honours list

[Getty Images] 
issue 03 June 2023

Exciting news arrives. The Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has let it be known that he wants more northerners nominated for honours, as part of the ‘levelling up’ programme to which this government is so deeply committed. This will change every-thing and I foresee a Conservative majority at the next election of at least 200. I thought that as The Spectator’s north of St Albans correspondent I should identify some of the brilliant northerners who will shortly be in receipt of OBEs, MBEs, knighthoods and what have you.

You don’t cure the problem of low wages simply by transferring a few Treasury posts up to Darlington

– Wayne Rafferty, aged 33, a pharmaceutical distribution executive from Manchester, who even at the height of the Covid pandemic ensured that his customers in Moss Side were fully supplied with fentanyl and horse tranquillisers. (CH)

– Norman Redwall, aged 79, from Mexborough, for innovation. Since 1963 Mr Redwall has refashioned dentures salvaged from the local crematoria and sold them cheaply to townsfolk.

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