Saint Jacinda becomes a dame

‘I was in two minds about accepting this acknowledgment,’ says the now Dame Jacinda Ardern, reflecting on how ‘humbled’ she feels today to receive the Dame Grand Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. ‘For me this is a way to say thank you – to my family, to my colleagues, and to the people who supported me to take on the most challenging and rewarding role of my life.’

Rewarding, eh? Note Dame J’s use of the world ‘acknowledgment’ – rather than, say, honour – a deft nod to her republicanism. It also, with less subtlety, reveals a certain arrogance. Is it really ‘humbling’ to be merely ‘acknowledged’? Mr S thinks not. 

Ardern has come a long way. As leader of New Zealand’s Labour party, when campaigning to be prime minister in 2017, she suggested, albeit tentatively, that she would be quite happy ditching Queen Elizabeth as head of state, which presumably would mean scrapping the fusty (albeit updated) Commonwealth honours system, too.