Once, upon hearing his opponent John Philpot Curran expostulate that he could be "the guardian of his own honour", Sir Boyle offered his "congratulations to the honourable member on his possession of a sinecure".
Letters are welcome via e-mail to [email protected] honourable justice?SIR – You claim that Robert Bork is "one of conservative America's smartest jurists" and imply that the blocking of his appointment as Ronald Reagan's nominee to the Supreme Court in 1987 by Democrats was unfair ("The battle begins", July 9th).
"My right honourable friend Sir Nicholas Soames, who is sitting next to me, and I have calculated that we have been in the house, collectively, for 56 years, and we have only ever, either of us, voted once against the Conservative whip," Letwin said.
The right honourable member for Woodford (Sir Winston Churchill) has warned them before.
He remains the only person to go through the entire declension of the British peerage, beginning as the honourable Arthur Wellesley, before becoming Sir Arthur, Baron Wellington, Viscount Wellington, Earl of Wellington, Marquis of Wellington and, finally, Duke of Wellington.
The value of that effort is due to the honourable and straightforward conduct of Sir Edward Grey, which did so much to localise the Balkan wars and to prevent the mobilisation in Austria and Russia from terminating in an explosion.
Bercow is usually fastidious about MPs' titles – in July he rebuked the Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, for addressing the veteran Labour MP Sir Gerald Kaufman as an "Honourable Gentleman" when he should have called him a "Right Honourable Gentleman" – but when addressing Sir Simon Burns, the Speaker either omits the title "Sir" or swallows the word so as to make it inaudible.
Ossie Wheatley, Jack Bond and Brian Taylor, county stalwarts but without a Test cap to share between them, were asked to take the honourable course and were replaced by Sir Leonard Hutton, Ken Barrington and Charlie Elliott.
"Sir Paul Stephenson yesterday made an honourable decision and took responsibility.
Sir Alan then remarked: "The honourable member has taken the easier way out".
