Stanley suggests a “lefty like Rushdie” accepted his knghthood to demonstrate how acceptable his work is. That may well be a part of it, but I suspect it is more that the Left has now so completely captured the great institutions of the British state — the Church, the Civil Service, the Ancient Universities and so on — that a knighthood is now seen as an important part of the career leftist’s cursus honorum. The Paternalist Left now dominates the British Establishment as completely — perhaps more completely — than the Paternalist Right once did. Their invented, superficial culture excludes any concept of heritage. The Knighthood is no longer an Order of Chivalry, but the modern equivalent of the Hero of Socialist Labor. They were talking about knighting David Beckham, for goodness’ sake.