Iain, I think you’re reading too much into this. My guess is that Rushdie just appreciated the gesture. As he should. As to whether the notion of knighthood has declined, maybe, maybe not. It’s been a while since Agincourt. For a long time now, its award has mainly been a way whereby the UK (or, more accurately its governing class) has chosen to recognize ‘achievement’, a bauble interesting primarily as a sign of how the UK defines that term, a bauble that I shall be glad to accept at any time (hint, Your Majesty, hint). On a more serious note, the story to which Stanley links is quite remarkable. There is almost certainly a passage in Darkness at Noon that explains what is going on better than I ever could, but for now, I’ll just refer to a mathematical formula devised by another author: 2 + 2 = 5