fromwww.theguardian.com
1 week agoPsst: wanna buy a new year's honour? Once it was simple. And now? Well, don't rule it out | Stephen Bates
A hundred years ago, if you wanted a knighthood, say, a baronetcy or even a peerage and, worthy or not, were prepared to pay for it, you called on a man named Arthur Maundy Gregory, who had set up in a large office almost directly opposite Downing Street. Liveried servants, their uniforms so closely modelled on those of House of Commons messengers that you could not tell the difference, would usher you into Gregory's office, where the man himself, immaculately dressed,
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