THE British like mileposts in their lives.

Whenever it is time for exam results to be published, everyone enjoys the annual debate about how they are meaningless and being dumbed down.

Similarly, whenever an honours list is published, everyone enjoys the annual debate about how meaningless they are and how their value has been dumbed down because anyone can get one by bunging a few quid to a political party.

Before we go any further, we should reiterate our dismay that Tony Blair's Government should be wrapped up in the loans for peerages scandal. This accusation of corruption at the highest level will, if proven, be one of the biggest stains on the Government's reputation.

But there is still something wonderfully eccentric about the rest of the honours system.

Even the names of the honours - Member of the British Empire, for example - are wonderfully odd as you can't really be a member of an empire that no longer exists.

No one really knows what you do to gain an honour, no one really knows how you are selected to receive one. No one can really explain why nurses and teachers don't qualify in droves for honours, but Rod Stewart does.

Yet usually those receiving an honour have dedicated themselves to their line of work or interest in an unstinting fashion that deserves some form of recognition.

And it must be wonderfully nice to receive one, to know that someone, somewhere, has noticed all your hard work, even if you can't quite put your finger on what that hard work might be.

So let's cherish the New Year's Honours list and stop this annual talk of wanting to replace it with some drab democratic affair devoid of eccentricity. Of course, the honours system is wonderfully meaningless, but it is the sort of wonderful nonsense that makes Britain Britain and like nowhere else in the world.