“Why honour anyone who helps to catalyse this kind of catastrophe?”

The majority of people recently included in the New Year's Honours List were deserving cases, but a few caused controversy.

One, in particular, is Iain Duncan Smith, he of Universal Credit fame, seemingly honoured for pushing many a poor person beyond the bread line and into poverty and despair. Honestly, I give up!

Tory MP Jeremy Hunt, when competing against Boris in the leadership contest last summer, did concede, however, that Universal Credit has had "teething problems".

You bet it has, sonny boy!

People who fall foul of it can't afford to go to the dentist.

Well, NHS dentists do seem to be as rare as hen's teeth, so to speak.

Nor can they afford to sink their teeth into a decent amount of grub, or at least not without food banks.

So, why honour anyone who helps to catalyse this kind of catastrophe?

It is not often that words fail me, but they have on this occasion.