Why are politicians referred to as "The Honorable...."?

[red750]

Why are politicians referred to as "The Honorable...."? I don't think there's an honorable one amongst them. I thought I knew one, but recently that was shattered if reports are correct.

[old man emu]

If you dig into it, honourable just means a person who has gained the respect of others. Way back when, a person who ran for a seat in parliament had to have the respect of those who voted for their representative. The candidate had to be a person worthy of admiration. 

 

All Members of the 1st Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia were granted the privilege by the King to use the title 'Honourable' for life within the Commonwealth of Australia. The members of parliament voted not to use this title for ordinary members, but only for members of the Executive Council - the Ministers. When being addressed in the House, members are addressed as 'honourable member for", or as a group "honourable members". You can infer the derision in the term when the Speaker is trying to call a rowdy House to order and used a form "Honourable Members will .." The Speaker is really saying "If you were honourable people you would ...."

 

And in writing this, Google spellcheck kept highlighting "honourable" as a misspelling. Blood Yanks!

 

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Just been checking the history of a large rectangle of land I'll be flying around in the morning.

Two hundred years ago a whole lot of British MPs voted their company the right to steal that huge block from other people. Perhaps they needed that title to mask their totally dishonourable behaviour.

 

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

OK, OK.. tell us more! Which rectangle.. What in my pursuit of the abridged and likely biased  version of Aussie History I did in HSC did I miss out on?

Edited September 4, 2020 by Jerry_Atrick

[Old Koreelah]

32 minutes ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

OK, OK.. tell us more! Which rectangle.. What in my pursuit of the abridged and likely biased  version of Aussie History I did in HSC did I miss out on?

 

If you look at this region in Google Earth, it possible to still make out the boundaries of the quarter-million acres that British members of Parliament granted themselves.

The collossal corruption involved in this operation might today embarrass even Donald Trump, but it seems two hundred years ago it was acceptable for politicians to pass legislation that made themselves incredibly rich at the expense of others.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Agricultural_Company