“A mysterious, shadowy world that no one knows much about.” That’s how one journalist described her view of the honours system to me.

Now, before you go imagining a Dan Brown novel with robed figures giving passwords to enter secret locations, it’s a lot more workaday than that.

The honours system is a series of committees made-up of well-intentioned, clever people who go through each nomination and recommend who gets each type of gong or title. And it’s usually pretty good: if you know anybody who’s been given an OBE or an MBE, the chances are they thoroughly deserve it.

But all those committees happen behind closed doors, which means it’s hard to tell if their decisions are quite as transparent and merit-based as we’d all hope.

And if you add the political ‘resignation honours’ which retiring Prime Ministers have produced for generations on top, there’s always a suspicion that it’s more about who you know than what you’ve done.

So last week I suggested a way for Ministers to modernise the system. If we’re using a points-based immigration system to choose the best and brightest from around the world to admit into the UK, why not apply the same principle to choosing the best and brightest in the UK to get honours?

That way, points would be awarded based on talent, ability, and hard work, and nothing else. It would be crystal clear why each person deserved their title. And we’d have an honours system that’s bang up to date for modern, meritocratic Britain where it doesn’t matter where you’re from or who your parents are, but what you’ve achieved under your own steam instead.

Ministers thought the idea was a bit too radical, but I reckon it would be a fairer and cleaner system too. Maybe I’ll manage to persuade them next year instead…