Alan Bates should certainly NOT be offered a knighthood.

He should be offered a Peerage to the House of Lords.

At least this would give him a public voice on the way this country is run, a privilege which very few of us ever have except through the readers letter’s columns of newspapers such as this..

A precedent has already been set for this by the elevation of Doreen Lawrence to a peerage for her tenacious fight for justice for her murdered son Stephen.

I am hardly a supporter of the existence of the ‘Upper House’ but as the old saying goes – “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em”.

I’m sure the £300 plus a day attendance fee would be most welcome for Mr Bates – he deserves it.

However, on the downside for him on this well earned elevation is that he will shortly, but more probably after the next general election, be joined on the red benches by Sir Ed Davey, along with the other long list of failed politicians intent on catching the same ‘gravy train’.

Edward Kynaston, Lydney