BECAUSE THE KNIGHT: Why would people want Mick Jagger to be knighted? What would knighting the guy accomplish? Here’s my take:

1) I’m not sure why artists get knighted in the first place, rather than reserving the honor for people who, you know, perform heroic acts or similar. But that said,

2) There’s a big difference between knighting (or whatever the equivalent is for women–you can see that I don’t follow this sort of thing) Agatha Christie, and knighting, say, Jean Genet. If you make your name slagging the Establishment, why should you want its favors? If your whole shtik is what a downtrodden, alienated, street-fightin’ man you are–all your Satanic sympathies and so forth–doesn’t it defeat the purpose if you get knighted? I mean, imagine John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) getting knighted.

And finally, 3) While obviously you can’t expect everyone who gets knighted to be a moral exemplar, I think you can expect him to eschew rampant sleaziness. I like the Rolling Stones’ music a lot, but why should people be rewarded for $#@!ing up in public?