Again this time we have "honours" to Joe Smug for services to the film / entertainment / music / you-name-it industry.
These recipients get well paid for doing their jobs - where exactly does the special service part come in to it? Do you get a better honour if your TV show is repeated more often.
Enough is enough.
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Haven't looked at the list so don't know who you might be referring to in particular (if anyone), but aren't they usually given to people who have put a bit more in eg. made use of their celebrity status to do a fair bit for charity?
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Did they ignore you again DE? Better luck next year.
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Is there a category for timely humour?
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>> Did they ignore you again DE? Better luck next year.
>>
At least he is not alone. Form a queue ?
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Well SWMBO refuses to be called "Dame", she says it sounds like a part in a pantomime or a line from a 50s American film, so I had to turn mine down.
John
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Quote from the Western Telegraph -
"David Walter Jones of Cardigan is also made an MBE for his services to ploughing in Wales."
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>> "David Walter Jones of Cardigan is also made an MBE for his services to ploughing in Wales."
>>
IMO he did too shallow a job. Do others share my comment ?
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That's a harrowing question.
John
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He harvested a gong; good luck to him.
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Must've caused a few furrowed brows though.
Last edited by: Humph D'Bout on Fri 31 Dec 10 at 16:22
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I expect it was his specialist field.
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Perhaps the grass greener in that particular field.
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I don't mind people receiving MBEs for volunatry work. Some reward encourages others..
I do strongly object to people being given Honours for doing their jobs. They are paid to do that.
I object vehemntly to having to call someone "Sir" or "Lord" and will not as a principle...As for making someone a "Sir" ... well it's about 100 years out of date.
As for giving any politician any honours at all,,,,, as most of them watched their colleagues steal money from us and said and did nothing - and they must have known - none deserve anything.
I would, howver. support voluntray jail sentences for MPs.
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Oh come on. Has no one any sense of tradition? Is it not understood after all these centuries that aristocracy and royalty, with which our highly individual parliamentary democracy is deeply entangled, are founded in the first instance on successful and cunning armed thuggery, backed up by a justice system and petty administrators all marching more or less in step, or woe betide them, to maintain that unstable thing, order?
Dukedoms for pirates, peerages for suppliers of mules to mediaeval armies, knighthoods for crooked aldermen and hanging magistrates, have always been part of the fun in our knockabout system, an aid to social mobility. The correct attitude to these things is a certain shamelessness. Small modest gongs for doing one's job are a civil service tradition. Ex-Prime Ministers get courtesy baronies these days. To the outside world it probably looks a bit Hobbitish, but mainstream Brits have always quite enjoyed it, without necessarily taking it too much to heart. Although I have always been a somewhat left-wing person and no big respecter of rank, I like to see the smile on the face of a deserving gong recipient. Public agonising over accepting an honour, or rudely and publicly turning one down, are in quite bad taste in my opinion. Many of my nearest and dearest would disagree though.
'Arise, Sir Gengulphus... (snigger)'
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I have just remembered a rather embittered verse on the theme of my own indebtedness and other people's usury that I wrote in the early seventies, called '58%'. I won't burden you with much of it but it ended:
Lord Thief, Lord Crook, Lord Chiseller, Lord Devious, Lord Bent,
I see you in your Rollses
As I walk in Hong Kong sneakers
All the way through W1 to pay my 58%...
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Crooked politicians and homicidal judges are one thing, but it all went down the pan when the Beatles got their MBEs.
I'd have sent mine back at the time, if I'd had one.
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Beatles were big foreign currency earners. Made us look good in the manner of the time. You know, Lunging Swindon or whatever it was called.
People grumbled at the time including I seem to remember my own father. But showbiz had to be in the honours system - always was with actors from quite early on - because the British go in for it and are good at it.
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I might have known it was something a grubby as money.
How unspeakably rude.
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Here is the speech the Queen would REALLY have liked to make!
(Warning - NSFW - contains lots of profanity and is hugely disrespectful)
tinyurl.com/33ej9vw
Last edited by: landsker on Fri 31 Dec 10 at 18:41
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She got Fergie spot on...
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Quote:
"Cadbury workers will be "surprised and disappointed" by the knighthood awarded to the businessman who sold the British chocolate-maker to US food giant Kraft, a union has said.
Roger Carr, 64, who is also chairman of British Gas owner Centrica, was recognised in the New Year Honours List for services to business.
But the gong sparked controversy after a year in which he presided over a huge increase in profits and a customer price hike at British Gas as well as the hotly disputed takeover of Cadbury."
Well deserved I'm sure !
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Dulwich Estate said:
>> Well deserved I'm sure !
You cynical devil. I quote the BBC "As usual, the majority of the 998 honours go to ordinary people for work in their community. " So there you go. And they then give a list of ordinary people who have been awarded MBE's. Mmmm. Perhaps the MBE is for the ordinary person who does huge amounts unpaid, and the person who is paid a fortune to be a senior civil servant gets an knighthood or a CBE. I've met someone who got an MBE for contributions to a nature trust. He and his wife do huge amounts unpaid for a nature trust, and they are now in their eighties and still working regularly, even though she struggles to get about. An MBE seems a rather minor reward in comparison to work by singers et al.
I tend to agree with you. The idea that someone gets a gong for being successful in their chosen career, such as singing, or the civil service, is a tad whiffy. If an ordinary person gets an OBE for services to a charity, that is great, but do we see that? I do think it right that a 'celebrity' gets a reward for helping a charity, in part because it might encourage more to do likewise.
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Can't abide the whole system...I just don't see any point in it, especially in times when we lesser mortals have to pull our belts a bit tighter and just get on with it.
Not enthralled by all the hereditory stuff either.
The official opening of our new breakdown control centre was by a very senior Royal.
Cousin of the Queen, no less...chinless wonder in my book.
So glad it was my day off....I don't intend to bow to anyone. I'd have probably been sacked for calling him Mush or Mate.
I had enough of saluting people in a previous life.
Ted
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Another thing that really nobs me off is when Prince Whoever, being presented with servicemen, has to be seen to ' out-medal ' them with all sorts of spurious, unearned gongs....' The Order of the Turnip of Penge ' or whatever.
Wear a plain lounge suit and let the lads have their day....for a change !
Ted
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Volunteering for charity, local youngsters for may be 30 years @ say 10-15 hrs per week.
What is the benefit to me / socirty - well may be the boy who was going to go off the rails stayed within the law and did not spray paint your car, steal your radio. He took up boxing, got order in his life etc ..................for the efforts of the volunteers we should be thankful.
As for giving a senior civil servant, policemen on £150,000 a year a gong for doing his / her job forget it.
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KNIGHTHOOD
The doctor in charge of treating injured soldiers flown back from Afghanistan and Iraq has received a knighthood in the New Year's Honours.
Professor Keith Porter, from the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine in Birmingham, said it was a "great honour" to be recognised
He could have spent 30 years doing "evening shifts" removing gall bladders @ £1,000 / operation @ your local BUPA Hospital - instead he is looking after those who are fighting for their lives....................he deserves a medal
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And he made sure he acknowledged all those who helped him when the interviewed him on Breakfast TV as well.
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>>
>> Another thing that really nobs me off is when Prince Whoever, being presented with servicemen,
>> has to be seen to ' out-medal ' them with all sorts of spurious, unearned
>> gongs....' The Order of the Turnip of Penge ' or whatever.
>>
Reminds me of the episode of Dads Army when it came to light that Mainwaring didn't have any, Ted!
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I did the same when a royal knob visited the company I worked at. I could not stomach having to kow tow to such as person, or to watch others licking his backside. I do wonder if a lot of people took that day off. I think it was the Duke of Kent, not that I know what he does. These types seem rather distasteful to me, and giving them huge numbers of gongs devalues the gongs, making them a joke.
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...think it was the Duke of Kent, not that I know what he does...
If you don't pay the Duke of Kent, you'll get evicted.
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It was the Dook of Kent in my case, Leif. I think he was/is the patron of the firm I worked for.
I wonder how much mazoola he gets for that....I'd have done it for half !
I commend your attitude.
Ted
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I don't suppose the Duke of Kent expects anyone to kow tow to him. He did in fact have a military career that stretched over 20 years.
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>> I don't suppose the Duke of Kent expects anyone to kow tow to him.
I expect he does. And I expect that his fawning minions do too.
>> He did in fact have a military career that stretched over 20 years.
I'll leave it to his soldiers and commanding officers to assess how good a soldier he was. He may have been a good one. But I find it hard to take the royals seriously gvien that they get promotions and opportunities based on social position and not merit. For example Prince Harry and Prince William both trained to fly helicopters, and I expect that there is normally stiff competition for such an opportunity. It seems that they get whichever job they want. Were I in one of the armed forces, I would definitely not want to serve under a royal. And look at their very modest academic achievements, which is all the more astonishing given that they were spoon fed at some of the countries most expensive schools.
Last edited by: Leif on Sat 1 Jan 11 at 12:39
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Why would anyone 'kow tow' to anyone else anyway regardless of who they are.
Be respectful and polite to them, yes, well i behave like that with everyone i meet unless their behaviour proves they are not similarly well mannered people...their social position or apparent wealth matters not a jot.
I really don't quite understand the extreme views some can have of the royals, some seem to have a venomous green hued hatred, whilst the other extreme act as if they are somehow godlike, maybe the sort who hero worship anyone in the public eye.
As for their or anyone else's achievements, engagements, births etc i couldn't be more disinterested, i don't read newspapers (bar the odd foray onto one of the free online ones) and avoid TV as much as possible, so good for the mind to be propaganda free.
Why do people take such an interest in them if they can't stand them, ignore them.
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This thread is quite funny... After getting told not to get wound up about rear fog lights I see people doing the same thing about the Royals (or is it The Royles?!)... :-)
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Not really apropos of awards but I had a quiet admiration for the son of Princess Anne when the birth of his son was announced. Why? Simply because I have never heard of him, didn't know he existed. I've hear of Zara, but then she was in the Olympics and is more than just a bit of a looker, just the sort the papers like to talk about. Can't "blame " her for being in the public eye. It would seem (in my ignorance of such things) that he is just getting on with his life. Which made it all the more strange when, a few hours later (I can be a bit slow at times) it registered on me that his Canadian wife had renounced her Catholic faith so that he would not lose his place in line. Now, unless he plans on making Alec Guinness look like an amateur, who is he kidding?
John
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He's only ever one big gas explosion or plane crash at the world's biggest council house (it's on the Heathrow flight path, after all) from the throne.
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I see an article in the paper today saying Prince Chuck has spent the last 20 years trying to make the Royal incomes a private matter and not subject to public or parliamentary scrutiny.
Good for him....we all need whatever income we have protected from the taxman, etc in these hard times !
Might be able to afford another gas-guzzling Aston if it all turns out well for him !
Ted
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Ah now, be fair, his first was pedal powered! :-)
John
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One of my jobs today was to go through the whole list so the head serag can write and congratulate recipients in our field of work. I found four. Three were certainly deserving but the jury's split on the last!!
Still too many senior awards, particularly in the Orders of the Bath, seem to go to senior Civil Servants etc. At least one of the recipients has been in the post mentioned in the awards list less than a year. On the other hand those in the Order of the British Empire do seem mostly to have gone to ordinary people doing excellent work in a wide variety of fields.
It’s very easy to dismiss those for people in government service as being for nothing more than doing their job. I’ve seen the process for the odd one over the years; the recipients were mostly people who’d done an exceptional job delivering policies or projects at a level beyond expectations. The sort of work that might otherwise be recognised by a merit scheme or bonus payment. I also suspect others were nominated but refused.
The biggest hurdle perhaps is to have a boss who actually thinks in terms of nominations for honours; most of us never do.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Tue 4 Jan 11 at 13:22
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Totally archaic. How can Terry Wogan be a Sir ? He comes from a Catholic background from the Republic of Ireland, a country that suffered horrendous atrocities under various Royal Houses - how does that work ?
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>> a Catholic background from the Republic of Ireland, a country that suffered horrendous atrocities under various Royal Houses - how does that work ?
That was then PU. This is now.
All the rationalist piffle that appears on this site on this and related subjects puts me in the embarrassing position of wanting to defend the incomprehensible and virtually indefensible. Usually though I keep shtum because it would anyway be wasted breath.
Put it this way: if you can get your head round a lawyer doing his utmost to exculpate an utter villain whom he knows to be guilty, can't you try a similar sleight-of-brain with Wogan and his K? Pretty easy I would have thought.
You guys remind me of monkeys tearing a mouse limb from limb to see how it works. When you've finished, it won't work of course. Serve you damn well right when the chief purple-bummed baboons hire a substitute in the form of an enormous, diseased rat.
Tchah!
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Tue 4 Jan 11 at 14:05
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Fair enough. Still don't agree with Honours -I think I'm allowed that. :-)
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>> Totally archaic. ?
>>
But what do the people, like the ploughman mentioned above or those doing unspecified service in the community thnk?
Presumably, since they accept the honour, they approve. Knighthoods and some of the titles of the orders could do with modernising but how?
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Honours should only be given to those who made personal sacrifices for the greater good.
Those who did their jobs well are merely fulfilling the terms of their contract.
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New Year Honours - time to end the farce ? - Focusless
