Sense of humour failure?
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I’m not embarrassed about wearing the blue suit at a youth club that heroic pilots and ground crew wear as part of their job… in for a penny in for a pound, may as well stick some bling on it!
I jest, sort of…
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Never believe rumours, but given the parlous state of the economy, if your wish comes true, the medal will be made of used tin plate with a black ribbon.
Already taken by the Order of St John. They could hang it from a strip of disposable facemask
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Memorialisation is being heavily discussed in the Cabinet Office. I was working during COVID, in the office where the proposal was being drafted. The paper presented to ministers doesn’t even mentioned Cadet Forces.
Proposals have a range of options, and a medal is just one of them.
But it is proposed to be for people who were appointed to directly support COVID response.
Remember though, medals cost money, and the Government have a lot of tough decisions coming up.
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That’s true.
The most cost effective option will be for Boris to stick out a TV advert asking all to get together for an extra-big clap.
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He does have a lot of experience of the clap
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I’d prefer a pay rise that reflects my skill set rather than a medal, although that has long term cost implications so that’s got even less chance of happening!
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By the time you have given all NHS employees, the armed forces, essential workers and the supply chain a medal that’s 50% of the Country or more.
You cant just give medals to Drs etc. Frankly the cleaners and porters are equally deserving.
More likely a national memorial.
Can I like the fact you deleted it?
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I don’t know why he did. It was a good point.
Apparently I am a key worker. (Not that the priority we get from government ever reflects that.)
But no way do I deserve a medal for case managing trials, or conducting employment tribunal trials all via video link in my shorts.
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I deleted it for a few reasons. I’d had a rough day at work and hadn’t thought through my reply properly, so I felt it didn’t properly explain my sentiment. I thought I sounded a bit pretentious and divisive.
I simply believe that a coronavirus medal would have to have a similar criteria to that of military campaign medals.
I’m not knocking the work of any key workers, we are all vital.
But some have taken more risks than others. A delivery driver for Sainsbury’s is vital, but he wasn’t like myself and my colleagues, face to face with covid19 everyday providing care and in many cases, end of life care. There’s definitely a difference.
As I said, I can list many NHS sectors that ceased face to face operations, so it wouldn’t be right that they got this medal.
How many of you have struggled to see your dentist in the past 6 months?
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If they do it it will be for the whole NHS, the uproar from the Nursing Unions alone would be deafening. Would this cheapen it for those who worked the Covid Wards? Absolutely but it would be a far less painful whinge than people missing out and you can guarantee a limited award would be messed up somewhere down the line. That’s before you even get to the other public sector workers,
Drawing the line is just going to be too difficult, hence why I don’t see a real medal happening, they will just do a “Gizzit” like they did for the Olympics which was basically a Gold coloured challenge coin in a presentation box.
Perhaps the NHS, collectively, could be awarded something - didn’t they give the GC to the Police Service of Northern Ireland some years back for their service during ‘The Troubles’?
This was raised as an option recently I believe.
Malta was awarded a medal for WW2 and yes PSNI was also.
Pay rises all round arent going to happen and a medal for everyone is pointless.
A national memorial, medal to the NHS as a whole and maybe a posthumous award to all key workers who died on duty.
Either that or mint a medal for use by whomever wants to private purchase it. Have all the services and organisations certify it for use.
I mean bluntly why is the sacrifice of doing ones job on a respiratory ward greater than the sacrifice of the mother with 3 kids diligently isolating during lock down in a 14th story micro flat?
Or a locum vs teachers.
Or the man down the road who delivered food parcels to every old person in the road for 3 months vs the work a virologist has done…
It is difficult to quantify one persons sacrifice vs another. Especially when it all has to be taken against the fact people in the NHS get paid to do a job.
It’s not slavery, dont like it. Change job. Dont want to go in, dont, but dont expect to get paid. Etc…
No job in this country is forced or in the bounds of slavery. Everyone is free to do a job they please and are renumerated for it accordingly.
As far as I can see, the only way to measure true ‘sacrifice’ is if someone has died on duty on a covid ward as part of doing their job. As that is above and beyond the terms and conditions of their contract.
But I am equally against civil servants being given knight hoods or medals simply for doing their job over a long period.
If this is truly desired, just make a civil service long service medal, much like the CFM. No need for a PPS to be given a knighthood just for being promoted and turning up to work.
State awards and medals are devalued enough.
Frankly, I think those in the community who hold down a day job, have a family and then still find time to run a youth group or support the elderly or run a soup kitchen are more deserving a medal than those just getting it for a paid for job.
Going to go mad, so will stop typing.
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There is one.
Very good.
It alone should be used.
** Tangent Warning **
I believe the thinking behind state honours for civil servants is that they serve as compensation for the lower salaries available in the public sector compared to people with similar responsibilities in the private sector.
The Head of the Home Civil Service (the Cabinet Secretary) is paid around £240,000 according to the latest figures. While that’s clearly a lot he leads an organisation of 500,000 and is partly responsible for a budget of about £700bn. The highest paid CEO in Britain (according to the info I can find) is Jeff Fairburn of Persimmon Homes who is paid £47,100,000. His company employs 5,000 people.
Obviously comparing salaries alone isn’t the best way of doing it but I think there is something to be said for compensating civil servants for accepting lower salaries in the interest of public service.
** Tangent Ends **
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It happened in France, so no reason why it can’t happen here.
This I would advocate for. I would prefer universal recognition because to me this is the most important thing, after all this is a national emergency.
I have to disagree. Delivering food and isolating at home has it’s own challenges, but it does not compare to working face to face with COVID19. I speak from experience here, I can assure you it is not.
I go back to my previous comments regarding other essential workers. It isn’t a case of someone not liking their job, but if you are going to give out something like a medal then it has to have a criteria otherwise it is devalued. Again, I’d rather something more universal than a medal to avoid division and argument.
That’s very much for those in the administrative grades. My step mother has it and says it’s a reward for inadequacy. “Well done on 25 years service without any real promotion”.
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