Congratulations to them both, well deserved Iâm sure.
However, I canât help but think several of this years civilian honours recipients are perhaps not as well deserved. For me Iâve always believed that a knighthood should be given to one who has devoted exceptional service to whatever their cause, over the course of perhaps the majority of their life.
Far too many are handed out to celebrities for lesser achievements in their lifetime. While I agree that many of the Olympic athletes have sacrificed a great deal in order to represent their country in an ultimately very successful Olympic games, in my opinion this does not deserve a knighthood. All this does is devalues the merit of the honours given to those who truly deserve the accolade, probably such as the two gentlemen listed above.
Bradley Wiggins and other Olympic âheroesâ (as the media dubs them). Now donât get me wrong, Olympians have undoubtedly worked extremely hard to reach their level, sometimes in the cases of Paralympians and Olympians alike through considerable harship. They made London 2012, and you would have struggled to find someone who was shouting them on louder than me when they were fighting for the medals. However, their courageous efforts, in my mind, do not merit knighthoods. By all means award them MBEs/OBEs, but a knighthood? I think that demerits the work of those who have spent their entire lives devoted to a good cause.
As someone has put in the BBC article comments section:
âNo-one should receive any honour just for doing their day job, whatever it is. Honours should be for people who, as well as their normal work, put great efforts into something else that benefits their community, charities or mankind in general.â I perhaps could argue against the part about not receiving any honours for their day job, which they may have done for a long time and done exceptional things in their industry/service, however I believe for the most part it encompasses what Iâm trying to say.
The rest of the comments are at the bottom of this article, and most comments seem to work along the same lines as the one above: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20858353
There are a few others, such as Iâve read some comments about Tracey Eminâs CBE being a bit of a farce; however Iâm not really familiar with her work so I wouldnât like to comment.
[quote=âStand Outâ post=2297]As someone has put in the BBC article comments section:
âNo-one should receive any honour just for doing their day job, whatever it is. Honours should be for people who, as well as their normal work, put great efforts into something else that benefits their community, charities or mankind in general.â I perhaps could argue against the part about not receiving any honours for their day job, which they may have done for a long time and done exceptional things in their industry/service[/quote]
The problem is many public sector honours/knighthoods go with the rank/post/time served and Iâve never understood how that is justifiable. Also there are far too many political ones.
I think there is an imbalance in the whole system. You can get someone who has done all manner of good things for decades and eventually in their twilight gets the recognition, then there are the celebs/sportsmen\women who have then by luck on the day or been in the right film or programme and achieved something that they have been training/working to do and bingo an honour. I tend to overlook the chariteee work they do as much of that is IMO down to accruing a few more brownie points, theyâre far too busy training/competing/working to be there doing the real work. The people who should get the things are people who give up thousands of hours and spend their own money supporting and doing for charities and their communities. But these are little people and so not worthy, until they are on the verge of croaking.
A bloke (I knew) was nominated by his branch he raised many thousands of pounds for the poppy appeal, the hard way, ie outside shops in all weathers and door to door and not a thing. He passed away 18 months ago. This is why I think itâs an absolute disgrace that people get these things for doing their job, winnng medals, races, sports competitions, acting awards etc etc.
Were the deserving people ever nominated? If not, then thats why theyâve never had anything. So if you think someone is deserving, nominate them! Get support! From what I understand of the system, its not difficult, but everyone seems to think someone else will do it and then seem surprised when so and so doesnât get anything.
As for those sportspeople given knighthoods this time, theyâre not just doing their job, theyâre excelling at it consistently over many years and many competitions. Iâm failing to see a problem. Theyâre also doing work for charities and communities, but that isnât what we know them for, so people seem to forget or not know. As for politicians and to an extent civil servants, there needs to be more transparency, which I understood was something they tried to provide this year. It superficially seems to automatic, and shouldnât be. If theyâre deserving however, they should get them!
There are plenty awards to go around after all! The media focus on the celebs and sportspeople cos we know who they are, and ignore the vast majority of award recipients because we donât know who they are, but Iâm sure theyâll get publicity locally.
This is how gash the system is, taken from the nomination form notes âŚ
[quote]4 TIMING OF NOMINATIONS
There are no deadlines for the receipt of nomination forms, but their consideration is likely to take at least 12 to 18 months. This is because of the background work needed to assess a nomination.
Nominations should be made while the nominee is still active and, if possible, at least 12 months before he/she is expected to retire or stand down, because of the timeframe involved.[/quote]
Even though there are no supposed deadlines for receipt of noinations, our Olympic and sporting âheroes and heroinesâ had to have been already nominated (much egg on face if theyâd binned it) so that the background work can be done.
IMO this must only apply to minions, as I imagine many of the CS including military and celeb ones arenât done âproperlyâ and go through on a nod and a wink, to capture the moment. I stand to be corrected if this isnât the case. I donât know but there must be people in the admin depts of numerous organisations, submitting these all the time which probably why ordinary people doing there bit in the community donât get that much of a look in.
I think that far too often people get swept up in the emotion surrounding sporting and cultural activity. I imagine that if England win the Ashes next Winter, thereâll be a spate of O/MBEs for the team and staff in the Birtday Honours the following summer.
