Honours List

[BTH K10A]

Just read through the latest honours list and as usual the vast majority of honours bestowed are for people just doing what, in most cases, they are very well paid to do, in other words their day job. :roll eyes:

Very few instances of true philanthropy or selfless deeds being rewarded.

[struth]

Aye. Jobs and titles for the boys as per usual. Was a time that a lot of that stopped but its getting uglier than usual again. Sad that folk who give much of their spare time and often their life to helping folk get nowt yet a businessman buys one

[Barry]

Agreed. I'm all for the bestowing of honours on those who have undertaken selfless acts of philathropy, or in improving the country's reputation in the world - but not for simply doing their (usually very well paid) job.

I take the same attitude to tipping.

[Joe]

People have whinged about the Honours List for as long as there's been such a thing. Essentially it's a means of rewarding, in a non-financial way, those who have served the Crown, or who have paid lots of money to political parties, or who have become 'national treasures' via the arts and sports. It always has been, and I'm always surprised that people are surprised by who gets the gongs.

[walpurgis]

People have whinged about the Honours List for as long as there's been such a thing. Essentially it's a means of rewarding, in a non-financial way, those who have served the Crown, or who have paid lots of money to political parties, or who have become 'national treasures' via the arts and sports. It always has been, and I'm always surprised that people are surprised by who gets the gongs.

Not really.

Until the late sixties honours were generally awarded on serious merit to worthy people who had given outstanding service to country and people.

The handing out of what were once prestigious honours, to showbiz faces of no great worth and the like, has demeaned the whole principle.

[Joe]

Not really.

Until the late sixties honours were generally awarded on serious merit to worthy people who had given outstanding service to country and people.

The handing out of what were once prestigious honours, to showbiz faces of no great worth and the like, has demeaned the whole principle.

People have long complained about this or that 'demeaning' the honours system. In the 1920's, for example Maundy Gregory openly arranged the sale of honours:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maundy_Gregory#Selling_honours

'Around 1918, Gregory approached the Liberal Party to arrange payments to the party in exchange for peerages. He was actually one of many to do this. David Lloyd George hired him as a broker to gather funding for the United Constitutional Party Lloyd George was planning to form.

At the time, prices for honours ranged from £10,000 (£310,000 today) for a knighthood to £40,000 (£1.24 million) for a baronetcy. Later estimates state that Gregory transferred £1–2 million (now £31–62 million) to the Liberal and Conservative parties. He earned around £3 million a year, which he used to buy the Whitechapel Gazette newspaper and considerable real estate, including the Ambassador Club in Soho and the Deepdene Hotel in Surrey'.

As far as showbiz 'faces' are concerned, George Robey was knighted as long ago as 1954.

[walpurgis]

You are talking about exceptions. Honours are handed out like lollipops now.