New .years .Honours

It would be interesting to sit in on the various committee meetings who decide who actually get an award. I gather that many more people are nominated than get an award in the end. Men in grey suits horse trade among themselves who is or is not lucky in any particular year...

I so agree with NanKate it's a travesty that Mary Berry is not a Dame. And sports people are awarded gongs at a younger and younger age, whilst people who have been pursuing their careers for a long time are often ignored or awarded something just before they 'pop their clogs'.

I agree the system is outdated, Ringo Starr --- well! at least Sir Paul writes lovely music and entertained.
Honours should go to people like the Grenfell Towers rescuers, and others in the emergency services, yes they are doing their jobs too, but what different jobs!

I agree with paddyann that the honours as they stand are part of the out of date monarchy system. We haven't had an empire to be a member of for years. As has been said it also smacks of cronyism, we are supposed to have a democracy and I don't believe MPs should be rewarded with knighthoods. Perhaps a different system of acknowledging ordinary folk who give a lot to their communities? BTW dj I saw Danny Boyles "Alternativity". Very heartwarming and an a insight in how things are for ordinary families in the West Bank. I didn't know Danny Boyle refused a knighthood, good for him.

I’ve been a nurse for 40 years and washed more bums than I care to think about. Think I should be honoured ?

For any one of them I think ‘rubbish ‘. Everyone was paid handsomely for the work that they did. I spent 44 years working as a nurse and a teacher, I was paid for doing that, that was my reward. Giving out ‘honours ‘ is dishonourable to everyone else who has worked hard.

I agree. What's one man's meat is another man's poison. It's not right to say ballet dancers are deserving but not modern dancers. Some modern day song writers are as gifted as poets.

Nurses (qualified ones) don't wash bums anymore trooper

Didn’t The Beatles return an honour in their youth? Paul and Ringo are happy to accept them now.

Lazigirl the ones who nursed me (staff nurses) were not above washing 'bums' - and very kind and lovely they were too.

We only hear about the famous ones, so I hope that some of the heroes (and am I allowed to say heroines?) of the past year have received honours too.

I do know a few people who have received honours in the past, usually an MBE or OBE, some more deserved than others imo.

I don't know who said it, but if Darcy Bussell hadn't 'dumbed down' most people wouldn't have heard of her!
Surely they had heard of her when she was dancing even if they had never seen her perform?

I thought people had to be recommended for honours.
We always thought that someone we know who got an OBE recommended himself several times
Someone else whom we know who did sterling work for charity for over 40 years was recommended several times but had never got anything to my knowledge.

Seems Ringo Starr does a lot of work for AIDS charities and something to do with mines

So perhaps his is deserved then, out of all the Beatles; another famous person who quietly gets on with helping others without virtue signalling, as George Michael did.

From a local paper:

In total 1,123 people will be given an award, of whom 70 per cent will go to people who have undertaken outstanding work in or for their local community.

In the absence of an honours system, something else would have to be devised to trigger a biannual outbreak of moaning which brings the nation together.

Thank you Jalima, so 70% of the honours go to those unknown to us, for me if a pop star gets one and a few politicians then fine, I am happy for the 70%

Wonder how a list of refuseniks could be published? Anyone know?

Yes, it is heartening to know that most honours go to those who are relatively unknown, except perhaps in their local communities.

Perhaps we needed something to bring us all together, grumppa!

Isn't that brexit, grumppa. That'll go on for ever.

docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AonYZs4MzlZbdG9mbm5mZGVqVXBmbDRYNkprczM1QUE

A list of refusers for you, Newquay.
There are others.

I think L S Lowry refused the most over his lifetime.

Nooo djen, grumppa mentioned bringing the nation together not tearing it apart!

The weather usually does the trick

This is why Benjamin Zephaniah turned his down.

OBE, me? Up yours, I thought...I get angry when I hear that word “empire”; it reminds me of slavery, it reminds of thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalised.

It's an outbreak of moaning to beat all others, though, Jalima.
Mention of the honours system does not bring everybody together; some like it, some don't.

Jon Snow turned one down, then investigated the system.

Having been offered an OBE in 2000, and turned it down at the very least because I was a working journalist, I was motivated to find out more about how the whole thing worked.