The United Kingdom Honours List

As anybody who knows me will testify twice a year when the honours are announced I get into Mr Angry mode and start having a rant on Social Media, well as my rantings will never change anything I thought lets just get it on a blog that I can recycle every January and June,so here they are for perpetuity .

1. Big Gongs and Little Gongs

Irrespective initially of who gets the gongs how about we look at the ranking system, Knighthoods,Damehoods and Peerages go to the "Great and the good",MP's,Civil Servants,famous people in the arts and sport,head teachers etc etc.When was the last time you heard of a Mrs Miggins of Balaclava Terrace Penge who had raised millions for charity through tireless efforts over 50 years get a K,no if lucky maybe a CBE but more than likely an MBE because she's a pleb who should know her place.

2. Gongs For Doing Your Job

Services To Industry,Services To Music, Services to Politics etc etc we hear it every time and what it means is getting an honour for the state for doing your job.Well sorry you're paid to do your job and do it to the best of your ability so it doesn't matter if you are a Captain Of Industry earning tens of millions of pounds a year or a lollipop lady why happens to have been doing the job for a while its your job you get paid for it so no gong.

3. Gongs As Retirement Presents

Mp's who have managed to lose their seats , Civil Servants retiring on a whopping pension that we pay for its all the same,no you are not supposed to become Sir Or Lady something or other just because you know longer have a job,Fred Smith who worked on the buses for 30 years wont get one and neither should you

4. So Who Should Get Them

To my mind its fairly simple you get honoured by the nation for going the extra mile,for the people who give of "THEIR OWN TIME" to help others,who raise the millions for various charities out the goodness of their hearts. This of course excludes the famous who are just the name up front getting a bit of publicity, its good of you guy's and girls to lend your names to a good cause but unless you get your hands dirty don't expect to get anything but a thank you

People in Sport , no not the Davids's and Johnny's of this world the unsung who spend night after night helping kids and adults fulfill their potential or even just ensure they have a team to play for at the weekend.

Those who help in crisis ridden parts of the world,no sorry not you Lenny or David or Gary it's great that you draw people's attention to these things and thank you for that but sorry it's not worth a gong,I mean those who to go to Africa and Nepal and all other places that are hit by famine and natural disaster and actually work in the field tirelessly and for free,some as in the Ebola crisis risk their lives to help others

So no doubt I have missed out many deserving people this is just a few fleeting thoughts and I know it will have no effect because whilst Sir Lenny Henry makes a good headline Sir Lenny Smith who actually physically raised millions for good causes doesnt. Thats not to say the great and the good couldn't still get gongs,Ian Botham a prime example because he didn't just support John O Groats to Lands End or In The Footsteps Of Hanibal he actually did it.

Anyhow that's it off my chest and feel free to comment

My Supposed Dislike Of All Things Modern

It was intimated to me the other day on social media than in addition to my default grumpiness that I had a dislike of all things modern, well I suppose I must hold my hands up to modern football,modern football commentators (Especially Robbie Savage and Stan Collymore) ,modern football managers all at the highest level.

I'm certainly not enamoured with modern politicians so many of whom appear to be in it for what they can make rather than being there because they  feel they have a duty to serve (All aficionados of the West Wing will note the Ainsley Hayes reference)

And talking of the West Wing modern television, don't get me going on an endless round of "Reality" television with a load of Z list celebrities instead of the plethora of quality drama comedy and documentaries that used to abound in my youth.

So there we are Cliffy reinforcing the fact that he is a grumpy old sod wishing the world had stopped at the end of the 70's

Well hold on a sec the above may be true but there are do many things about but he modern world that is as good as or better than it was in my youth, firstly the way you are reading this,t'internet, a vast repository of information way better than Ceefax and so much more convenient than the library.

And then there's photography as so many know my great love, yes I still drool over the look of cameras of the past but as far as useable instruments go today's DSLR's wipe the floor with what I use to use and I can process the shots without being locked in a dark room and show them to the world shortly after taking them,although some may say that's a negative

And so many more things,the proliferation of real ale, food from around the world and especially cars that don't break down every time you even thing of going on a long journey

Yes there is plenty I miss from the past but I don't live in it