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
Lot of truth there Nigel. Gongs for the doing of ones paid job are my particular gripe, whether it is some highly paid civil servant getting a Kindly Call Me God or a lollipop day, I'm afraid.
ReplyDeleteI see doing something groundbreaking as part of that job (eg major scientific breakthrough) a bit differently, I suppose, so I am sure I'm pretty hypocritical about the whole thing. It seems that a fair and just honours system is nigh impossible to achieve.