The Honours thread 1: Until 2022


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btsnyder

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I got to thinking about this today when I was listening to a news report about Sir Elton John's upcoming civil marriage to his long-time partner David Furnish.

Female spouses of baronets and knights in the United Kingdom are entitled to use the style "Lady". Sir Elton, as a Commander of the British Empire would be afforded that courtesy if he were married to a woman. I assume that same-sex partners of knights/dames or baronets will not be etitled to a specific style. Has anyone heard anything about this and what the law will be?
 
Is a civil union equal to a marriage under law?
 
You know, I'm not sure. I''m not sure if it's equal to the civil unions we have here in many of the States, or if it's more in line with what exists in the Netherlands and Belgium, etc. Does anyone know?
 
selrahc4 said:
Is a civil union equal to a marriage under law?
No. The civil union gives certain legal rights in regard to superannuation, social security, inheritance etc, but it is not a 'marriage'.
So there is no need to worry about titles for the 'spouse'.
 
Sir Elton John CBE is afforded no courtesy what-so-ever with regard to a style of himself or (if he married a woman, his wife) as a Commander of the most Excellent Order of the British Empire other than the postnominals CBE. This grade of the order does not confer Knighthood and the entitlement to use the prefix 'Sir'. Sir Elton recieved the accolade of Knighthood when he was made a Knight Batchelor (which carries no postnominal letters), but does entitle the recipiant to use the prefix 'Sir'.
 
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The New Years Honours

Well, I have to say I have just spent the last five minutes howling with laughter. The New Years Honours List is the most hilarious list of recipients I have ever read in my life.

Bruce Forsyth is now a CBE. He's famous for presenting 'The Generation Game' and has a catchphrase - "Nice to see you, to see you" (Audience) "Nice!).



Brucie

Roy Barraclough is now an MBE. He played Cissie alongside Les Dawson as Cissie and Ada and also played Alec Gilroy in Coronation St.



Roy as Alec



Roy as Cissie (right)

But the funniest people to recieve honours are ; The Beverley Sisters. Now the Beverley Sisters are three elderly ladies who wear glittery frocks and sing the old songs in harmony. They are known as Babs, Joy and Teddie and wear matching clothes and curtsey in harmony to almost anybody. They are all now MBEs. I had no idea Tony Blair was a Beverley Sisters fan.



The Beverley Sisters - Babs, Joy and Teddie MBE



Meeting the Queen and doing a triple curtsey in unison.

Tom Jones is being made a Knight and Vivienne Westwood is being made a Dame. Ronnie Corbett is once more overlooked and isn't being made a Knight. On a serious note, alot of people who were on the scene on July 7th are getting honours which is great. Lord Coe is getting a KBE which won't go down well at all.

I'm sure other people will want to comment so here's the thread.
 
what exactly are the new year's honors?
 
Well, Tony Blair compiles a list of those to recieve honours. The Honours beings anything from a Knighthood to an MBE. The Prime Minister writes to the person and says, "The Queen has offered you an honour. Do you accept?". Now, they can say no or they can say yes. If they say no, then they have refused the Prime Minister and not the Queen. If they say yes, then from the moment it's made public they can use the letters after their name. Later in the year, the Queen or the Prince of Wales gives them their insignia. Then, on the Queen's Birthday another list is revealed and more people are honoured.

There are a few honours which the Queen gives herself but most are given by the Prime Minister. Hope that helps!
 
yes it does thanks~!
so basically the PM picks who will be getting the honors but they are given out in the queen's name.
could the queen suggest a name if she wanted to?
 
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Thats it - the PM does it and the Queen gets the blame. The Queen can suggest someone - any British subject can suggest another person for an honour. Every year we end up with people (usually foreigners living here) getting into a tizzy saying that it should all be replaced and changed and that they mean nothing - and every year nobody pays attention to them.
 
And interestingly, it's the first year people have been honoured for services to the Duchess of Cornwall.
 
BeatrixFan said:
And interestingly, it's the first year people have been honoured for services to the Duchess of Cornwall.


yay! may many more such wonderful people be honored in the years to come!
 
My brother was so honoured here in Australia (we use different letters now but they are still issued in the name of the Queen and by her representative in the various states - although if she is present she has done them in person). He was nominated by someone and they had to get a couple of other signatures (not sure how many). His nomination was then sent to the PMs office and it was approved. The name was then announced in the Queen's Birthday honours list here last July. We are very proud!!!
 
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Bruce is at the moment very popular for strictly come dancing,

Are you sure you are from Essex and I thought you posted that you design costumes?

BeatrixFan said:
Well, I have to say I have just spent the last five minutes howling with laughter. The New Years Honours List is the most hilarious list of recipients I have ever read in my life. Bruce Forsyth is now a CBE. He's famous for presenting 'The Generation Game' and has a catchphrase - "Nice to see you, to see you" (Audience) "Nice!).
 
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"The response of ordinary people caught up in the 7 July attacks, in which 52 people were killed, as well as the four suicide bombers, sees them head the honours.


There are 23 awards in all for those who took part in the rescue operation, including police and NHS bosses, a Tube station worker, a Tube driver and a paramedic. Russell Square Tube station supervisor David Boyce, who ran into the tunnel to provide first aid to victims of the bombing, is made an MBE."

Continued
 
I think the honours were a great system, now they just seem to be filled with overpaid, second rate 'entertainers'.

For instance Tom Jones, who hasn't lived in the UK for years!

I agree with the people who helped out on 7/7 but, do we need to honour, for instance, a lollipop lady who is only doing what she is paid for?
 
Are you sure you are from Essex and I thought you posted that you design costumes?

Not sure what that has to do with anything - I do believe we get Brucie here in Essex. And yes, I design costumes - or at least that's my dinner party profession - I won't go into the other side of my job.
 
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I'm delighted to hear the news of the lapel badge! Ever since the establishment of the Order of Australia in 1975, they've come with lapel badges to denote the award on every day dress, so it's about time (considering the Order of the British Empire was established in 1917), this piece of insignia has been produced.
 
Reading through this list, I had to ask myself what they had done 'for god and empire'.

We have the woman who has been employed serving fish and chips for a number of years, a teacher at a school, the customs officer who has been on a very good salary (with perks) for a few years and the usual 'actors' and ancient 'singers'.

Time to put most of these awards out to grass.
 
Hm, maybe it's interesting to see why exactly these people got their awards. I can't believe that serving fish & chips alone can be it - surely the persons put forward for the award have to have done a bit more than just you everyday job? But I agree, it sounds strange when you read the list, but somehow I cannot imagine that this ia all there is to know about these people. For example the hooker who got the same MBE than Zara Philipps - for "serice for women" - she surely was working for her fellow prostitues, doing public a service in a way? ;)
 
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What has to be kept in mind is the three main streams of honours nominations: Those in the personal gift of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to recognise achievement at the highest level to the United Kingdom (in the form of the Orders of the Garter and of the Thistle) and in the service of Her Majesty and the Royal House (in the form of the Royal Victorian Order). No awards were made by this means in this honours list.

Then there are those people who are nominated by fellow members of the community for their service to a particular group, for a particular project etc, or achievements in the wider community.

Then come the more controversial awards with which the government is sometimes accused of making as crowd-pleasers (those to celebrities, which the government hopes will cast it in a more favourable light).
 
Jo of Palatine said:
Hm, maybe it's interesting to see why exactly these people got their awards. I can't believe that serving fish & chips alone can be it - surely the persons put forward for the award have to have done a bit more than just you everyday job? But I agree, it sounds strange when you read the list, but somehow I cannot imagine that this ia all there is to know about these people. For example the hooker who got the same MBE than Zara Philipps - for "serice for women" - she surely was working for her fellow prostitues, doing public a service in a way? ;)

Apparently the chip shop woman was known to have rattled a few collecting tins, but that is not why she got the award. I havn't found the 'hooker', perhaps it was for services to the government!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/5087756.stm

Then we have the man overseeing the 'reform' of the NHS, where thousands of nurses have been sacked, hospital wards closed, hygiene at it's lowest level since the victorian era, the waiting lists have grown ever longer (they are just 'read' differently). How about the Sous Chef, the clock maker (for making and selling clocks), the woman in charge of integrating special needs children into mainstream schools, where they are bullied to such an extent that parents fight to get them placed in the few remaining special needs schools available.

Do we really need to award these people for anything, we know that top civil servants (CEO's) not only have to have friends in the right places to get the job in the first place, but are on over inflated salaries. A friend was telling me how she caught one chap 'colour coding' his smarties one Saturday, because he earned enough by working that one day to put a new roof on the 'holiday cottage' he rented out!

At the very least they should stop calling them the 'honours' list!
 
Skydragon said:
I havn't found the 'hooker', perhaps it was for services to the government!
Sorry, it was my fault, she is probably not a hooker herself. Maybe she is, maybe she's not... Here in Germany most women working for projects like that are (ex-) hookers. Domenica of Hamburg comes to mind. It's on page 80 of the list, two names down from Zara Philipps and she is Ms. Plaine, "co-ordinator of Sex Worker's Empowerment, Training and Education project". She got her MBE for "services to women". I'd rather say for men, but that's just my POV... :lol:
 
Time to put most of these awards out to grass.

If I hear that sort of comment once more I shall scream. The UK Honours System in theory is wonderful. It's fantastic. Every country in the world has an honours system and I agree with the Queen that people need a pat on the back. But since John Major, the Honours List has become politically driven. I mean, Dame Ann Leslie said of her honour this year, "I haven't donated a penny to any party so nonbody can say I've bought it". There would be nothing wrong with the Honours List if the public nominated and the Lord Chamberlain suggested the names to the Queen. The Honours List is supposed to reward all sections of society and some actors do deserve them and should get them - it's not so much actors getting them as what they get. I mean, when I saw Rod Stewart's name, I assumed he'd got a KBE because under Mr Blair, the most annoying people have become Sirs. But this list has been slightly more toned down. Rod got a CBE, Penelope Keith got a CBE and they were deserved IMO.

The problem is that instead of old Harry Perkins who's served the tea at Laindon Station for 900 years isn't newsworthy. We don't know him, so the press have to show people like Rod Stewart taking the gongs. Who actually cares about a lollipop lady getting an OBE? Yes she does a service to the community but has she slept with a pop star or snorted 5k of moon dust? No, so she won't make the papers. If you read this list, there are more lollipop ladies and postmen than there are Rods and Zaras but you just dont hear about them and basically, it's become trendy to be ashamed of anything British.

We have an honours system, it'd work if you took the politicians out of it and changed what you give to who. I mean, why not create The Order of Creative Service and give the actors an MCS rather than a KBE? Then at least it's more pertinent. An honours system isn't a bad thing and it's totally nessecary to give people something to drive towards but it's people who say, "Lets scrap these honours" that don't realise, we'd have to replace it with something and the orders we have do mean something to some of us.

Look at Danny La Rue, now without name dropping, I know Danny and when he got his OBE he was thrilled. He was in tears and he was just over the moon that after over 50 years in showbuisness, he'd been given the Order of the British Empire. Maybe because he was alive when there was a British Empire but to him, it's about being part of something. Charlie Chaplin was a member of the Order - now Dan is. It's about that heritage of gratitude that has been demeaned by Major and Blair - not about the actual reason for giving them. Right, rant over. Now where's my RVO?
 
The honour system is good (just ask the Swedish posters who don't have one) What they need is to get the PM out of the process and set up an advisorary board.

BTW. The 'hooker' runs a program that provides training program that has helped more than 300 women, likely getting most of them off the street,

http://www.thisisbradford.co.uk/mostpopular.var.1096673.mostviewed.new_year_honour_for_tragic_police_chief.php

Also included are a 86 year old hospital voluenteer, imagine what it is going to be like for her to met the Queen (or Prince of Wales). A 62 year old children's coach and fundraiser, and a civil servent who also raises money for austistic children, ect. A lot of these people deserve awards and what is most likley a chance of a life time to met the Queen. And some don't no reason to get rid of the whole thing.
 
Scream away....

"King George V wished to honour the many thousands of people who served in numerous non-combatant capacities during the WW1".

Nowhere does it say it is to do reward people for going about their normal everyday lives.
It is supposed to be awarded for chivalry!

The Honours List is supposed to reward all sections of society and some actors do deserve them and should get them

Unless an actor has been heavily involved in charitable work (I don't mean for the 'actors benevelent fund'), then no, they should not be awarded anything. La Rue received his award for charitable work for aids, not for being a drag queen.

There may be more lollipop people than anyone else, but do they deserve to be rewarded, just for having a job?

Now that they are awarded to all and sundry, they have lost their value for a lot of the people that really did something to deserve them. If a salary is not enough to reward those in employment or the likes of a female impersonator, then it is time to set up some other form of recognition, if people agree that something is needed. How about a plastic badge that can be replaced every 5 years saying, still in employment? :lol:
 
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