One twice-yearly spectacle I never look forward to is the New Year’s and Birthday Honours List, the occasion where the Queen, at the behest of the establishment, dishes out awards for services rendered. I don’t look forward to it because, inevitably, someone ostensibly on the left picks up a knighthood and/or a gong. And so […]
Posts Tagged ‘Honours system’
Honouring party members for hard work away from the media spotlight
Jun 18th, 2013 by Ann Black.When I received the offer of an OBE I was surprised, and my first instinct was to decline. Partly because of the “British Empire” – it’s odd to be appointed to something which no longer exists, and which has a chequered and not always glorious history, as the recent court cases from Kenyans imprisoned in […]
When the Ku Klux Klan came for Fred Goodwin. Or not.
Feb 2nd, 2012 by David Osler.I must admit that I did not immediately grasp the obvious parallels between the decision to strip a banker of his knighthood and the brutal murder of hundreds of American blacks at the hands of a mass white supremacist paramilitary organisation. So I am thankful to Lord Digby Jones, a man who served as trade […]