Arise Sir Rod Stewart, for services to music (last truly good album, Atlantic Crossing, 1975). Well done Queenie, for recognising Sir Rod’s longevity and, it has to be said, talent. He’s been on the long decline for many years, but the old boy is still making new music and entertaining the masses and his autobiography was brilliant. Good luck to him, and all that, but Sir Rod? Really?
I suppose if you have entertained millions for many years, as Sir Rod has plainly done, and the powers-that-be wanted to reward him on behalf of those millions, a knighthood is the least he deserves. Perhaps there is an argument that says that he should have been honoured many years ago, when he was at the top of his game?
Ant and Dec’s gong for presenting telly programmes sums it all up for me. In my day, as us old people say, those who could did and those who couldn’t presented telly programmes. I have no idea if the two Geordie lads do possess unique presenting abilities but it does seem odd to me.
As ever, the awards, which will be given to more men than women, as usual, will cover the civil service awards (for services to doing their jobs) and the odd Lollipop lady, just to make it look like it’s relevant to the rest of the country. In my current job, working for a well-known charity, I come across all manner of incredible people who do impossibly difficult jobs over many years for nothing, other than the satisfaction of making people’s lives better. They do not even think about receiving awards for doing what they want to do and they work with other people who feel the same. This means they will probably not receive so much as a nomination for an award, never mind actually getting an award themselves. They don’t care about recognition, but we should.
With the honours system, I’d start all over again. I don’t begrudge elderly pop stars gaining awards for entertaining us and given the number of people who hang on Ant and Dec’s every word, there is probably an argument to award them something or other for their services. However, it seems ludicrous to me to award higher honours to people who sing songs or present telly shows, for example, than someone who does valuable work in society.
The whole system of honours has been discredited for many years anyway. How about knighthoods for Philip Green who later took hundreds of millions out of BHS before flogging it for £1 when he knew the business, with 11,000 jobs, was going tits up, or for Lynton Crosby, for services for lying on behalf of the Conservative Party? For every David Attenborough there’s a Jimmy Savile.
The one award I totally agree with? Tim Peake, of course, Britain’s first official astronaut, for spreading the word about science and adventure and letting young people understand that anything is possible and anything is achievable if you work hard enough at it.
Otherwise, today’s gongs are the usual shambolic mess, some deserved, some not. The time for reform is long overdue. I’d give a knighthood to anyone who could start the process.
