Knighthoods, and some other honours being devalued

Those who give tirelessly to their community only receive the lower honours. The hierarchy gives the higher awards to the rich/famous/long term top civil servant/exMPs whilst the plebs get the lower awards no matter how deserving they might be.

And to add insult to injury the Lords and Dames get £300 a day just for signing in at the House of Lords.

We can continue to honour people but let's do away with the hierarchy and the automatic awards. It's nice to recognise achievements. Why not a different system? Awards of equal standing for sport, entertainment, science, community work etc. But only those who give their time freely for the benefit of others actually gets the visit to Buck House and a chat with Liz.

I agree Vampirequeen , the British class system stinks

The actress Coral Atkins died last month. I came across her obituary in the Guardian, but have heard no mention of her death on the news. She was one of the main characters in Family at War, a huge hit in the early 70s, when she was asked to open a fair at a children's home and was horrified by the lack of care for a disturbed child there, especially as she had suffered her own trauma as a three year old evacuee during the war. Determined to do something, she trained in psychotherapy and child psychology, raised funding, and opened a home for severely damaged and disturbed children who had been written off by other organisations. She ran the home for many years, only giving it up in 1997 after suffering severe injuries in a car crash, but she continued to work with these children. As far as I know, she received no official recognition for her work (though I'm prepared to be corrected) and this saddens me when I think of some of the people who've been honoured.

I know a couple of young people who do sports at national/international level. By their early twenties many have put in two decates of dedication - training before school and every weekend for years and years.

"young" national/international athletes already have put in dedication over a long period of time.

A lot of people work at something from a young age and achieve high goals, these can be in any walk of life, but they're not in the limelight so don't get the recognition they may deserve unless they are nominated by someone with some clout.
The present system is a nonsense.

One persons opinion is as valid as another's in all things!

So we can say the same as those who make the decisions as to whom to give honours to , their opinions are as valid as another's in all things

Vampirequeen I'm with you on Ken Dodd - he's an incredible performer, as for his run in with the Taxman, I worked for HMRC at the time (most of us were delighted when he was acquitted). Which brings me to another point regarding automatic Honours - within the Civil Service Top Brass are put in charge of Departments for a couple of years & then walk away with their "C" OR"K".

I would like to see more Press coverage of "ordinary people" who are granted Honours

Maggiemaybe, I was shocked to read about Coral Atkins, I had no idea that she had died. I too read her story of the visit she made to a children's home when famous from the 'Family at War' series, and saw a little girl rocking and crying under the table, in great distress. When she asked what was wrong evidently the response was 'Oh she's always like that'. The child inspired her to open the home that you described, but she never did track her down again. How much good she must have done, how many young people she steered towards a better life, and why did she not get some recognition for that? Some financial help might have been good too - she did it all alone.

Maggiemaybe I was so interested to read your post about Coral Atkins. I remember reading a very long article about her many years ago in, I think, the Sunday Times. I found it very moving and inspiring that she had given up her acting career to devote her life to helping children. I have often wondered whether she continued with this work. I have no personal animosity about (most of) the people who receive honours, but I agree with you and feel it is people like her who deserve our admiration.

It is possible she refused an honour

I thought that might possibly be the case,*Annie*, but couldn't find anything online to say she'd ever been offered one.

Now why did my asterisks not work there? Annie

If she had been offered and refused an honour you would not know unless she went public about it.

Just because young people dedicate much of their lives to training to attain excellence in sport or anything else should not count towards any honour, for every one who succeeds there are many hundreds who put in as much effort for as long and never hit the highest level. Should they get knighthoods etc?

I think the highest level of honours; knighthoods, damehoods etc should go to those who have performed at a consistently exceptional level, over a extended period of time, or have followed their sporting excellence, though brief by high achievement in another or related field. And I do not consider that anyone under 35 is likely to fill this criteria.

If you have won a Gold Medal at the Olympics, or become a World Champion in a sport, that was always your aim and is recognition enough of your prowess. Do it multiple times over 5 or more years and follow that with another 5 years, dedicated to helping others do what you have done, form a charity and be involved with it, like Mo Farrah has done, I understand and after 10 years of such exceptional dedication and, yes, you have earned your knighthood. There is nothing to stop you being awarded a lower level of honour, CBE, OBE or whatever

I just think that the higher echelons of any honours system should go only to those who have given exceptional service in any field for at least 10 years, preferably 15.

Maggie, I do know she was a close friend of Glenda Jackson so perhaps politics came into it

This is an outdated system made valueless by the number of awards given to so called celebrities and sportspeople who are just doing their jobs. Andy Murray gets paid exceedingly well to play tennis and I agree with other comments that he hasn't even finished his career to be given a Knighthood at 29 is ridiculous,. Victoria Beckham also gets paid well. At least some sports people have to work in other jobs to make a living and may deserve their awards more.

Seems money concerns some not what a person has achieved

I heard Lynn Faulds Wood explaining this morning why she had turned hers down.
www.independent.co.uk/news/people/lynn-faulds-wood-former-bbc-presenter-turns-down-mbe-new-years-honours-a7503411.html

One of the men who was responsible for the latest look at the Hillsborough disaster also turned his down on the grounds that his work was against the idea of empire, and also that nobody had as yet been charged over Hillsborough so he thought it was just a sop to keep him quiet.

If you look at Mark Rylance's wikipaedia entry, you'll see why he got it for services to theatre. It's not just his acting, it's encouraging youngsters to get into acting.
He's also a member of the PPU and of Stop the War Coalition, so an all round good man. He turned it down once before.

I didn't realise that Coral Atkins had died and I'm sorry to hear that and agree that she is one person who should have received recognition for her work. I read about her years ago and admired her and what she was doing for those children.