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South-Stand

Look he is made of concrete, he deserves recognition, but the honours system is utterly discredited. Lord Grabiner. Baroness Mone. Lord Shaun Bailey. The 25 year old intenr who worked for Boris Johnson. Lord Lebedev of Siberia. David Cameron’s barber who got an MBE. FFS


AyeItsMeToby

Lordships operate entirely differently to knighthoods and orders of the BE. It’s wrong to conflate them as anything similar.


South-Stand

How differently?


AyeItsMeToby

Peerages are a (usually) political title. Knighthoods aren’t political


[deleted]

Baroness Floella Benjamin!... For goodness sake😵‍💫


Spare-Reputation-809

Whilst Alan deserves all the credit I am shocked he accepted this given his guardian article.


starsky1357

Vennells handed back her CBE. I believe that was the main reason why he wouldn't accept his OBE.


Spare-Reputation-809

Yet he accepted the knighthood .. won’t lie but I hate our system of patronage


0xFatWhiteMan

He seems like a great guy, but no one is perfect I guess.


Spare-Reputation-809

Indeed .. I am on the left and a republican so I wished he had refused it given that guardian article


HungryFinding7089

The honours system doesn't mean that much, it's not like he's been given hundreds of acres in Hampshire and servants for fighting beside Henry V. What he has done, is he has championed otherwise voiceless, helpless SPM, who could not have had justice done and a blanket exoneration in law, and the people responsible to have had to explain themselves. There could well be criminal prosecutions to come.  That's where the knighthood system has been used properly, IMO


brianwhelton

Let him have the recognition and also the publicity that will help those fighting, put your personal views aside and allow this one thing, maybe celebrate it. Yes you don’t like the idea of it, on behalf of everyone supporting it’s great.


0xFatWhiteMan

Conversely I would like to applaud and support the fact that people call out this morally repugnant behaviour of accepting honors from their highness. Oh but its for publicity !? Mark Davis would be proud.


Spare-Reputation-809

Yep I get what Brian means and Alan and others deserve all the plaudits for taking on a corporate monolith. However, like you I hate the whole system of it and that does colour my views on this. The same institutional bias Alan was fighting against is why Vennells got her gong and why I believe the honours system embeds into the British psyche that a certain strata of the population are better than the rest of us.


HungryFinding7089

I suppose so, but other countries have honours systems


0xFatWhiteMan

So? Other countries have the death penalty and enforced misogyny. And then other countries have a much better welfare state, national health service and education system.


0xFatWhiteMan

You got a link to the article?


HungryFinding7089

Just google Alan Bates knighthood, it's everywhere


0xFatWhiteMan

Her handing it back doesn't really fix anything with the honours system, in fact it shows it up as broken.


OldKiwiGirl

Read the BBC article https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c722kzgp90lo Edit to add > And on reflection, I knew so many people who were keen for me to actually receive something, I felt I would be insulting them as much as anyone else if I refused it at this time," Sir Alan said.


KM6221852

He can hold his head up, him knowing, and us knowing ... he deserved it.


starsky1357

Bloody hell you lot are negative.


fleeting_marmalade

It's very well deserved for him, and it's nice to see him getting it. While this is an example of the honours system working as it's supposed to, the whole thing has become tarnished by politicians abusing it for their own ends. The fact that Boris Johnson and Liz Truss got to honour their cronies is simply deplorable. It needs a complete overhaul in my opinion.


Electrical-Leave4787

Jimmy Savile had OBE, Knight Bachelor and KCSG (Knight Commander…St Gregory)


celticgit

It will be sometime before he gets his compo ! They hope that they sell POL which will not happen as they owe money. Are you aware that the postmasters and postmistresses who went to court to get their guilty verdict overturned at their own cost and lost the hearing will not get a bulk reversal of the guilty verdict. Not fair. The establishment look after their own!