Gerald Ronson's CBE

[Derek Smith]

elster said:

You have missed my point by a long way.

I have nominated a couple of people who have received honours. It can mean a hell of a lot to someone who has been doing charity work, volunteer work, etc and going well above and beyond their duty.

If everyone did the same then they would get honoured, you are very naive if you think that it is just friends of the government get honours.

I think the point you miss is that it is corrupt. Therefore those who deserve the awards are lumped in with the rest.

It is not the likes of the St John's Ambulance women who gets the knighthood or becomes a lord. Those such honours are reserved for cricketers and Archers. I hope they do feel honoured as such people deserve some form of national recognition. There are members of the Sally Ann who give up their evenings to help the destitute who sleep rough. Whithout them, dealing with the verminous derelicts of our society, the cities would be a dreadful place for some.

I passed John Profumo in 1976/7 as he was walking away from a Sally Ann tea van. The face rang a bell and I thought he might be wanted (I was young) and went to stop him. One of the Sally Anne crowd came up and told me that he was one of their fund raisers.

He'd just received an honour and I remember my father being 'supportive' of him despite his history. When I later discovered who the chap was I looked him up and given his behaviour I could see my dad's point of view.

I'm happy for those who have redeemed themselves to be treated the same as anyone else. The honour for Profumo was for his (and his missus, the absolutely gorgeous Valerie Hobson) charity work.

It is not the likes of Archer who should get the top awards. The bloke who scored fifty goals, 500 runs or designed the aerodynamics of an F1 car would have been paid a great deal by their employers and the gong should be just an acknowledgement of their efforts. Certainly the automatic awards of high honours for those working in the civil service make the whole thing rather silly.

[Lost_BMW]

Eric Mc said:

It should have been given to Earnest Saunders (one of Ronson's co-conspirators) for his contribution to the understanding of Alzheimer's Disease.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Saunders