Why is it so?

[Trevor Bodiam]

Reading the news recently and saw Shane Warne and Ash Barty were included in the Queens birthday honours list.
Watching T.V. last night and saw 'Saving lives at sea" a programme about the lifeboat service in U.K. and the dangers these people face to save people in trouble or even a dog that had fallen off a cliff top.
Seems values are mixed up somewhat when 2 highly paid sports people get honoured and the real people who answer the call and get the lifeboats out, rescue many people, risk their lives and are volunteers are the ones in our society who we should be honouring.
The celebrities are highly rewarded and get the headlines and the all the other volunteers are completely overlooked and are the real heroes in our society going about their daily lives helping anyone needing them.
Long may we have the voluntary services that look after us in times of need.

[j.sabourn]

#1. There are basically 2 types of Honours, those for Gallantry and those for Distinguished Service.
Medals for Gallantry are usually awarded to members of the armed forces . This category includes the Victoria Cross, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Military Cross, and the Distinguished Flying Cross,
Medals for acts of Bravery in peace time include the George Cross , the George Medal, and the Queens Gallantry Medal,
Distinguished Service normally implies membership of Military or Civil Divisions of Orders of Chivalry . Among the most notable of Orders today are the Order Of The Garter. Which has only the Sovereign and 25 knight companions
Normally I take little stock of what is going on but did recently when T. Blair was recently awarded such for his to me doubtful role as PM many years ago, and apart from public sentiment of over a million signatures against this happening , apparently was ignored by Parliament , which further lowered my esteem of such , which was almost at rock bottom in any case. Cheers JS

[j.sabourn]

#2 Further to ... may have put up before.
The Honours.
TheOrder of the Garter.
The Order of the Thistle
The Order of the Bath.
The Order of Saint Michael and Saint George.
The Royal Victorian Order
The Order of The British Empire
The Order of Merit.
The Order of Companions of Honour.
Distinguished Service Order
Imperial Service Order
The Royal Victorian Chain.

JS

The one I do know a bit about which could be called the working class Order is...
The Grand Master was the Duke of Edinburgh
Five classes with military and civilian divisions.
In 1918 , this Order was separated into Civil and Military divisions and is now used as a reward to an even wider range of activities . In peace time it is given for distinguished service to the arts, literature ,science and sport. It is also awarded to members of the Merchant Navy , the Special Constabulary , those doing charitable work in welfare organisations and to State servants .
A civilian list is drawn up by the PM and a Military list by the Secretary of State for defence. The top class of the Order is limited to 27 Military and 73 civil members .
The British Empire Medal is associated with the Order and for those who already hold the medal several bars may be attached.
Since 1957 medals awarded for acts of Gallantry as opposed to meritorious Service , have been distinguished by the addition of an emblem composed of two silver oak leaves .
Such is the Order Of The British Empire .

Cheers JS

[happy daze john in oz]

Trevor, on this I totally agree.

When two bit sports men and women get some of the awards they do just for doing what they may be good at and earn a fortune.
At the other end of the scale there are thousands who are never recognised for what they do for society.

Social workers, volunteers, of which I am one.
Though there is a volunteers week where the volunteer of the year is recognised along with many others.


I have recieved an award for my volunteering with the local community health center, I consider that means more to me than some of the awards other get.

Some of the awards this year were relevant particularly for those of the medical profession who saw us through the pandemic.
I notice the federal and Queensland and NSW medicos were included but not ours from Victoria.

Must ask Dan about that one.

[John Arton]

Latest furore over awards is that Tony Blair is being mooted for a night hood. As one commentator said, he's going to be in the same place as a sword!!!.
Rgds
J.A.

[James Curry]

Marcus Rashford M.B.E deserved or not deserved? for me well deserved. A lot of sports personalities do a lot of charity work setting up foundations to help young people handicapped people etc. Perhaps it is time to find another way to recognise people who dedicate their time helping those less fortunate in the community.


Who nominated Tony Blair for the order of the Garter?

[j.sabourn]

Must have been the media . ? JS

[Keith Tindell]

Ref 5, we would have all been better off if his father had worn a night hood !!!.

[j.sabourn]

If he had we could all of had a night cap and said Cheers .. here’s good riddance to bad rubbish. JS

[happy daze john in oz]

we do have once a year volunteers week with a ceromony where the top volunteer of the year is awarded.
During that week all volunteers on showing their badge will have reduced public transport fees and most local councils will put a lunch on for them.
There are so many places that could not function correctly without the help of volunteers.
The local community health center where I volunteer has about 300 staff and 80 volunteers.
As it is community health the cost to users is low and state gov money is also low so the need for volunteers is high.

The majority are retired and do this as a service to the community.
At one time I did driving for them, taking clients to medical appointments, asked one day by a lady why I gave my time I told here this.

' I hope it never happens, but the day may come when I may need someone to do this for me, just hope then that there will be someone like me around'.