I just heard that Englands rugby hero Jonny Wilkninson is getting an OBE or even Knighted in the Queens new year honour list. How is it that there are people out there that devote their life to charity work and don`t hear a single thing? It is all a load of crap, but can anyone shed any sanity on this German ‘Royal’ family?
It’s mostly not Buckingham Palace that decides on awards, although the monarch as Fountain of Honour is the one who performs the ceremony. The decision on who gets knighted is de facto made by the government since the honour is conferred by the monarch on the advice and initiative of the Prime Minister (of the Foreign Office if the recipient is a foreigner). Therefore it’s a rather political question, and as always in politics, the results can be doubtful.
(A few honours are conferred to recipients selected by the Queen alone, such as the Garter, but that’s not what the pop heros get)
And in spite of its Hanoveran origins, the Royal Family can hardly be described as “German” nowadays.
I imagine if Wales had won the RWC, the flyhalf of fullback who kicked the winning drop goal whould have been honoured too.
It’s decided by a department with in the Civil Service, the Prime Minister and the Queen only really ruber stamp it.
Somehting else I noticed is that several people of the same grade in the same department of the Civil Service as myself where on the list. I’ll be writing a stern letter to the Queen to ask where my OBE was (perhaps it was lost in the post?).