RateTheRef

As ever I greeted the list with a mixture of consensus, surprise and downright confusion.

Would anyone like to go first before I launch into my customary assessment?

From memory, Bobby Moore did get an OBE but a very middle ranking honour for a major achievement, especially in the days when monetary rewards were far less than today.  Also from memory I believe that for winning the World Cup, from the FA the squad got a £22,000 bonus (ie £1,000 each).  Alf Ramsey was of course knighted.

But I agree the whole system is today even more of a farce.  Even the names of the honours are outdated and archaic - don't they know we haven't had an empire for 80 years?  And as for Senior Civil Servants getting their automatic knighthood or damehood for doing no more than turning up for work - totally scandalous!  The whole thing needs a thorough review or scrapping altogether.  I'm all for awards for outstanding bravery but for doing your job - I think not.

I have a feeling it’s more about who does the nominating than who is nominated.

If it's January or June, it must be honours time on RTR and I quietly despair. For reasons which I shall not go into, I look through the honours list each time, not to try and find my name which will never appear, but to find with great satisfaction people I have known over the years, either at work or in one of my many hobbies and activities. Just over 1100 honours were awarded this time, of which 770 were MBEs or BEMs. These were not awarded to senior civil servants or MPs but to ordinary folk who have given their time and energy over the years in their chosen fields, many of them voluntary. OK, the system is not perfect, sports people get in for doing not a lot, but it is a lot better than it used to be when awards were often made for length of service in a public sector organisation. However those days have gone and, whilst it would be nice to see more names on the list each time, I think we have an honours system in place which does recognise outstanding service, which is how it ought to be. And as for the name of the different awards, well I couldn't care a stuff what they call them as long as they are recognised for what they represent. Enough said!