June Sarpong - MBE - Just one more time ?

[Bazile]

So it would appear that the lady in question got her gong for her charitable efforts , which she does , without shouting about it from the roof tops.

Judging from the comments in the previous ,postings
( as an example ) - what does it say about the british inclination generally , to jump in and criticise , without knowing the facts, first .

Is it something that is endemic in the British psyche , or is it not peculiar to the British ?

[LordOfLife]

The whole uk honours system is peculiar to every other country.

I know several people that tirelessly work for charity. One person even spent christmas week at an orphanage in Romania helping out. But if no-one who knows them can be bothered to put them forward for an honour then they will never get one.

Honours are based not on just what someone has done, but by the fact that someone needs to be arsed to nominate you in the first place. If you are lucky to be around people that can be bothered then a trip to Buck House is on the cards.

To further the point, I once knew a guy who voted the same person for an employee of the month award because they fancied them. Someone else spent a day a month nominating various people (nice to have the time!) Need I say more.

[IggyB]

lordoflife if the only problem you can find with the honours system is that people needed to be put forward for it then its not much of a problem is it - how else is anyone going to get recognised for an honour, should the palace hire a band of investigators to travel the country seeking out the unsung heros of our modern age? or would that be deemed a waste of money and names should be put forward by organisations and the general public instead maybe??

yes everyone likes a moan and it does seem to be a mostly british obsession to build up celebs and then try to knock them down, especially when it comes to charity work e.g. if they public do a lot, like U2's Bono, then they are deemed condescending gits with millions of pounds to spare lecturing the rest of us. or in this case they do some quiet charity work and if they get honoured or praised by someone they get insulted for just being another celeb getting the limelight.

[vehelpfulguy]

My guess is that she got the award for two main reasons.

She has worked for the Princes Trust (Prince Charles) so he probably nominated her.

She is black (must share these out amongst the ethnic minorities) .

If she was white and had worked for a charity in Hull for 30 years she would probably have not got it.

It is who you know.

[Bazile]

vehelpfulguy

I dont quite follow your second reason

Why would she be given the the award , simply because she is black ?

[sp1814]

Yeah...if that were the case, how comes the honours aren't full of black presenters, artists, business leaders etc etc?

Isn't what you're saying is "She only got it coz she's black", which some may justifiably call insiduous racism?

[Hammer Head]

Or others may call a fair comment. There seem to be ethnic quotas everywhere these days. why should the honours system be any different.

[sp1814]

The comment isn't fair because there's absolutely no evidence that her race had anything to do with her being nominated for an award.

Why not let's take away Sir Trevor's knighthood and Lenny Henry's CBE. I mean, they probably only got them because they're black too eh?

Whilst we're at it, there's that Dame Kelly Holmes. All she did was win gold at the Olympics representing her country - now if that isn't the product of ethnic quotas, I don't know what is...(ad lib to fade).

[flip-flop]

If Lenny Henry received his gong for services to comedy then I think there's a perfectly justifiable reason to take it away from him...........................................

[Hammer Head]

sp, do you have a chip on your shoulder. Is it cos I is black?