freedom of the city

[netty.m]

My local council has awarded Jamie Carragher the freedom of the borough. What does this mean? 

[xHeatherx]

Hi netty.m,

Ive found this text - hope it helps!

The Freedom of the Borough is awarded for outstanding service to the people of the area. The title involves no duties and is purely ceremonial; those awarded the Freedom of the Borough are listed in gold lettering on the wooden panels of the Council Chamber in the Town Hall.

Do you think he should have been given it?

[Dom Tuk]

A bit like 'keys to the city'  and 'twinning with other cities'. It means nothing to me and you the council tax payer, but a few councillors will get nice jollies to visit the twinning cities or host a dinner for Jamie Carragher ay our expense.

[netty.m]

I dont think a footballer should get it just for being a footballer but Jaime does do a lot of work with school children, young football teams, etc.

[bazwillrun]

Giving him this honour just about sums up all the petty little bumptious bureaucratic councils that run this country. 

Most of these so called celebs do charity work because they are advised to by their PR people, because it looks good.

They have nothing else to do with their time

If they had to be up at 6:30 and commute to a 9-5 job then commute home again in the evening 5 days a week do you really think they would be doing any charity work then ?

I dont think so

[WaldoMcFroog]

Baz, are you not damning these sorts of people either way then? If they do nothing, they confirm your prejudice, if they do something its only because they've got nothing better to do with their time...

I know nothing of the person concerned but I know if I earned thousands a week and had loads of spare time, I could easily fill it up with things to do and not need to go out of my way to do some charitable things. The fact that this chap seems to spend some of his time 'giving something back' (maaaaan) seems pretty laudable to me.

Whether such large incomes are a good thing is a different point altogether.