Oh look, someone else who doesn't "get" dry wit.

A shame, really.

There's nothing like a dame.

Nothing in the world.

So volunteer for something for 50+ years that helps other people and get a BEM or MBE, or win a few medals/trophies for a handful of years doing soemthing you enjoy and makes lots of money for yourself and become a Knight or Dame - shows whats wrong with the honours system imo.

Beckham is for fashion/business achievement, and charity work .I think she has an MBE so its the next one up.

Murray would be fine if he they treated everyone else the same . As it is, , they seem to be woefully inconsistent with the sports awards.

Ennis only has one Olympic Gold, and gets to be a dame. Trott has 4 , and 8 World and Commonwalth titles to Ennis's 4, and doesn't yet. Hoy had 4 golds when he got a knighthood - Kenny J has 6 and gets a CBE. Skelton gets a CBE for one . Murray gets a knighthood for being world number one at what he does, and repeating one medal from 2012. Mo gets the same for being top at his game, and repeating 2 medals, but Kenny L and Kenny J repeated winning 2 nad 3 medals from 2012 , and won their equivalent championships and rankings , and don't. Whitlock gets a MBE for 2 medals - people in 2012 got an OBE for that. Nicola Adams gets an OBE for repeating 2012 , but so far it looks as if Jade Jones doesn't get hers for doing exactly the same. Rowsell Shand now has the same two medals as Adams does - does she get her OBE?

It defeats the point, when it looks like making the Scottish nationalist vote happier, the interests of the biggest sports, and showing that all sorts of minorities are respected, triumphs, over just devising some criteria, and applying then equally.

I agree that the honours given to sportspeople are hopelessly inconsistent. Jessica Ennis gets a damehood for winning one gold then one silver, but Rebecca Adlington doesn't for getting two golds then two bronzes. And what about Daley Thomson? Unlike Ennis, he won a second gold medal.

And while I'm on inconsistency, how come the wife of a Sir becomes a Lady but the husband of a Dame gets no title?

The whole thing is so inconsistent and absurd. I wish it could just be scrapped.

Are you one of those people who think if they don't know something they assume no one knows it and it hasn't happened?
Mark Rylance was the artistic director of the Globe for 10 years.

He has been one of our best theatre actors for a couple of decades.

Even if you didn't know that, he won an Oscar earlier this year for his performance in Bridge of Spies. He won the BAFTA last year for Wolf Hall he has also won 3 Tonys for his theatre performances. SO that's awards for theatre, television and film.
You'd be wrong saying " I doubt anyone knows who he is" don't judge everyone by your own ignorance.

eta in fact a quick look at his IMDb page shows he's won 20 awards and had 30 nominations around the globe during his career so far. yup no one knows who he is

These things are worthless these days.

I mean, Naomie Harris gets an OBE? For what? Doing her chosen profession? She's appeared in a few films. And she deserves an honour for that?

Andy Murray is 29. His career is nowhere near finished. Yet they've given him one of the highest honours available. How do they honour him if he goes on to win the next 5 Wimbledon titles? What if he goes on to coach the next British world no.1 tennis player? Why do they feel the irresistible urge to honour him so immediately?

Jessica Ennis has been made a Dame in 2016... after being made a CBE in 2013... having been made an MBE in 2011. Why didn't they just wait until her career was over and honour her appropriately? And, like with Andy Murray and other sporting Knights and Dames, how do they appropriately honour her if she goes on to achieve great things in future?

I just find the whole spectacle so pathetic these days.

It absolutely reeks of the worship of celebrity and the incessant need for those in power and in institutions to be continually slapping each other on the back.

The most depressing thing about it is that, like with so many things in our country, those making the decisions are completely out of touch with how the public feel about their behaviour.

Every man and his dog can see how these titles are being devalued by being handed out like sweets every year and after every major sporting event. Yet they continue to lavish them on more and more people, for increasingly spurious achievements, seemingly completely oblivious to what the public really expect.

They seem to believe that everybody is clamouring for our "sporting heroes" and every actor and media darling under the sun to be endlessly rewarded with accolades, when in reality most people would probably like to see far more discernment in these decisions.

And that's before I even get started on all the honours that the politicians hand out to each other, to their cronies, to donors, and to anybody else who scratches the right back.

Frankly, it's all just so revolting these days.

"Arbeit macht frei."

IMO the first test should be that a recipient cannot have had any financial benefit from the activity for which they have been nominated. That immediately rules out most recipients. It will never change though,

I wonder if anyone has ever received an award for their services to the awards system?

What a brilliantly sensible suggestion!

So sensible that it will never catch on with the PTB.

Andy Murray deserves the honour he's been awarded - 2 Wimbledon titles and Olympic golds, not to mention his other grand slam achievements. He's a fantastic sportsman and ambassador for the UK.

Giving an honour to Beckham for 'services to fashion and charity' is cobblers - 'services to fashion'?! An elitist shop that could soon be closed due to not filing accounts on time which sells clothing for an outrageous price. No, not deserving, not at all! I wouldn't even have Andy Murray's name in the same sentence as hers!

BBC
You should be given an OBE for your services to ignorance. You obviously DON'T have to be famous at all to be knighted. It isn't part of the criteria and if you don't know who Mark Rylance is then you clearly aren't a film watcher. And how miserable you APPEAR to some shouldn't detract from the fact that you are one of the best sportsman Great Britain has ever produced. Ken was found not guilty. Jeeeeez.

So Britain's joint most decorated Olympian gets an MBE and Ennis-Hill gets made a Dame. Obviously Jason Kenny needs to up his celebrity status because at this rate his wife will be a Dame before he gets Knighted. The whole honours system is a joke. (I'm not even going to talk about Beckham or Wintour).

You can have an OBE for moaning. The vast majority on the list are unknown members of the community who do not benefit financially from their activities. Does Andy Murray getting a knighthood affect your life at all? No. So shut up. He deserves it right now.

The sporting ones have always been very inconsistent. In 2005 they gave EVERY member of the Ashes team an honour but snubbed Steven Gerrard because "they could only give out a certain amount of honours for sport" but somehow managed to find enough honours in 2012 for EVERY gold medallist AND a few silver medallists.

Thanks, you beat me to it.

It'd be a bit weird to have a Sir Jessica Ennis-hill.

From New Zealand
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=11774706

Dame Valarie Adams, the Shot Putter

No it doesn't, but it cheapens the awards given to those who actually did something worthwhile without becoming a millionaire in the process.

Especially as her company is about to be fined for not posting her accounts to companies house.

But even her award won't put a smile on her face.

Amazing what money can buy isn't it!

I think lots of people don't know of him because the theater he does is a pretty niche interest in comparison say to tennis. I see plays a couple of times a year and I hadn't even heard of him until Wolf Hall.

Great actor though - really good use of eyebrows.

Apparently 2/3rd of these honours do go to "ordinary people" as such - its just the 1/3rd of famous people receiving them you hear about.

We have the do/don't they deserve one debate each year...

Would have thought very difficult to not include every team member. Steven Gerrard did get honoured in 2006 with an MBE.