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They’ll put almost anyone on the Queens list these days. Drunk drivers, convicted account frauds, thieves, the puffy faced blusters mate who torpedoed Northern Rock while the serfs stood outside looking for their deposits back, heck they’ll probably give one to Al Down for his services to the glass-house industry next year. <!– s:o –>
<!– s:o –>Never mind Long Fellow, your well out of it.
There are a few people on the list with dodgy pasts who’ve redeemed themselves by doing extensive charity work and other good deeds. Not too much wrong with that. I’m not sure that Lester Piggott has done anything very much along these lines, but maybe I’m wrong.
…the puffy faced blusters mate who torpedoed Northern Rock while the serfs stood outside looking for their deposits back….
No, Northern Rock torpedoed itself, aided and abetted by feeble regulation by the government. I wouldn’t say that Paul Ruddock is a particular hero of mine, but he’s more of a canary in the mine than a Fred Goodwin.
Lester did neither more nor less that the politicians who rule the country.I bet many on the list cheat on their taxes.Of course he went to jail.Was he supposed to do more?
Who cares if he’s not on her list?
Sir Henry was always Sir Henry before she stepped in due to public pressure as Sir Lester will always be Sir Lester to his millions of fans.
Some of which are still alive!
Lester did neither more nor less that the politicians who rule the country.I bet many on the list cheat on their taxes.Of course he went to jail.Was he supposed to do more?
Rightly or wrongly I think what was meant is that some of the people who manage to redeem themselves in terms of honours actually do good deeds or charity work which in the eyes of the people in charge of awarding honours makes them eligible again……Lester has attempted no such redemption so therefore has not requalified for any honours.
I like to think that Lester couldn’t give a damn about such meaningless and arbritrarily festooned nonsense and that in the unlikely event that he does give a damn he realises that that particular ship has sailed.
Who cares if he’s not on her list?
Sir Henry was always Sir Henry before she stepped in due to public pressure as Sir Lester will always be Sir Lester to his millions of fans.
Some of which are still alive!
Highlighting Henry’s case shows how perverse the system is. He was probably more deserving of a prison sentence for his hit and run while under the influence than Lester for his persistent and extensive tax evasion. One rule for the masters and another for the servants.
I couldn’t argue for Lester to regain his OBE given his criminal conviction but the double standards here are breathtaking. Ok Cecil transgressed and redeemed himself, but I know how I’d feel if he ran over my parents drunk, drove off and was still eligible for a knighthood.
Venusian, have a look at the role of hedge funds in the short selling of the ABX Index (benchmark subprime homeloan index in the US) that precipitated the 2008 credit lockup.
I always admired the Queen for her seemingly old fashioned values and decency, staggering she lets these types onto any honors list imo.
Didn’t Stouty attempt to leave the ountry with a bag full of money? Is that the equivalent of tax evasion with a different name?Sir Michael,Sir Henry,Mister Piggott.
Didn’t Stouty attempt to leave the ountry with a bag full of money? Is that the equivalent of tax evasion with a different name?Sir Michael,Sir Henry,Mister Piggott.
Maybe some of the more successful but unnoticed cash laden departures were responsible for Stoute getting his extremely odd knighthood for ‘services to Barbadian tourism’
……..bizarre and indeed another reason for ditching the whole weird business.What do these good-folk-and-true have in common?
Alan Bennett
David Hockney
Aldous Huxley
L. S. Lowry
George Bernard Shaw
David Bowie
George Melly
Peter Alliss
Dawn French
Jennifer Saunders
Hattie JacquesDidn’t Stouty attempt to leave the ountry with a bag full of money? Is that the equivalent of tax evasion with a different name?Sir Michael,Sir Henry,Mister Piggott.
When Lester was caught for Tax Evasion in the sixties, part of the deal that was made under the old system was that you sign a declaration saying that you have no investments or assets that the Inland Revenue do not know about. Hence when he was caught again in the eighties, he was immediately guilty as they had his declaration on record.
Personally I do not think any of them deserve especial recognition for basically doing the job that earned them a great deal of money to the best of their abilities. The pleasure they have given to horse racing fans by watching their exploits or the exploits of their horses is secondary rather than their primary objective.
Most of the honours system is controlled by politics and the Houses of Parliament are probably the most corrupt corridors in the country, therefore it stands to reason that the honours system is corrupt.
I got this in one of those chain emails today. I can’t vouch for its veracity but you might find it entertaining:
Can you imagine working for a company that only has a little more than 635 employees, but, has the following employee statistics..
29 have been accused of spouse abuse
7 have been arrested for fraud
9 have been accused of writing bad cheques
17 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
3 have done time for assault
71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
8 have been arrested for shoplifting
21 are currently defendants in lawsuits
84 have been arrested for drink driving in the last yearand collectively, this year alone, they have cost the British tax payer £92,993,748 in expenses!!!
Which organisation is this?
It’s the 635 members of the House of Commons.
Drone
Alan Bennett declined a knighthood, as did Michael Oakeshott (arguably the most important British political theorist of the C20th).
It may be that the others on your list have declined honours, or your list may be of people who you think should have been honoured and haven’t.
I’m touched to see that CR and maybe others think the Queen has anything to do with the honours list, apart from two very prestigious but numerically tiny categories which are her personal decisions (Order of the Garter, Order of Merit).
Rudyard Kipling declined the Order of Merit from King George V, they were good friends but Kipling only ever accepted the Noble Prize for Literature in 1907 for his craft. Other awards he considered as irrelevant.
For all his matchless talent, Lester would have come across to many as thoroughly cold and unlikable.
There was remarkable interview with him in The Observer in the ’70s (I’ve never been able to find it online). The interviewer, whose secret was to take no notes and simply remember everything, asked LP if he ever felt bad about stealing the mounts of others – Lester said "I have never cared what others thought of me" I found that a chilling statement.
The other thing I recall about the piece was Lester’s response on the question of the key aspect of top race-riding: balance, was his answer. He said no layman could ever appreciate how much strength it took just to sit still on a galloping thoroughbred and ensure the weight was always distributed in a fashion that least disturbed the horse’s stride.
The media paint pictures of celebrities all the time that give totally false impressions of people.
The late Dick Francis was very close to Lester as is Victor Chandler who sings his praises as a thoroughly likeable person.
He does like money though. I saw an interview many years ago and he told a story about some racecourse reporter asking him a for an interview after he won a big race and he said ok "How much will you pay me" because apparently it wasn’t the done thing in those day. Whether he was the first jockey to be paid for an interview I don’t know but it certainly opened the flood gates and thereafter all jockeys made sure they get paid every time they step in front of a camera.
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