“The Queen does not personally offer or grant honours, with the exception of the Order of the Garter - which only has 24 life members (plus HM and the Prince of Wales). Nobody has ever turned down The Queen's offer of the Order of the Garter.

The honours which The Queen bestows are authorised and granted by the Cabinet Office; as we live in a parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarch.
In this country we are free to accept, or decline, any honour.

Finally, the honours system is already under review; which should result in many more community awards being made in the future.”

“Perhaps they don't want to be in the same club as Sir Fred Goodwin, Sir Mark Thatcher, Robert Mugabe, Political party donors, Toadies and palm greasers, and countless others that make it look more like a rogues gallery than exemplars.
But many who have turned down honours only to hypocritically accept a 'higher' honour later.

What we need is a new honours system that is untarnished by association that recognises and rewards those who selflessly devote their lives to charities and the benefit of the community.
And let's have some recognition for the ordinary men and women who try to reclaim their streets from the thugs and have often paid the ultimate price.”

“homer jay. Very valid points with which I agree entirely. That said, the system is changing, and has to some degree changed already.
Today, anyone, including those you mention, may be recommended by others to receive an honour. Details concerning all applications may be found at, http://tinyurl.com/cxbrfx.”

“My apologies. It seems one cannot make a usable tinyurl for some .gov websites. Instead, just Google, 'Application for honours'.”

“Thanks Taxman, perhaps we need some new titles that make them true awards of honour ie. 'the quality of knowing and doing what is morally right'”

“Well said Taxman, you would have thought that this newspaper would have known that the Queen does not bestow these "Honours". Homerjay I agree with your comments, I believe that if you turn down one honour your name should not be considered in any future award. We once had an award for the "Common Man", it was the BEM which some crackpot government decided to scrap some years ago, OK the name of the award was outdated but surely they could have simply renamed it.”

“The Queen also awards the The Royal Victorian Order is a dynastic order of knighthood and a house order of chivalry recognising distinguished personal service to the order's Sovereign, the reigning monarch of the Commonwealth realms, any members of her family, or any of her viceroys. The order was established in 1896. There are no limits on the number of inductees, and admission remains the personal gift of the monarch.”

“JeremyBadger
It's all user generated comment so the newspaper isn't guilty, however a 'common man' award could be reincarnated, 'Local Hero' or similar. We could do with more of these exemplars.
I don't expect that will ever cover blogging though!”

“jeremybadger. Agreed, the RVO is awarded by The Queen. However, it is usually considered to be apart from all other honours, as it is awarded only to those who have performed services for, and on behalf of, HM.
In addition, it is unique as it includes honours and awards (decorations); which are normally quite separate entities.”

“Source - The BBC

Link:

http://tinyurl.com/6tpsh92

BBC words:

Headline:

Queen's honours: People who have turned them down named


Opening text:

The author Roald Dahl and artist Lucien Freud are among those who have turned down honours from the Queen, according to official government records.


And I thought I could trust the BBC!!!!!!!!!!!”

“Alistair, You must be joking!”

“This has all got me so upset I think I will now have no choice but to send my MBE back.”

“Strange, but I notice that C.S. Forester, (one of my favourite authors), also refused an honour.
it seems that Roald Dahl was inspired to write after a meeting with Forester and also refused an honour.”

“Alastair. Trust the BBC? How naughty of you! The Beep is as biased as the Guardian and Daily Mail.

In any given year hundreds of Honours are awarded, and those who refuse them represent about 0.001%. There are also others who have declined the honour as they felt the level of the award was, 'to menial'; most notably amongst the Arts fraternity - but later accepted a higher award. Also, there are those like Michael Caine, who literally begged to be given one! It is of significant note that many of the 'Republican leaning individuals' accept their honour gracefully - how very odd?”

“Sir Alex Salmond, that has a ring to it!”

“Many a true word spoken in jest! The SNP do have offshore SIR Sean Connery as a supporter!

Seriously, if you can't trust the BBC, which media source can be trusted? The newspapers are full of opinion columns and analysis which seems to dominate the newspapers rather than actual news. I don't bother buying any other than the Cornish Guardian weekly now.”

“"which media source can be trusted?"

The SUN,

How about sir dickie cole? and if he got the knighthood the queen would say to him, rise sir dick! and then dick would rise,”

“which media source can be trusted?"

The SUN,

http://tinyurl.com/7dmn5rb”

“There be no honours once Mr Salmond comes to power.

President-for-Life Salmond.”

“I think it would be a very wonderful thing if the Sun 'newspaper' went the same way as the News of the World. It is an utter rag and demeans women.”

“News of the World and Sunday Sport, what a loss to journalism. They had the guts to bring us the facts about the WW2 Bomber found on the Moon, the London bus lost in the Arctic, proof that Elvis is still alive and Iraq's WMD's ...”

“And of course celebrating the loss of over 300 sailors:

http://tinyurl.com/6p7cfml

Quality journalism indeed.”

“Hanky_spanky. How right you are. In times of war newspapers like the Sun (if it is a newspaper at all) attempt to glorify the event and usually take on an unacceptable nationalistic hue. I can assure you, from experience, war is not a subject to be glorified. It is bloody, and the loss of young life on both sides of the equation is most definitely not a cause for celebration!

Alastair. Sir Sean Connery: claims to be an unyielding Scot, yet will never return to his country of birth, which he professes to love so much, to live on a permanent basis! There is a name for people like that which currently escapes my memory! Or, is not printable here.”

“Taxman100, Interesting point but isn't that just a freedom to print? I recall Rupert Murdoch saying that the markets would sort themselves out, so page 3 girls are popular and sell papers, I personal don't need some do-gooder telling me I can't see page 3, but back on that headline thing we have just had the same with Colonel Gaddafi's and Bin Laden, I don't think those headlines as nationalistic but it was the same kind of thing and again it is a freedom to print, how much of a problem it is I don't really know.

I do think it is often very entertaining and regarding the Falkland's war and those headlines I don't have a problem with them, I think it was needed at the time and had been written with a realistic attitude to situations and its many problems.”

“newtoyou. I don't fully disagree with your comments. I do however believe that like freedom of speech, the freedom of the press does have certain responsibilities that go hand in hand with it.
At the time of the sinking of the Belgrano I was a young Captain serving in the Falklands, and on hearing the news I can assure you that none of my lot cheered, or screamed, "Gotcha"; even if we might have felt it was the right sentiment to express at the time.”