Re: Honours and gongs : Tue Jul 09, 2013 3:25 pm  

Mintball wrote:

Setting aside the issue of honours as a whole (did you know that the record for most rejections of honours goes to LS Lowry?), it's something you offer at the end of someone's career.

Otherwise, in this sense: two grand slams = knighthood; what happens if he wins six slams in total (as per John McEnroe's prediction), including, say, a trio of Wimbledon titles?

It's populist nonsense.

I agree with you (for a change). If I were Murray I'd be embarrassed to be called "Sir" whilst still playing.

Speaking of Lowry we're going to the Tate (all being well) on Satuday. Parking space / tickets reserved. Been to Salford before but Mrs D was keen to go and see some of hs work again. I like it too. Reminds me of childhood when the family still owned a mill.

Re: Honours and gongs : Tue Jul 09, 2013 3:47 pm  

JerryChicken wrote:

Couple of questions for everyone...

1. If you met a Knight of the Realm would you call him "Sir", would you address him as "Sir Andrew" for instance ?

Have done so – and no. Have managed to meet royals and not use any particularly deferrential words, although still managed to be completely polite.

JerryChicken wrote:

2. If you met Sir Andrew in a pub and he introduced himself as Sir Andrew how would that affect your opinion of him ?

I'd think he was a plonker – a bit like Ben Kingsley, who went around demanding he be addressed in such a manner for some time after his knighthood.

Re: Honours and gongs : Tue Jul 09, 2013 3:48 pm  

Dally wrote: I agree with you (for a change). If I were Murray I'd be embarrassed to be called "Sir" whilst still playing. Speaking of Lowry we're going to the Tate (all being well) on Satuday. Parking space / tickets reserved. Been to Salford before but Mrs D was keen to go and see some of hs work again. I like it too. Reminds me of childhood when the family still owned a mill. The opportunity is too good to miss ... Lowry at the Tate Lowry at the, err, Lowry (and the Manchester Art Gallery)

Dally wrote: I agree with you (for a change). If I were Murray I'd be embarrassed to be called "Sir" whilst still playing. Speaking of Lowry we're going to the Tate (all being well) on Satuday. Parking space / tickets reserved. Been to Salford before but Mrs D was keen to go and see some of hs work again. I like it too. Reminds me of childhood when the family still owned a mill. The opportunity is too good to miss ... Lowry at the Tate Lowry at the, err, Lowry (and the Manchester Art Gallery)

Re: Honours and gongs : Tue Jul 09, 2013 6:59 pm  

Mintball wrote:

I'd think he was a plonker – a bit like Ben Kingsley, who went around demanding he be addressed in such a manner for some time after his knighthood.

We have a client who insists of signing all his correspondence with MBE after his name. Twattish.

Re: Honours and gongs : Tue Jul 09, 2013 7:45 pm  

cod'ead wrote:

It's fairly typical of Cameron's psyche though. Murray trousers £1.8 million and Camoron thinks that deserves a knighthood

Erm, his cheque went to the Royal Marsden. Didn't make a song and dance about it, just did it.

There is a place for an honours system in a modern society but handing out gongs for winning a bike race or a tennis tournament isn't the way forward.

Mind in saying that, sports personality of the year is pretty much sewn up.

Re: Honours and gongs : Tue Jul 09, 2013 7:46 pm  

Andy Gilder wrote:

We have a client who insists of signing all his correspondence with MBE after his name. Twattish.

I am also of the opinion that anyone who isn't medically qualified, is a prick if he insists on using the title Dr.

And don't get me started on those who have been awarded honorary doctorates

Re: Honours and gongs : Tue Jul 09, 2013 10:33 pm  

Mintball wrote:

Have done so – and no. Have managed to meet royals and not use any particularly deferrential words, although still managed to be completely polite.

I'd think he was a plonker – a bit like Ben Kingsley, who went around demanding he be addressed in such a manner for some time after his knighthood.

Many years back I was waiting for a bus when bloke next to me announced totally out of the blue, as an opening line to the conversation that he was "A Sir", I managed to show a awesome amount of disinterest in that revelation and he promptly shut up.

Re: Honours and gongs : Wed Jul 10, 2013 12:25 am  

JerryChicken wrote:

Couple of questions for everyone...

1. If you met a Knight of the Realm would you call him "Sir", would you address him as "Sir Andrew" for instance ?

2. If you met Sir Andrew in a pub and he introduced himself as Sir Andrew how would that affect your opinion of him ?


Do you know anyone with one of the lesser medals, OBE for instance, who puts "OBE" at the end of their name when signing things, and would you do so if enobled ?

1. It would depend entirely who it was, and my personal estimation of them. When I have met Geoff Boycott, I have always made a point of calling him Sir Geoff. I think the polite thing to do would be a bit like meeting your bird's dad -it would be "Mr. " which if he wasn't a tit should lead immediately to a "call me Fred" reply. Again, of those I've met, very few revel in or want to be called by their title, but where a nobody is speaking to a kegend then the alternatives seem, to me, inappropriate. Say you were a reporter for the Wigan Herald and you were interviewing Sir Alex Ferguson. You never met before. I would say that calling him "Alex" unbidded would be plain damn rude. Calling him "Mr. Ferguson" would be plain silly, as you are being politely deferential, by using a formal title, but you are using the wrong one. I would feel perfectly comfortable sticking with "Sir Alex".

2. He would be a first class knob.

3. No, and no.

Re: Honours and gongs : Wed Jul 10, 2013 3:51 am  

cod'ead wrote:

I am also of the opinion that anyone who isn't medically qualified, is a prick if he insists on using the title Dr.

And don't get me started on those who have been awarded honorary doctorates

Anyone who stick post nominals on a letter head, business card or signature block is twatish. Unless they are a professional person (Dr, lawyer, accountant etc...) doing it in the course of their work. Even then, the 'done thing' is to drop everything but the highest qualification.

It's cringeworthy when your local estate agent / car salesman hands you a business card and they have put B.A. (Hons) after their name.

Re: Honours and gongs : Wed Jul 10, 2013 7:04 am  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

I think the polite thing to do would be a bit like meeting your bird's dad -it would be "Mr. " which if he wasn't a tit should lead immediately to a "call me Fred" reply.

This. My old boss was knighted many years ago and said to us all at the time "I wonder who the first person to call me Sir Richard will be. And it better not be anyone working in this office". Similarly most of the Sirs I've met through my work have gone along with the above. Sir on first meeting then first name after that. Not had the misfortune yet to meet a Kingsley.