TIME FOR A CHANGE?

"Nice to knight you....to knight you - nice."   I can see it now as the Queen dubs Brucie.   And so another celebrity is knighted for being, well, a celebrity and joins the ranks of Sir Reg, Sir Bono, Sir Bob, Sir Tom, Sir Mick and all the other celebrities on whom honours are dubiously bestowed .

The Queen`s Birthday Honours were once again dished out to time serving civil servants, diplomats, those from `the arts` - whatever they are - judges, barons of industry and, in short, all the usual suspects.   More creditably, there were deserving honours for members of the armed forces and `ordinary` folk like the ubiquitous dinner ladies.  

But perhaps the more telling fact was not so much who were included but who were not.   And it was significantly interesting that, from the world of sport, whilst cricketers, the odd cyclist and afficionados of the sport of kings were handed gongs, not one single representative from the world of football was `honoured.`   Unless I missed someone in the small print, I couldn`t find anyone from the gentleman`s game played by hooligans.  And if that`s the case then it seems piquantly fitting that a game which at the highest level has become an industry, wallowing in excess, arrogance and a false sense of its own value, should be omitted from the ritual dance that the honours have become.

Now I would imagine that the serial super-injunction seekers of this fantasy world had already shot themselves in the foot, so to speak, and since most of the Premier League players appear to be foreign they wouldn`t qualify anyway, unless like our friends Bono and Bob they were to receive `honorary honours.`  But I would have thought room could have been found for the likes of Rickie Lambert Southampton`s Goal Machine, Gills stalwart John Nutter or even our street`s buzzin` local hero, Scott Wagstaff, who is surely due some recognition for his services to pacy flanking.  Sounds daft?   Au contraire, for it is simply to suggest that their honesty, integrity and professionalism make them as qualified, if not more so, than many who will toddle off to Buck House for an undeserved investiture. 

Maybe it`s time for an alternative honours system?  Or, even better, don`t have one at all.