New Year Honours

[yousnoozeyoulose]

See that Lisa Carrington & Sophie Pascoe are now Dames.

Never been keen on active sportspeople getting the top honours. Why can't they wait until they retire? Didn't use to happen as much, but then the Poms started handing them out to pretty much anyone who won a gold medal and it's become de rigueur.

Athletics great Peter Snell didn't get knighted until 2007. He was in his late 60s. Pascoe is 28.

[king1]

agreed, it's always irked me why some sportspeople get the accolades they do, when they are just doing their damned job that they are paid to do...
I would go further and say that, the bar should be a lot higher for professionals

[Oh_hunnihunni]

No honours for Olivia Podmore though?

Considering what an agent for change she became, she certainly earned some.

[yousnoozeyoulose]

agreed, it's always irked me why some sportspeople get the accolades they do, when they are just doing their damned job that they are paid to do...
I would go further and say that, the bar should be a lot higher for professionals

Once you go down the avenue of professionalism, you might as well only give honours to people doing unpaid work.

Admittedly, Carrington and Pascoe aren't exactly well-paid for their endeavours since they play the wrong sport and because they've got lady parts. Canoeing and Para Swimming aren't exactly the types of sports that bring in the advertising dollars, but they still get recognition for their successes.

One feels that knighthoods and damehoods were a way to recognise the unrecognisable. Fifty years of services to something - that should be applauded. Less so the people that have spent the last 10 years being cheered and applauded for being the fastest or bestest at something. Not saying they're not deserving... maybe just less deserving.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

I think they are huge role models, and that contribution does deserve recognition. But maybe not quite at the level they have received. Knighthoods should be reserved for lifetime achievement I think, or extraordinary acts of social generosity.

And never bought or sold, so politicians should be excluded on principle.

[yousnoozeyoulose]

Definitely no politicians.

Ex-PMs shouldn't get honours - surely, "Oh, I was the prime minister once" is more than enough to get you the good table at a restaurant. Criminals like Shipley don't deserve any sort of honorific.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

The same applies to business people looking to put a good political job title on their CV.

Politics is not a business and while the two have have similar functions at times the motivations couldn't be more different.

[Lilith7]

I think they are huge role models, and that contribution does deserve recognition. But maybe not quite at the level they have received. Knighthoods should be reserved for lifetime achievement I think, or extraordinary acts of social generosity.

And never bought or sold, so politicians should be excluded on principle.

Absobloodylutely! And imo, the likes of people such as Celia Lashlie & Fred Hollows  should be given all the honours we can come up with. Of course, Fred Hollows did get Australian of the year, which is apparently an honour.

Despite his being a Kiwi...


There should be a special category of honours specifically for sports people.

[yousnoozeyoulose]

Those two were awarded Sportswoman and Para Athlete of the Decade earlier in the year which are pretty decent honours to bung on your CV. Turn them into some catchy post-nominal letters and you're golden.