Pswhatsmore's Blog

So Christopher Lee has finally been knighted, appropriately the day before Hallowe’en, given his Hammer House of Horror career. Lee is now 87. He walked with a stick when attending Buckingham Palace to receive his honour, although he is clearly very fit for his advanced years. But he is still a very old man by anyone’s calculations.

So is the honours system in Britain now off kilter?

When a damehood was awarded to Kelly Holmes in 2005 how many of us had actually heard of her before then? It perhaps seemed that she had simply won a couple of races and was given a damehood for it. Of course it is conceded that some effort would have been required to win these races, but surely there has to be some kind of uniform system to decide the way the honours are handed out which recognises sustained effort rather than just a short burst?

Others honoured this year in the Birthday Honours List included golfer Nick Faldo. He has been a successful sportsman for many years, winning titles worldwide and becoming a household name. It seems a fitting tribute to his talent, hard work and long term contribution to the sport that he has been honoured in this way. Hopefully, having been given the honour in early middle age, he will have enough years left during which to both enjoy the accolade and also use it in endorsing charities and other good causes.

Bruce Forsyth is another apparently deserving case. He will be 82 in 2010 and has had a lifetime in showbusiness as well as his unstinting work for the Variety Club. Since he was awarded the CBE in 2005 he cannot be considered for another honour for five years. Why then, had Brucie not done enough to achieve the highest rank of knight of the realm in 2005? He is a household name, and entertainer supreme over many, many years. A petition to have him elevated to a knighthood attracted thousands of signatures but all to no avail. It may be that in the New Year honours list of 2010 he will finally become Sir Bruce, octogenarian supreme.

The Honours system has been reviewed and changed over the last few years and it is asserted by the government that the system is more ‘open, diverse and easy to understand.’ The committee system which decides the nominations that will be fulfilled has been changed, and is now peopled by persons outwith government who have experience in different fields. The system is designed to recognise ‘merit, gallantry and service.’ There are many levels of award including the OBE and CBE which can be handed out to people in many walks of life, and it is quite correct that the pinnacle is reserved for those who have actually reached the appropriate level of achievement in their lives or sporting careers. However it seems to me that awarding a knighthood to an 87 year old who has entertained millions for many years is perhaps a little too late by any standards.

The case of Baby P caused much public outcry and thus to most people reading the news today that Jason Owen will now be released from prison in just two years might seem unjust.

Jason Owen was the lodger in the house where Baby Peter lived with his mother and her boyfriend, who is also Owen’s brother. The court decided that although Owen did nothing to stop the violence against the young baby, he would not necessarily be at risk of doing anything like this again and thus the indeterminate sentence handed down to him was unfair.

But Jason Owen and his brother Steven Barker had a history. They had already tortured their own grandmother, although any proceedings against them were abandoned, principally because the granny died and thus evidence must have been hard to come by.

The Telegraph reported in August that the boys’ own father had denounced them as monsters. So how does our prison system aim to rehabilitate Owen in such a short time? It begs the question if rehabilitation is the aim of the prison system. It certainly does not seem to have punishment in its sights.

Halloween is big, Christmas is even bigger and then of course there is Labour Day, Thanksgiving and New Years!

All these holidays are a time to have fun. Maybe the Americans have it right after all. In Scotland we are very big on Hogmanay, although a little more restrained at Christmas, traditionally a family time so maybe that is why!

Halloween here in the US is very black and orange. Every shop window is dressed in witches and broomsticks and spiders’ webs. Houses are already sporting pumpkins on the doorstep ready to be carved into a leering smile to ward off the bad spirits. Pumpkins are ten a penny here and the photograph shows a display we saw in Napa Valley. Many beautiful colours and all shapes and sizes. Of course since the Americans are mainly derived from immigrants the celebrations had to be brought with them and the Halloween thing came from Ireland!

The guys over at Technorati have redesigned their site and it goes live today. This is what Wikipedia has to say about Technorati :-’Technorati is an Internet search engine for searching blogs. By June 2008, Technorati indexes 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media. The name Technorati is a portmanteau of the words technology and literati, which invokes the notion of technological intelligence or intellectualism.’

I am one of the new writers so for my article see this link!