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French economist Thomas Piketty

"I have just learned that I was nominated for the Legion D'Honneur. I refuse this nomination because I do not think it is the government's role to decide who is honourable," he told the news agency AFP.

Arginald, Spider, David, what sour and seemingly cynical buggers you are.
I would be amused to see if HMG offered you via the Queen an O.B.E.,
M.B.E. or the like whether you might be so keen to disparage the awards
system. OF COURSE there is some luvviedom at work in these honours, it
can hardly be otherwise when the so-called British Establishment is still
firmly entrenched. By and large they award not just the famous (eg a few
stars of stage and screen or aging politicians) but many, many unknowns
who have done good for their communities.
One can always dispute certain people being honoured and it is so smug to
pinpoint Saville or Harris now they are disgraced. Both men were famous
a decade ago, as I recall, for many charitable actions (in Saville`s case
especially his awful crimes have pushed the good he also did way into the
background, yet "good" he most certainly did in many cases). You have no
right to smugly mark him out now as not worthy of honours. Then was then
and now is now !
Its NOT a perfect honours system but I would sooner many of these good
folk were acknowledged in some way than assume we must all adopt the
moral views of a rabidly left-wing I.R.A. supporting promoter such as Ken
Loach. He - and you - have no right to the moral high ground here.

"Arginald, Spider, David, what sour and seemingly cynical buggers you are. He (ken Loach) and you - have no right to the moral high ground here."

Frank, I would prefer that you did not try to guess my views. And having then made a guess at my views, condemned me for them.

As you can see from this thread I have made one post where I pointed out that Thomas Picketty had refused an honour in France and what the reason for that decision was.

That has been my sole contribution. Nowhere have I stated that I am in favour or not of the UK honours system.

I can assure you I would turn down an honour. Our Golf Club Captain got an MBE for services to industry. He started putting the letters MBE on all the club notices.....until some wag wrote "Miniscule Bell End" in brackets...needless to say he has gone back to name only.

Well Frank I?m thinking of nominating you for an honour. A KBE say for services to the British Adult Film Industry. If Sean Connery gets one surely you deserve one.

You seem to have glossed-over the fact that the whole motivation for Sir Jimmy?s charity work was that it allowed him unrestricted access to young and venerable people. I?m guess it was the same for Rolf.

Ken Loach has every right to comment on the system. When he made the remarks he was explaining why he had refused an OBE. His anti-establishment views have been well documented from the days he was working in TV directing various ?The Wednesday Play? in the 1960s and ?Play for Today? in the 1970s. Why did they offer him an OBE? He knew of course that if he had accepted it, the next time he made anything vaguely anti-establishment his OBE would be used as a stick to beat him with.

As for ?me not having the right to take the moral high ground?. Who are you to say what my rights are? That?s the government?s job.

I would love it if Liz Saxe-Coburg Gotha offered me an honour. I could tell he to stuff it where the sun doesn?t shine.