I argued in the Western Mail today that a Welsh honours system must give proper recognition to public workers like carers, nurses and teachers. I think that trade unions and other organisations representing working people should be involved in awarding the honours. A Welsh system must not copy the existing London-based honours - I'll only support a Welsh honours system that is very different from the existing London one. I think that we should honour public sector workers who go the extra mile over and above the call of duty. We cannot have an elitist system.
If we are to have an honours system in Wales, let’s have one owned by the people of Wales rather than the establishment. One way to avoid having the establishment in control would be to allow the trade unions and ordinary people to decide on who receive the awards.
5 comments:
Couldn't agree more.
Instead of making a big thing of honouring celebrities, the Welsh honours system should celebrate hard working individuals who serve the public.
Good luck with the new blog!
Hello leanne welcome back -
do we really want another system that will feed the usual crowd, cost us money and perpertate a foreign system.
I dont and everyone I have spoken to has said , no way.
Get on and govern the country please
Valleys mam,
You have made the mistake of assuming that any Welsh honour system should copy the discredited British model. Why should it?
Leanne is absolutely right in talking up a new approach to recognition for the people of Wales.
Perhaps the hardworking individuals who serve the public might be better served themselves by being honoured in a way that really matters.
How about better pay? Being more valued by society and government? And having fewer of our public services sold off through PFI etc?
I must ask: what would be the point? We already have a perfectly decent honours system that DOES honour the "unsung heroes" of community life for anything and everything and has done for years and years (my own great-grandfather, an electrical engineer in a coal mine, was awarded the now-defunct BEM). A new honours system would cost money (separate production of Welsh honours vice British ones) that could be better spent on said carers, teachers &c. (not forgetting that other constituent parts of our United Kingdom would no doubt want their own honours as well, costing money to the taxpayers in other poor areas of our nation) and, as I've written before, strikes me as pointless, as a silly idea that'll help no one. I think you're confusing the press reception of New Years' Honours Lists and Queen's Birthday Honours Lists with the actual lists themselves: the press highlight rock-stars and TV celebrities being given awards because they're what sells newspapers. Only a very few of the many perhaps more deserving stories reach the pages of our national newspapers.
I'll be happy with an MBE, thank you very much.
Post a Comment