Bangles and Baubles
Posted by almax on June 16, 2007
I’m by no means a fan of the honours system. Although, on the positive side, it recognises otherwise unsung local heroes and charity workers etc, it is much better known for bestowing thoroughly undeserved awards on civil servants, politicians, pop stars, footballers and other minor celebrities.
I have myself turned down the offer of a knighthood on several occasions, purely on principle.
However, ditching the principle for the moment, may I say how pleased I was to read of knighthoods for Ian Botham and Salman Rushdie.
Botham provided many years of fantastic and unpredictable excitement on the cricket field. I remember one occasion being in The Press Bar in Glasgow in the mid-eighties with my pal Mike - it was just around lunchtime and there was the usual hubbub of animated conversation going on in this pub which was the regular haunt of journalists from the Herald, and in the background there was an unwatched TV showing some Test Match cricket. All of a sudden the bar went temporarily quiet and all eyes turned to the screen. The reason? Ian Botham was coming out to bat.
Mike correctly observed that such a reaction in a pub in the centre of Glasgow could only have been produced by one cricketer.
Ian Botham - a true English hero - and I don’t even need to mention his unstinting charity work.
The knighthood for Salman Rushdie is surely an overdue re-assertion of our veneration of free speech in the face of mindless religious zealotry.
June 24, 2007 at 7:13 pm
The whole debate over the rights and wrongs of the award for Salman Rushdie reminds me that at the time of the fattwa being issued a friend of mine mocked up a poster which he taped to the window of Johns Smiths bookshop in Glasgow. Under a picture of a smiling Salman it read, “Salman Rushdie will be at John Smiths bookshop this Friday to sign Copies of his bestselling book The Satanic Verses, tickets available in store”. John Smiths bookshop is of course no longer with us…..a co-incidence?…I think not.
June 24, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Of course, it was always an incredibly tight squeeze to move about inside John Smiths - “Assassins doing the Ayatollah’s work? - single file please. Just be patient. Everyone will get their chance. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire? No, sorry that one hasn’t been written yet I’m afraid………Keep moving, everyone’ll get their turn”