Knighthoods and taking them away

[Dom Tuk]

Dont you think Prof. Sir  Roy Meadows could be unknighted for all the misery that his work and theories have caused to the families concerned. I would suggest Arthur C Clarke should no longer be a knight. Anyone add to this list??

[Romeo]

Why have knighthoods in the first place? Why not do away altogether with titles like Sir, Dame, Lord, Lady, etc?   

[tartanwiz]

Well said, Romeo!

[mightywease]

SIR Mark Thatcher. In fact anyone with the surname "Thatcher"!

[bernardo]

What's wrong with Arthur C. Clarke?

[graemer]

Bernardo, I presume Dom is referring to a sex scandal that was alleged but I don't think proven. See the following:

http://www.wsfa.org/journal/j98/2/

[Hgrove]

I do agree about Prof. Sir Roy Meadows and also Mark Thatcher; don't know anything about Arthur C. Clarke.  About Prof. Sir Roy Meadow, bear in mind that he may have been struck off, but not before receiving his fat bonuses and full pension.  He has not lost a penny. The same thing happened with the doctors involved in a scandal about heart operations which killed or maimed lots of babies (can't remember the hospital - it may have been in Liverpool).  All the investigations and discilinary proceedings took place after they had reached their natural retirement age, pocketed their fat bonuses and their generous pension.

[Octavius]

Is Jeffrey Archer still 'titled'?

[Peter Pedant]

No Sir Roy has not been struck off, and the GMC case is gonna be heard in Feb, so less said the better until the verdict - [or determination] comes in.

Yeah, I agree there is no sense in striking off retired doctors and I dont know why they try. Status degradation ceremony I suppose.

As opposed to unKnighting someone - It was done to Sir Anthony Blunt who after all was a Russian KGB agent. However one the other side of the coin, Lord Denning suggested that there are certain things the monarch can do which are not recallable - and he suggested that knighting someone was one. I cannot remember the case though - it may have been the 1970s case when he was discussing the validity of the citizens arrest of Edward Heath when Heath wanted us to join the Common Market......

Oh! Those were the days!

[Artemis]

I see no reason why a person so honoured can't be dishonoured. Seems logical. As is hereditary honours. Like an ancestor of mine was so honoured why can I not be dishonoured?

[Octavius]

Artemis - that is a new question - if your ancestor was honoured, why should you automatically be honoured?

[barender]

Hgrove - who doesn't know anything about Arthur C Clarke - have you never seen 2001 A Space Odyssey?

You should check him out some time!

[Andrew Milne]

Talking of Lord Denning, Master of the Rolls, here's a couple of quotes:
"Wrongfully convicted prisoners should stay in jail rather than be freed and risk a loss of public confidence in the law." (Lord Denning, 21/2/88), and
Retired judge Lord Denning was rapped over the knuckles in August when, after the release of the Guildford Four, he regretted the abolition of capital punishment in Britain. If �they had been hanged, they would have been forgotten and the whole community would have been satisfied�, he told the Spectator magazine.
This was the monster that until recently was head of Britain�s criminal justice system. Would like to put his lordship�s name forward as a candidate that richly deserves his reputation trashed, albeit posthumously.