SIR Bob Geldof ? ?

Subject: RE: SIR Bob Geldof ? ?
From: Musket
Date: 13 Nov 14 - 11:52 AM

You know, there's a Lord in all of us etc etc.

The maths teacher, Mr Obyee?

Gaylord Garter in the IVth form?

Seebeyee Minor fagged for Obyee's nephew, didn't he?

Sorry, must get on with this thing I am supposed to be writing. Mudcat is too good a procrastination tool. Just think, before this, it was the pub down the road...

Subject: RE: SIR Bob Geldof ? ?
From: GUEST,MikeL2
Date: 13 Nov 14 - 11:26 AM

Hi

I went to school and there was a Lord in my form.

Harry Lord.

Can I use the title Sir ?

Oh Well.........

MikeL2

Subject: RE: SIR Bob Geldof ? ?
From: Musket
Date: 13 Nov 14 - 10:07 AM

The vast number of which are not from whatever the ruling classes are. Certainly not for the last hundred years or so. There was a hoo har a couple of hundred years ago as to whether to allow industrialists rather than just landed gentry to have them, but most knighthoods over the last century have been for civil servants and academics, many of which come from all types of communities and backgrounds.

At one time, it was patronage fair and square. If people fell for it rather than land, as the medieval Barons insisted on, it was a cheap option. We still see it these days to a degree. Universities can't afford to get input from leaders of industry, commerce, medicine etc so they get them on the cheap. Visiting, honorary etc Professor usually does it. Many medical Profs are just people who give a bit of their time free to academia, likewise those concerned with governance, assurance etc. Even I fell for that one, being a visiting Prof of healthcare improvement. What it means is a medical school gets me assessing service improvement projects by medical students at a local teaching hospital. I don't get paid, because like 99.9% of people, you just get flattered to be asked.

No, I don't have a knighthood, peerage or Blue Peter badge.

Just as a point of interest... But I don't have views on those who do purely on whether they have one or not.

Sir Bob, (or Robert, as Bubblyrat reasonably points out) has been acknowledged for his work and that impresses "Johnny Foreigner," especially where NGOs have issues getting past the diplomatic circles and into the communities. I can say without doubt that the nod from the establishment has helped him open some doors, especially in areas of Africa and the India Sub Continent where such titles are revered as being more than we see them as.

Subject: RE: SIR Bob Geldof ? ?
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 13 Nov 14 - 09:24 AM

This just goes to show the ruling classes have always had the luxury of far too much spare time,
to be able to sit around on their fat pampered arses concocting all this over intricate titles bollocks...

Subject: RE: SIR Bob Geldof ? ?
From: bubblyrat
Date: 13 Nov 14 - 09:13 AM

Oh well ! Wrong again ! But at least HM could have had the decency to title him "Sir Robert" and not "Sir Bob" ?? Likewise Sir Reginald Dwight ( Elton John ) and Sir Harry Webb (Cliff Richard ); so much more civilised,don't you think??

Incidentally, on the subject of titles, my partner's great-great grandfather was an "Honorary Custos" in Westmoreland, Jamaica ; he gradually came to assume the title "The Hon ", and he even claimed to be armigerous ,as we have his "coat of arms" , but then we have the "pigtail" of another ancestor,Captain Philip Leyson, supposed to have been "shot off" in a battle with French pirates , BUT ; pinches of salt all round, I think !!

Subject: RE: SIR Bob Geldof ? ?
From: Musket
Date: 12 Nov 14 - 11:30 AM

Please forgive the plural. I shall take a revolver and a bottle of whisky into my study at once.

Subject: RE: SIR Bob Geldof ? ?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 12 Nov 14 - 11:08 AM

"Irish citizens ... didn't realise that if this was a British knighthood they wouldn't be entitled to be sirred" -- a highly questionable statement, in view of the assertion in the immediately preceding post, "Irish honoraries can use title, according to Debretts."

I suspect Debrett would know better than Mr Thompson.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: SIR Bob Geldof ? ?
From: Musket
Date: 12 Nov 14 - 07:49 AM

Thing is Thompson, they can. However, only when in The UK though in theory, although in practice, if your driving licence says Sir on it, other countries tend to accept that.

Irish honorary knights can use title over here whilst, for instance, American ones can't. (Commonwealth aren't honorary, so full knights and dames anyway.) The Irish clause, despite the error in the Wikipedia entry, denotes the fact that Ireland as part of treaties at the time of independence made allowances for living receivers of honours at the time and put the half half status for future ones as a compromise. To be fair, nobody expected at the time that any Irish citizen would wish to receive a Royal honour, but that was a different age...

Names are whatever you wish them to be. You could call yourself Lord Thompson if you wished over here and so long as you don't infer peerage for gain or favour, you are doing no wrong. See the late Screaming Lord Sutch for details.

Subject: RE: SIR Bob Geldof ? ?
From: Thompson
Date: 12 Nov 14 - 06:09 AM

Thanks, Bubblyrat, for that interesting fact. I knew that Irish citizens had to ask the Government if they wished to accept a foreign honour (a friend had to when he was offered the Legion d'Honneur, for instance), but didn't realise that if this was a British knighthood they wouldn't be entitled to be sirred.
Yet another entrancing fact for my collection - like the way you have to say "George Gordon, Lord Byron", because he was a hereditary lord, but if he were not, you'd have to… damn, I've forgotten that one.
But thanks, yeah, love it!

Subject: RE: SIR Bob Geldof ? ?
From: Musket
Date: 11 Nov 14 - 01:17 PM

Bubblyrat just put

"If in doubt, look at Wikipedia."

Most of us, if we say that, say it with a sense of irony.

Out of interest, of all sovereign countries, Ireland is the one where the rules for honorary gongs are different. Otherwise, pre independence gongs and historic titles would have to be nullified. (You only have the gong when alive, but the title outlives you.) In that respect, Ireland has a status that is not the same of UK and The Commonwealth, but Irish honoraries can use title, according to Debretts.

Subject: RE: SIR Bob Geldof ? ?
From: mayomick
Date: 11 Nov 14 - 08:21 AM

a friend was at a small theatre in London . Sittihg next to him was an attractive young lady , who he started chatting to during the interval . This was in the eighties. "Oh you're from Ireland "she said hearing his accent. Bob Geldoff's from Ireland , he's Irish isn't he "? My friend said ,yes Bob Geldoff is from Ireland and that he was indeed Irish , but that most Irish people didn't really see him as being Irish. as such . "How do they see him then if they don't see him as Irish -as English?" "No", he said "not as English" and tried to explain what Irish people think of Geldoff. Eventually he gave up and said "Well really they just see him as an asshole ".
"Bob Geldoff is my husband"
My friend is very polite . He told me how embarrassed he'd been but she brushed aside his attempted profuse apologies: " They're right", she said that's exactly what he is.

Subject: RE: SIR Bob Geldof ? ?
From: mayomick
Date: 11 Nov 14 - 07:59 AM

Guest seems to think the Irish would do anything to be different from their neighbours in the UK . Anybody who lives here in the south of Ireland - including I'm sure the vast majority of British people - would tell him/her that the opposite is true. The Irish are often opposed to British politicians , but British people shouldn't mistake that for some sort of insular hatred towards the way things are done in the UK . Guest , you should ask yourself why so many Irish people follow British soccer teams, watch British TV channels ,go to the same sort of holiday destinations as British people do etc etc.. (If your answer is "because we're so much better at everything in Blighty" , then the problem is coming from your end!)

Subject: RE: SIR Bob Geldof ? ?
From: bubblyrat
Date: 11 Nov 14 - 07:58 AM

Unlike Sir Terry Wogan , Mr Geldof appears NOT to have dual English / Irish citizenship.Therefore,he can , like Bill Gates KBE, be referred to as Bob Geldof KBE , but not Sir Bob (as Bill cannot be Sir Bill). I am sorry, but that's how it is !!! If in doubt, look at Wikipedia .

Subject: RE: SIR Bob Geldof ? ?
From: GUEST,Rahere
Date: 11 Nov 14 - 06:43 AM

Give it a few more years andd the accounts of the Olympics will come home to roost. Jeffrey Archer named it first, and it's a subject he's something of an expert in. Coe certainly ran fast, but his capacity as a manager? Well, I was at Loughborough at the same time he was, and we never saw him in our Management School, so he's homegrown at best, which shows in the cost overruns.

Subject: RE: SIR Bob Geldof ? ?
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Nov 14 - 05:16 AM

Another common error (by the BBC and others) is to call someone like Sebastian Coe 'Lord Sebastian Coe.' He's Lord Coe of somewhere or other. Putting his first name into the title implies he's the son of an hereditary peer rather than a life peer.

Still, good to see than Anthony Wedgwood Benn's cunning plan to relinquish his peerage in order to stay in the House of Commons but making sure his heirs could reclaim it after his death has worked. The third Viscount Stansgate has recently been admitted to the hereditary peerage

Subject: RE: SIR Bob Geldof ? ?
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 11 Nov 14 - 05:12 AM

I seem to remember that when Charles and Diana married, it was officially announced that she would be known as 'Princess Charles', like Princess Michael of Kent.

Subject: RE: SIR Bob Geldof ? ?
From: Johnny J
Date: 11 Nov 14 - 04:06 AM

Is this not a fuss about nothing?

Another incorrect title was that of Princess Diana. She was actually Diana, Princess of Wales. Nobody really bothered or complained though.

Subject: RE: SIR Bob Geldof ? ?
From: MartinRyan
Date: 11 Nov 14 - 01:38 AM

BTW - we're still pint-sized in Ireland...

Regards

Subject: RE: SIR Bob Geldof ? ?
From: michaelr
Date: 11 Nov 14 - 12:08 AM

"I have strong opinions,often get my facts wrong, and am good at upsetting people . What is wrong with that ??"

Bubbly is the British gnu.

Subject: RE: SIR Bob Geldof ? ?
From: GUEST,Peter
Date: 10 Nov 14 - 06:38 PM

Sorry Treewind, you fell for Torygraph misreporting there.
UK road signs aren't going metric. The change is that new height and width restriction signs now have to be dual imperial - metric.

Subject: RE: SIR Bob Geldof ? ?
From: treewind
Date: 10 Nov 14 - 06:10 PM

That was me. Someone "borrowed" my cookie!

Subject: RE: SIR Bob Geldof ? ?
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Nov 14 - 06:10 PM

Anyway. Bubblyrat's right, and the TV were wrong. (so what's new?)

And not only does Eire have the Euro and is not part of the UK, but I learned recently that their road signs are in Km and speed limits shown in km/h. Anything to be different, except I also learned in the same conversation that the UK road signs are also going to go metric soon.
Then we'll be just like Canada, which is all metric except for pints of beer.

Subject: RE: SIR Bob Geldof ? ?
From: bubblyrat
Date: 10 Nov 14 - 04:55 PM

Yes, I have often been called a twat !! I have strong opinions,often get my facts wrong, and am good at upsetting people . What is wrong with that ?? I have never been a "yes man" if I perceive something to be wrong ; the world needs more like me !!!

Subject: RE: SIR Bob Geldof ? ?
From: GUEST,Ma Flannery
Date: 10 Nov 14 - 04:38 PM

Hey Bubblesrat, from where can your your wild statement find even a modicum of statutory authority ?its just more of that imperialistic pomposity that keeps you & your likes afloat.Your unwarranted outburst of verbal diorehha leaves a nasty & unhelpful odour
hello Martin ,
Ma Flannery

Subject: RE: SIR Bob Geldof ? ?
From: MartinRyan
Date: 10 Nov 14 - 03:41 PM

I thought it was SAINTHOOD he was looking for? ;>)>

Regards

p.s. Probably cheaper these days - it's a buyer's market...

Subject: RE: SIR Bob Geldof ? ?
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Nov 14 - 03:31 PM

bubblyrat,

Did anyone ever tell you that you're a bit of a twat?

They should have.

Subject: RE: SIR Bob Geldof ? ?
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 10 Nov 14 - 02:12 PM

He's bloody tall..

I once realised I was standing next to him looking at a painting in a London Gallery.

It was a dead quiet afternoon and we were the only 2 people in room..

He didn't realise who I was though...

So I thought "sod 'im" and ignored the lanky git...

Subject: RE: SIR Bob Geldof ? ?
From: Musket
Date: 10 Nov 14 - 02:00 PM

Put him in the tower!

Johnny Foreigner can use the title here, but not abroad if you must know the ettiquette. The media can call him whatever they want, and often do....

Subject: RE: SIR Bob Geldof ? ?
From: fat B****rd
Date: 10 Nov 14 - 01:55 PM

Aye, right. You tell 'em. Bubblyrat.

Subject: SIR Bob Geldof ? ?
From: bubblyrat
Date: 10 Nov 14 - 01:51 PM

Tonight on UK Tv News , there was an item about Bob Geldof trying to reprise his "feed the world" money-raising success of 30-odd years ago. The newsreader , Fiona Bruce , referred to him as SIR Bob Geldof , and he was also subtitled thus whilst being interviewed.

Bob Geldof was awarded an HONORARY Knighthood by the Queen ; as such,and NOT being a British Citizen, he cannot use the title "SIR" , although he CAN refer to himself as Bob Geldof KBE , or KBE (hon) . I wish some people,especially the "media" ,were able to grasp this simple fact . He is NOT "SIR" Bob , OK ??? He comes from the Republic of Ireland , which despite what some US economists said and thought recently , is NOT part of the United Kingdom, is a seperate European country , and uses the EURO as its currency !!