Wednesday
Dec312014
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Gongs
Dec 31, 2014 Climate: other It's New Year's Honours list time once again here in the UK and as always I peruse the official list with interest looking out for familiar names from the climate debate. As with last year's list there is little that will get readers excited, with only an OBE for Tim Palmer of Oxford in the list and Palmer is is at least a member of the sensible brigade.
One other name that caused me to raise an eyebrow was someone called Stephen Stamp, whose citation explains the reason for his OBE as follows:
Operations Team Leader, Environment Agency. For services to the Environment and Flood Risk Management. (Highbridge, Somerset)
Given the shambles that led up to the flooding of the Somerset Levels last year, I'm not entirely sure that I'm comfortable with someone involved in flood risk management in that part of the world getting a gong, but it's hard to say for certain.
Reader Comments (21)
One wonders what one has to do to be awarded a stint in the Tower....
Baroness Worthington says it all.
If morons like that can be elevated to the House of Lords God help us.
They should rename it "The Annual Quango Awards" or the "Keeping Your Mouth Shut and Head Down Awards".
Cant quite put my finger on it but I am no great fan of the gongmanship. Need to phone a friend. Now then, now then, Sir Jimmy, you there?
You could try Sir Cyril.
99% of the time gongs are extra gifts to people who are already over rewarded. They should be rewards for people who should get more recognition for what they do or for a lifetime of work. It certainly shouldn't be in return for donating to a political party or pursuing your chosen career (eg actors or civil servants).
Also OBE for William MacKenzie CATTANACH
Head, PILOT Secretariat, Department of
Energy and Climate Change. For
services to Oil and Gas Infrastructure.
http://www.eeegr.com/board/bill-cattanach-8.html
and
Matthew Shackleton CHINN
Managing Director, Energy, Siemens
plc. For services to the UK Renewable
Energy Industry.
and
Professor Paul EKINS
Director and Professor of Resources
and Environment Policy, Institute for
Sustainable Resources, UCL. For
services to Environmental Policy.
probably loads more...
Perhaps Mr Stamp is soon retiring. We know that most senior civil servants receive a gong at some time, late in their career. Same with the military.
Prof Stephen Hawking has a CBE. It's amazing what he has achieved considering his disastrous personal circumstances and it would be brilliant for the man to receive a knighthood. When you think of carpet and car salesmen that have knighthoods, but not Hawking, you begin to wonder if we have our priorities in the right place.
Water down...demean. Must be more inclusive though...not merit then?
Noticed it with ranks in the military....a Sergeant was it largely. By the time I got there (10 yrs) I was none too polite to a Squadron Leader or three.
As with Lord/Lady/Sir....ignore.
There are some exceptions of course...largely not heard of.
Where I worked, in my professional life, the successful project managers were rarely rewarded for their successes; it was often the case that when a project failed the PM who rescued it - having been responsible for the original failure - was rewarded for the 'extra effort' put in... Such is life. [sigh]
@ Q - at 10:40 AM
"Also OBE for William MacKenzie CATTANACH, Head, PILOT Secretariat, Department of Energy and Climate Change. For
services to Oil and Gas Infrastructure."
Was it his decision that in the UK, gas is to be redundant by 2050?
Harry Passfield - the project life-cycle:
Euphoria
Disillusionment
Panic
Search for the guilty
Punish the innocent
Reward the uninvolved
The writer JG Ballard turned down a CBE for services to literature in this year's birthday honours
My favourite writer ever since I read Vermillion Sands when it first came out.
You'll all be aware, I'm sure, that OBE stands for 'Other Buggers' Efforts'....
Late news: Knighthood for
Obsekweus Seiko-Fant
For services to the Establishment
Hydin-under-Stone, Shrops
...I'm not entirely sure that I'm comfortable with someone involved in flood risk management in that part of the world getting a gong...
If you have read your 'Yes, Minister' thoroughly, you will know that gongs are often awarded to SHUT PEOPLE UP.
Which suggests that it would be interesting to know what Mr Stamp knows. And that it is unlikely that Mr Stamp will tell anyone...
Just wanted to say happy new year, Bishop! You've been a brick, a star, a prop I've often leant on when I've felt I was teetering on screeming my head off!! Rationality a hard fought for requirement of civilization and, as we see, so easily lost. (I remember your site even when it was 'purely' political! - we're sympatica!)
The other 'gongs' go to Judith Curry, for carrying on her honest sanity in a world quite insane, Ben
Pile, for thinking, if nothing else, A Watts for being what he is and, politically speaking, to Graham Stringer, for opposing cant by being a real Labour man and, of course, Owen Patterson, for being one of the few decent politicians that, in our recent history, have held office.
Congrats to them all and, repeat, to you!
And, of course, Steve Mc, our unacknowledged 'king', in boxing terms, always a 'prize fighter', always back in the ring....
1st rule of project management. Punish the innocent promote the guilty
For younger viewrs I refer you to the biggest disaster of the 20th century Louis Mountbatten - after Stalin and Hitler prbably resonsible for the most deaths. Ask any Indian or Pakistani.
1st rule of project management. Punish the innocent promote the guilty
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Oh, yeah. I spent two years pulling an IT project out of the thousand foot deep doo-do that it was in, and got nothing (I wasn't punished, though, except in the sense of having to do this very difficult and stressful job).
The architect of this multi-million dollar screwup got promoted, not least because people up the line thought that he was "an innovator" and "a visionary."