Knighthoods for Chris Whitty, Patrick Valance and JVT

[LuluBlakey1]

New Year's Honours list- all 3 knighted.
So very deserved. I am delighted for them, especially for Chris Whitty and JVT.

@SoupDragon

So do you think they should have used an actor rather than someone who has spent years researching and advising on pandemics?

He’s the Chief Medical Officer for England. Who would you prefer? One of the cast of Holby City who “looks the part”?

No, they should have had someone able to show some kind of empathy for and a connection to the people they are talking to. He is talking to the general population, not a scientific symposium.

Someone like CW with his calm delivery of facts, and the weight of his scientific background behind him shows far more empathy and understanding than any "Jump!" says Boris "How high?" asks Harries/Sunak and everyone else Johnson shoved in front of the microphone in an attempt to bamboozle the country.

@TraceyLacey

It's Professor Sir. You can think of Sir as being attached to the first name.

Yes I learnt that last year when Captain Sir Tom Moore was knighted.

@TraceyLacey

It's Professor Sir. You can think of Sir as being attached to the first name.

Ah, helpful thanks.

I see no empathy whatsoever and disengage whenever he comes on screen. The alternative isn't bloody Boris's fan club though. A public speaking course would have done the trick.

I am in no way dismissing his scientific contributions though.

I leave you all to it.

@SoupDragon

I see no empathy whatsoever and disengage whenever he comes on screen. The alternative isn't bloody Boris's fan club though. A public speaking course would have done the trick.

I am in no way dismissing his scientific contributions though.

I leave you all to it.

He is good at his job, which is in science, not in public speaking.

You have no idea why he may speak with a lack of demonstrable "empathy". That doesn't make him any less able a person.

I don’t know about PSA awards (not sure what they are)

But he’s one of the few I can listen to and find that measured approach instantly calming

Re pp He's too much of a gentleman.

He is but also he’d know it was incorrect to say they were wrong.

That doesn’t mean some people can’t be relieved CMO was asked after JCVI, that can be true too

Take off your Hollywood goggles.

His empathy is clear to see, win to hear and easy to intuit when you are told he volunteers for holiday ward shifts, talks about NHS staff getting Covid in droves, explains how every little act can help.

But, I suppose if you have been raised on the Hollywood shorthand of good looking = good guy; uncomfortable/plain looking = bad guy none of that matters.

Also Thomas Young, Paralympic medalist who has the same genetic condition as DS1.
And Ashley Banjo!

What a lot of bitchy comments here. So CW doesn’t fit with your idea of eye candy, and that makes him, what? Incompetent? I know what it makes those who bitch, and it’s not complimentary.

As for the people complaining, how many of you would want their jobs?

I sure as fuck wouldn’t want the responsibility for:

Making the call on which decisions were right and wrong.

Standing in front of the general public who think they know it all while knowing nothing, and stating the facts.

It’s amazing how many sudo scientists have emerged from this pandemic. Members of the public with not a qualification to their name spouting what they believe to be facts obtained from YouTube and believing that they know better than the chief medical officer because “he looks like a robot.”

They all deserve their honours. Not only have the scientists done their job, they have had to cope with abuse and death threats to themselves and their families.

Sorry should read ‘done their job well’

'He looks like a computer generated person. Or a robot. No facial expression or movement whatsoever beyond his lips moving to speak. Truly awful choice to do the PSAs.'

Some primary school children like to learn their seven times tables by having them set to a hip hop beat, or the like. And, tragically, some adults are apparently unable to take in important information unless it's delivered with some sort of song and dance number in the middle. He doesn't change his facial expression, guys! Grow up.

And @milly74? Absolutely no-one is picking up what you're throwing down. No-one. So stop wittering on about 'limelight' and 'medals'. It's embarrassing.

I'm not convinced people should be honoured for doing the job they are well paid for. Those who do eg charity work above and beyond are different.

@LuluBlakey1

Anyway, the point of the thread was to be positive so please can we try to be. Many people will deserve their honours- it would be good to ficus on them and not on grumbling and back-biting.

Absolutely.

Very well deserved by all three.

Maybe ahead of comprehensive medical and epidemiology knowledge in the next CMO's job spec
We can add "delivers quality bants" and "makes epic tik toks "
To keep the terminally hard of thinking happy
Fuck sake

@TraceyLacey

It's Professor Sir. You can think of Sir as being attached to the first name.

yes, a bit off piste but dh once argued about General SIR Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett.

swore up and down that it was Sir General, and refused to countenance the middle names. I never let him forget it :o

I haven't read the lists but am very pleased for Chris Whitty and Joanna Lumley, I really like her for some odd reason!

@LuluBlakey1

Anyway, the point of the thread was to be positive so please can we try to be. Many people will deserve their honours- it would be good to ficus on them and not on grumbling and back-biting.

Nice idea, Lulu, unfortunately it will turn into a Tony Blair bashing thread.

Chris Whitty bashing? Really?...

Delighted for the new Sir Chris Whitby what a great example of a human being he is!

On a more controversial note delighted too for Tony Blair great PM in my opinion. Far worse have followed (or even before I lived through the Thatcher years)

My favourite moment of the many live 5pm Coronavirus broadcasts happened near the end of one Press-asking-questions section.

A journalist asked Chris Whitty what he’d be doing over Christmas, clearly expecting an answer like “I’ll be drinking whisky with friends in front of a roaring log fire, and going for long walks in the country with my golden labrador.”

Chris Whitty’s reply was, “I’ll be on the wards.”

@TreborBore

They all deserve their honours. Not only have the scientists done their job, they have had to cope with abuse and death threats to themselves and their families.

Scientists analyse the data present the facts. What politicians spin it into after that is not their fault. That's quietly recognised hence the gongs

@caringcarer

I am just furious Tony Blaire got knighthood after falisfying documents to take us to war. Absolutely not deserved.

Fully agree.

@Sandsnake

I like Tony Blair.

Me too.

Very well deserved for CW and JVT. I also like Tony Blair, under his PMship (and Gordon Brown) child poverty dropped, unlike the appalling record of the toxic self serving shites we have had since then.