Some reaction to the knighthood granted to HRH The Prince Philip
Tuesday, 27 January 2015
I'm all ears but I'm yet to hear a compelling case as to why this knighthood should have been granted.
Now as to the reasons why not....
Here's Strewth in The Australian.
ONCE upon a time, Tony Abbott spoke of scraping the barnacles off the boat. Yesterday, in an about face, he surprised his colleagues by bringing a barnacle into work — one far, far heftier than anyone had imagined possible. One can imagine his colleagues standing about in flabbergasted silence, until one finally channelled Roy Scheider in Jaws and murmured, “You’re going to need a bigger boat.”
The snark knight rises
THE knighting of Prince Philip certainly made for the most remarkable episode thus far of My Australia Day Honours List Rules. Indeed, the only way yesterday could have been any more surprising would have been if Tony Abbott had, at the conclusion of his doughty defence of the knighthood, split open with a mighty brrrrip to reveal none other than Kevin Rudd, dusting off his hands and declaring, “Can I just say, my work here is done.” Of course, we can float such thoughts here. It wouldn’t work on Twitter, a place of clockwork Abbott-bashing the PM was understandably keen to brush off. “I will leave social media to its own devices,” he explained to journalists yesterday. “Social media is kind of like electronic graffiti and I think that in the media, you make a big mistake to pay too much attention to social media. You wouldn’t report what’s sprayed up on the walls of buildings …” Speaking of spraying stuff up walls, Abbott has seen to it that $4.3 million is spent monitoring Twitter et al. Also, it was a bit rough to say that just as Scott Morrisonwas breaking a Twitter silence that had endured since some jaunty notes of encouragement to the Cronulla Sharks back in September 2013.
Glass half Phil
ONE of the many upsides of the knighthood is the fresh lease of life it gives to the old expression “like sending coals to Newcastle”. Philip, after all, has more gongs than the collected instalments of Hey Hey It’s Saturday’s Red Faces. According to the British Monarchy website, Philip’s full title is s HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich, KG (Knight of the Garter), KT (Knight of the Thistle), OM (Order of Merit), GBE (Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire), AC (Companion of the Order of Australia), QSO (Companion of The Queen’s Service Order), PC (Privy Counsellor). The website also notes that Philip has “many foreign orders and decorations. He also holds honorary appointments and rank in the Armed Services”. It’s a good thing Queen Elizabeth doesn’t take the view of the first Elizabeth, who got cross when Thomas Arundell, one of her favourites, was made a Count of the Holy Roman Empire. Quoth she, “My dogs shall wear no collars but my own.” Philip’s on safer ground. We only hope he can some day add Mikado to his titles.