Bill Gates Knighthood?

I keep trying to explain............... There are two 'Honours' lists - one at the time of the Queen's Official Birthday (June) and the New Year's Honours list... (self explanatory)

BUT.....

It isn't the Queen who decides .... Names are put forward by the Government - the Queen really only acts as a 'rubber stamp' to their suggestions.... Ergo... political favours are repaid by certain levels of rewards - lifetime knighthoods (ie their families will not be considerd as 'titled' after the death of the awardee), and others....... the honorary knighthood status - which a number of US people have been awarded (including Colin Powell and ex-Mayor Guilliani of NY) is purely that ..... ie honorary.... they cannot use the title abroad - especially if they are a citizen of a republic... Really, it is just an acknowledgement of charity work or fund-raising of some description! One of the Gettys - Sir Paul, I think .... WAS entitled to use his knighthood, ie call himself 'Sir' because he renounced his US citizenshipand became a British citizen... He gave many millions to charities and to the Arts in the UK.... What it will get you (probably) is a better table in a restaurant - but that's probably the full extent of what it will 'buy'...

'Sir' Bob Geldof, as an Irishman (from the South) was awarded only an honorary knighthood - simply because, although he lives and works in London - he is a citizen of the Republic of Ireland. Bob G was recognised because of the amazing charity work he has done with the BandAid charity.

he sounds more like tyrant
let's see why netscape gets destroyed
he's not deserved to have knighthood

oh please, don't kill me
just kidding
just a fantasy
wish to be a human shaped dragon (dragoon)

and, he wants to slay freeware (aka open source software) and penguins (linux)

You have to be living. Oh my God, is bill dead???

A Knighthood has always MEANT something.............maybe not a lot in recent times , but still.........giving one to Microsoftie Billy boy totally, absolutely, cheapens the whoe IDEAL of knighthood!

I'd rather see Monty Python knighted !


Draconis

The Royals are all a bunch of freaks.

Rave ..

Is that followed by Ka nigget ?

In Service to the Dream,
Paula

certainly bill gates contributed to anyone with a computer, us for example, i'd much prefer the new scottish parliament to come up with a similar award, knight of scone or something.. now that i would object bill gates being awarded.. just out of pettiness i suppose.

I'm afraid the new Scottish Parliament cannot award Knighthoods.... they are in the 'gift' of the Queen of Great Britain - and she usually only 'rubber stamps' the selections made by the Govt of the day - whether Labour or Conservative.

The powers of the new Scottish parliament are strictly limited, mostly to Education, law and the NHS in Scotland - also local Govt... All other matters are still governed from Whitehall.

Right. Let's grant honors to a guy that has created software with more security holes than Swiss Cheese. Have a software problem? Just call tech support. Then let them tell you (after you waited on hold for 45 minutes) that they'll help you if you fork over $250 for the pleasure of their call. Sorry Bill - take some of your money and develop better software.

I am from America and I do not know very much about the knighting process. But if all it takes is to make billions of dollars by screwing over your business partners, stealing their ideas,releasing products that are so sub par compared to competitors and somehow getting them to be the most widely used, then yes I guess Bill Gates does deserve to be knighted. Just because you are really rich and start a charity doesnt make you a great guy. Of course thanks to his terrible software he has created hundreds of thousands of tech support jobs, if you consider that a plus.

I guess that would be a good side to it, if the tech support jobs were in the US.

good for him I say. You don't get anywhere in business without standing on people's toes or stealing their secrets. as is the obvious nature of the man, but.....
I think there are a lot more derserving people out there that go unrecognised for their humanitarian efforts. They give what they can whether it be $10 or $100, it is a fortune to those people and they give of their time.

But what on earth has he done to deserve knighthood? Just think about what he has done in respect to how much he's worth. Let's say for exaple say Joe is worth $175,000, and he donates a total of 3% of this over a year to charity or community programs. That's about $5,250. Bill Gates is currently worth $29.73 billion. If he donates the same percentage as our friend Joe, Bill would give $891,900,000 to charity. It's all in your perspective. Just because a guy is fabulously wealthy but gives the same proportion of his savings as everyone else is no reason to knight him. I mean, what are you going to do with $27.73 billion anyways? (sorry if that sounded to much like a math question - I'm working on calculus right now )