Blatant Nepotism and fawning over the rich and famous in order to feather their own nests.

Agreed.

I don't believe in titles - everyone is equal in my book. 'Royalty', 'lords', 'barons', sirs or whatever - they are no different to you or I.

Titles for job's are ok when there is a need for one, for example for Doctors, or in Military forces - but only in the context of the job (so the title stays in the work place).

People can still be recognised for their good work (I don't consider being a celebrity or highly paid footballer one of them tho!) in fact I would encourage awards for people who do good and have a positive impact on society

Then YOU nominate them please.. It is a fairly easy process as I know from doing just that years ago.

Not forgetting Jimmy Saville......

As I said in my post, this has made a lot of people cynical.
Pity none of us asked "why" at the time

All of which should be more than enough recognition

Yes Jenny, it makes me mad that suddenly these 'pop stars' are getting rewards when their lives have been (in most cases) a terrible example of how adults should behave, smashing up hotel rooms, excessive womanising, drinking, and dare I say it drug taking.

There are a few exceptions of course, but I think that far more 'investigation' should be carried out before any kind of medal or honour is handed out. I mean do you think it is likely that Jimmy Saville would have got his MBE (Or whatever it was) had someone from the vice squad been delegated to look into his background and do you think many of the 'pop stars' who've picked up gongs would have passed the "Is he a 'good' person" test

I sometimes hear the media muppets say that pop music earns the country money through exports, but the fact is it's peanuts compared to the exports of companies like Diagio and Vodafone.

Unfortunately I am comming to view that the great unwashed British public get the kind of pop stars they deserve, most of them will condone drugs but at the same time buy the records and videos of many of the worst drug users. Same applies to alcoholism, pornography, fraud, child abuse, and pretty much anything these days.