Lewis Hamilton gets a knighthood

BuffetSlayer · 31 Dec 2020 at 11:05

chroniclard said:
Flip side, he coukd possibly achieve more being a Sir.

I think so too. But I imagine that being affiliated with both the Empire and BLM is not a tenable position for him.

silvagti · 31 Dec 2020 at 11:07

drakulton said:
Will he be taking the knee when he gets it?

Maybe it was a potential knighthood he was rehearsing for all this time and people just got the wrong idea about his endorsement of the BLM movement

flea.rider · 31 Dec 2020 at 11:09

hogwash and out dated .. a knight of what ? like the royals it's outdated crap ... i'm sure Andrew would agree..

drakulton · 31 Dec 2020 at 11:13

flea.rider said:
hogwash and out dated .. a knight of what ? like the royals it's outdated crap ... i'm sure Andrew would agree..

Of the most excellent order.... and try not to think about Bill and Ted when you say it.

fez · 31 Dec 2020 at 12:21

Junglist said:
I'm glad Lewis has had his achievements recognised but I'm hoping there isn't a huge deal made about it when we get racing back next year

I think you know they will. They will mention it at every opportunity and no doubt tie it in with BLM.

BuffetSlayer said:
He has a choice to make.Either accept or decline. My feeling is that if he accepts then his stock in the social movement of BLM will plummet so I guess the only real question is what is more important to him?

It won't make the blindest bit of difference. Why has he got any stock in that movement anyway. Like many others, he has just jumped on the bandwagon that kicked off earlier this year and used his platform to push their message.

chroniclard said:
Flip side, he coukd possibly achieve more being a Sir.

In what sense? He already has the wealth and celebrity to achieve whatever he wants. Hes worth $250m I believe currently.

visibleman · 31 Dec 2020 at 12:34

fez said:
Can't say I agree with it but plenty of people in various fields have got them for essentially doing their job and getting paid really well to do said job. He is no less deserving than many with knighthoods.

As with a lot of these things, their value has decreased with time.

I would like to see people who dedicate their lives to the service of others to be recognised over people who get paid a ridiculous sum of money to drive a car or appear in films or TV. Then again, worshipping celebrities has always completely baffled me.

Exactly this and I feel it shows how watered down the British Honorary system has become, ie - Craig David has one :confused:

Although (in terms of motorsport), I do feel Jackie Stewart earned his knighthood for all his hard work to making the sport safer.

Glanza · 31 Dec 2020 at 12:48

Crofty is going to bust a nut when he gets to say 'here's Sir Lewis Hamilton coming down the Hamilton straight'

MooMoo444 · 31 Dec 2020 at 12:53

Glanza said:
Crofty is going to bust a nut when he gets to say 'here's Sir Lewis Hamilton coming down the Hamilton straight'

If Lewis was doing that, then Crofty wouldn't be alone

wesley · 31 Dec 2020 at 13:00

It's the car should get a knighthood!

Wizzfizz · 31 Dec 2020 at 15:08

The title means nothing unfortunately.

I've a funny feeling he will refuse it

kitfit1 · 1 Jan 2021 at 02:42

Wizzfizz said:
The title means nothing unfortunately.

I've a funny feeling he will refuse it

Like a few others on here, i think you have a basic misunderstanding of how the honours list works. Lewis would have been contacted at least a few months ago and informed, he would have been given the chance to accept or decline the honour at that time. The fact that his name was on the published list tells us all that he has already accepted the knighthood, otherwise his name wouldn't be on the list.

Dave M · 1 Jan 2021 at 18:24

He's becoming more out spoken in recent years, more ready to use his platform to promote issues that are important to him.

From that perspective I think the 'he'll refuse it' posts are well wide of the mark - being a Sir opens up doors even being a 7 times works champion doesn't. I can only imagine how much more this platform will wind up the haters

Ninco! · 1 Jan 2021 at 20:04

Agree with Dave M. Wasn't Lewis asked in November about a Knighthood and he mentioned it would be an amazing honour. Lewis is very proud of his heritage and the UK - I don't ever think refusing was ever on the radar? I would be genuinely gobsmacked if it happened. I don't think his old man would be best impressed!

Tax exile, its been the same for all drivers so a none issue as far as I see.

The most successful F1 driver ever - say no more. Hugely deserved.

WJA96 · 2 Jan 2021 at 07:16

Ninco! said:
Tax exile, its been the same for all drivers so a none issue as far as I see.

The thing that stood out for me was that he was nominated for a knighthood 4 years ago by the Sports Honours Sub-Committee. And dropped because the main Honours Committee couldn’t validate his tax affairs and it was only because Boris Johnson disregarded the Honours Committee recommendation this year that he got it. As well as a dodgy Conservative Party donor etc.

Sir Jackie Stewart and Sir Stirling Moss both live(d) and declare(d) all their tax affairs in the UK. Sir Stirling Moss was especially sad because he was literally living off tiny income for most of the later life.

You have to wonder who else you would expect to have been given higher honours who haven’t because they failed some degree of the Honours Committee(s) vetting. I’m thinking John Surtees CBE for one? 7 world championships is amazing, but Surtees won world championships on both bikes and F1. Which I think is equally amazing.

Junglist · 2 Jan 2021 at 09:46

WJA96 said:
Sir Jackie Stewart and Sir Stirling Moss both live(d) and declare(d) all their tax affairs in the UK. Sir Stirling Moss was especially sad because he was literally living off tiny income for most of the later life.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding this but Stewart moved to Switzerland whilst racing and when he set up his Stewart GP team, I believe he did that via Gurnsey or some other low tax place.

Moss was a different breed of human being though. Type of man that would take off his own shoes and give them to you if you were missing a pair.

WJA96 · 2 Jan 2021 at 12:18

Junglist said:
Perhaps I'm misunderstanding this but Stewart moved to Switzerland whilst racing and when he set up his Stewart GP team, I believe he did that via Gurnsey or some other low tax place.

He's currently tax domiciled in the UK. So that makes verifying him rather easier.

Junglist said:
Moss was a different breed of human being though. Type of man that would take off his own shoes and give them to you if you were missing a pair.

I don't know any more than what is publicly available but his sister Pat is a very nice lady. She was married to Erik Carlsson (Mr SAAB) and both of them drive/race(d) to an extremely high standard.

Terminal_Boy · 2 Jan 2021 at 12:25

Tombstone said:
Probably because the British Empire and its actions are deemed to be highly racist and a major factor in the history of racism. So it would seem perhaps contradictory to then accept an award which makes him a Knight of the British Empire.

The British Empire was possible the least racist empire ever as it subjugated everyone equally - even to the point of sending it’s own citizens to die of fever and/or killed by wildlife in Australia or the West Indies.

WJA96 · 2 Jan 2021 at 12:41

Terminal_Boy said:
The British Empire was possible the least racist empire ever as it subjugated everyone equally - even to the point of sending it’s own citizens to die of fever and/or killed by wildlife in Australia or the West Indies.

I'm not sure trying to justify the empire will ever be productive. It was a product of a different time and trying to put our values on historical figures invariably makes them look pretty bad.

That said there is a corner of a foreign field that will be forever England. Because the rest of the field is full of dead Scots, Welsh and Irish.

Tombstone · 2 Jan 2021 at 16:22

WJA96 said:
I'm not sure trying to justify the empire will ever be productive. It was a product of a different time and trying to put our values on historical figures invariably makes them look pretty bad.

This imo and I would apply that to every empire in the last 10,000 years of the planet, all of which have done things that would be deemed wrong now.

Bald-Eagle22 · 2 Jan 2021 at 19:05

Go read the Paradise Papers https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41886607

Lives in Monaco as a tax exile . https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/formulaone/article-8913327/Lewis-Hamilton-reveals-missing-life-England-13-years-leaving.html

BLM is a political movement and shouldn’t be promoted in sport. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/12/make-no-mistake-blm-radical-neo-marxist-political-movement/

The cars the star ask Russell !

Knighthood , yea ok Sir Lewis - so tell me what have you done for the UK ? You race for a German team , live in Monaco , actively promote a neo Marxist political movement and drive the best F1 car ever engineered.

Am I missing something?