Is the New Year Honours List now past its sell-by date?

Happy New Year to Bob Watson, of York proud recipient of an MBE.

The 64-year-old is to be presented with the honour for his work with the Sobriety Project - a charity which operates a fleet of boats and gives disadvantaged youngsters the chance to pilot them.

On learning of this honour, Mr Watson said he was "delighted".

Nobody would begrudge a hard-working charity worker such as Mr Watson his gong. Just as nobody would begrudge the MBEs given to Bernadette Grimes for her work with the Yorkshire branch of the Soldiers', Sailors' and Airmen's Families Association, or David Sanderson for his work with the Malton-based Derwent Training Association.

The problem with the honours system we have, however, is that for every selfless charity worker who is recognised, a score of grey Sir Humphreys or anonymous Army generals are honoured.

Then there is the way the honours system seems designed to perpetuate the class structure. With the exception of the odd granddaughter of the Queen, MBEs are given to volunteers, lollipop ladies and footballers - common people, in other words. The more select OBEs, CBEs and knighthoods are reserved for those of a better class: surgeons, civil servants, company directors and distinguished actors.

That, at least, is the way it can often seem.

So has the time come to reform our honours system? To make it fairer, less snobbish - and less weighted towards men in grey suits or military top brass?

We asked around...

The OBE

DENISE Howard was "gobsmacked" to learn she had been awarded the OBE.

The former YorkBoat boss and one-time chairwoman of York Tourism Bureau had been away at the time the honours were announced. She had signed a bit of paper saying that she would be prepared to receive an honour if she were offered one: but she didn't realise that meant she was getting one.

"I didn't know until I read the paper that day," she said.

She doesn't know why she received the OBE (granted for services to tourism), but felt flattered somebody had taken the trouble to nominate her.

"I don't really know how it all works, but it is nice to be appreciated," she said.

The best thing about it, she jokes, was writing to her seven-year-old daughter Ellen's school asking for her to be given the day off so she could come to Buckingham Palace with her (Ellen insisted on wearing her Harry Potter cloak). That and being presented with her OBE by the Queen in her Jubilee year.

The honours system is wrapped in layers of tradition and hierarchy, Denise admits - but it is probably none the worse for that. Nothing is perfect. "But when I went to pick up my award, there were lots of people there: just ordinary people, from all walks of life. People from social services, people from the police force, people from school crossing patrols. It was lovely."

The community award winner

JOAN Williams felt ambivalent when she was named Charity Fundraiser of the Year in the York Community Pride Awards - York's equivalent of the honours system.

She was delighted to have been even considered for the honour. "But if I was honest, I did wonder if there were not other people who were more deserving," says the 85-year-old, who is a tireless fundraiser for a number of charities including St Leonard's Hospice.

Joan, of Knapton, made a point of sharing her acclaim with others at the awards ceremony in October.

Despite her ambivalence, however, she feels it is understandable for society to want to recognise those who have made an achievement or contribution.

She wouldn't want to see the honours system scrapped, therefore.

"But I think you need to make clear that the people honoured are representatives of lots of people who are probably doing the same thing or even more," she said.

The Dame

PETER Dench admits that if anything, his illustrious sister Judi was "a bit embarrassed" when she was made a Dame in 1988. It's not as if the York-born actress has ever been short of accolades - from a string of Laurence Olivier awards to her BAFTAs and that Oscar for Shakespeare In Love.

But a society does need some way of recognising outstanding achievements and contributions, retired York GP Dr Dench says.

There are, he admits, too many senior civil servants who almost take an honour for granted. And, through his own years with the Territorial Army, he knows how difficult it is for ordinary, deserving people who have made a real contribution to get through the system's filtering process.

That said, you can never give an honour to everyone who might be deserving, he says.

"You cannot recognise everybody. If everybody is somebody, then nobody is anybody."

For all its faults, he says, the present system "is as sensible as any we're going to get". In an ideal world, it might possibly be improved. "But my God, how far are we from an ideal world?"

The radical

RYEDALE Liberal councillor John Clark is well known for his radical views. He believes the House of Lords should be replaced by a revised upper chamber made up of ordinary members of the population selected at random from the electoral register, for example.

That way you would have a second house that was truly representative of the people, he says.

Not surprisingly, he is not a fan of the honours system.

It reinforces the class structure and the hierarchies within society, he says - with MBEs for ordinary people if they are lucky, and knighthoods awarded to those perceived by the establishment to be of a better class.

"How many binmen are knights? And how many surgeons are knights?" he asks. "Yet when you look back to the Winter of Discontent you can see that cleaning rubbish off the streets is just as important a job to society as surgery."

It is the same in business, he says. Very occasionally a dedicated supermarket checkout worker who has smiled at her customers for years might be honoured with an MBE. But it will always be the company boss with his fat-cat salary who gets the knighthood.

Mr Clark - he doesn't like to use the title "councillor", which he is entitled to as an elected member of Ryedale District Council - says he understands that the need for a hierarchical structure is hard-wired into our nature because of the way we evolved. We are primates, after all - and many other primate species are hierarchical, too.

But he believes we should be using our gift of intelligence to overcome this part of our nature, and to devise a society in which we are all equally recognised and valued as human beings.

For that reason, he likes to think that when he is finally offered his knighthood, he will refuse it.

"But I would accept a position in the House of Lords," he said. "I could then use that position to campaign for reform."

Tony Blair please take note.

The MBE

RETIRED Royal Naval Reserve Lieutenant Cecil "Tug" Wilson admits he was "overwhelmed" when he received his MBE at the age of 80.

Mr Wilson was honoured in recognition of his more than 50 years of work with York Sea Cadets.

He was presented with his MBE by Prince Charles at Buckingham palace in 2004.

"It meant a lot to me," he said. "It is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Prince Charles was in his naval uniform and I was in mine, because of the Sea Cadets, and that made it rather fitting."

So does he think the system is in need of reform?

It isn't perfect, he admits. There are far too many people who get an honour simply for being famous, or else because they are in the right job - senior civil servants or retired generals, for example.

"What have they actually done as a service to people?"

At the same time, many people who deserve an honour are overlooked - the real community heroes who put in a lifetime of selfless contribution without ever expecting anything back.

On balance, he thinks the system works all right - but he would like to see more honours going to those who truly deserve them.

"Some people seem to fall into line for one almost automatically," he said. "I think all honours should be for people who have given a service - people who have really earned it."