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Peace and Love: Ringo signs off

Ringo Starr has had enough. In a new video, he refuses to respond to any fanmail sent after October 20th. And we can absolutely understand why the great man is feeling a little annoyed.

Mailbag after mailbag of autograph requests. But can he ever sign off with a Sir Ringo?

No, dear Comment Central readers, he can't.

May the fight continue.

Even Kylie can't fill the hole in the honours list

Here's Kylie receiving her OBE from Prince Charles this morning. Captions are welcome but we have a pretty good idea of what she's saying:

Thanks Sir. Now where can I find Ringo?

You can't. And a nation weeps.

But where was Ringo?

Another Honours list, another blow for justice. Where, oh where, was Ringo Starr's name?

On a day when a 25-year-old made Knight of the Garter, it appears that Ringo has been passed over once more.

Unhappy day. But our fight will continue...

Come on Sir Mick. Show Ringo some love

Hugo Rifkind raises an excellent point in this morning's People.

It seems that Sir Mick Jagger has signed a No 10 petition calling for a knighthood for Ken Dodd. And yet, on the petition for Ringo Starr’s knighthood, nothing. Get it together, Sir Mick.

Quite.

Why isn't it Sir Ringo?

The paper joins our campaign...

A Starr role in the Birthday Honours

Right. James Purnell, are you reading this?

Liverpool's reign as European City of Culture has begun. Ringo is playing on the rooftops.

So to my list of ten reasons why Ringo must be knighted I add this one.

It is now timely.

We're right behind you Sir Ringo

Has someone tipped Ringo the wink? I still remain committed to the knighthood campaign and determined that it should succeed.

So I was buoyed up by this exchange between the great man and Mojo magazine:

Q: Have you heard that there’s a writer for The Times lobbying for you to be offered a knighthood?
A: I’ve heard about it, yeah.

Q: Were the offer to be made, would you accept?
A: I can’t answer that question – in case I am, hahaha! That situation is pretty crazy.

Intriguing.

Ringo and power law

Today is the last day to sign the Ringo petition. It has done respectably well in terms of signatures. The theory underpinning it has, I would say, performed spectacularly.

I offered (still offer) Ringo's knighthood as a rare example of something on the Downing Street site that could actually be acted upon.

My argument was that the site would soon fill up with petitions the Government could do nothing about since they opposed existing policy, cost too much money or were simply mad. Even if a petition garnered a million signatures, it might be advancing a proposition that the rest of the population did not agree with, or, if they did, was in direct conflict with the programme of the elected government.

And lo, so it came to pass.

I'd love someone with a spare hour or four to do some work on the petition site. Am I wrong, or do the signatures to petitions distribute themselves exactly according to a power law? It seems to the naked eye that 80 per cent of the signatures are on 20 per cent of the petitions and that there is a very long tail of petitions with hardly any supporters.

If this is right, it would suggest that there is nothing particularly remarkable about the road pricing petition, merely that it is the first of a series of such petitions that will lead the site.

Ringo campaign gets parliamentary interest

I provide the following exchange in the House of Commons with awe but without comment:

Mr. Jim McGovern (Dundee, West) (Lab): On how many occasions her Department provided advice to members of the public on the nomination of individuals for honours within her Department's areas of responsibilities in the last 12 months.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Mr. David Lammy): The Department regularly provides advice and guidance to members of the public on all aspects of the honours process, including how to nominate someone for an award. We do not keep a record of the number of occasions on which we have provided information to members of the public.

Mr. McGovern: I thank my hon. Friend for that response. He may be aware that more than 1,500 people have signed a petition asking the Queen to grant Ringo Starr a knighthood. Despite my grave misgivings about the honours system—in fact, my opposition to it; I regard it as anachronistic—it appears that at least some members of the public take an interest in who receives the awards. With that in mind, does my hon. Friend agree that it might be an idea to open up the honours system to greater democratic accountability, rather than having the fairly obscure, opaque system that we currently have?

Mr. Lammy: I hope that my hon. Friend will acknowledge that there has been progress on the honours system since the new committees were set up. In effect, they have a panel of experts who can decide who merits an honour on the basis of comparing candidates. My hon. Friend will also appreciate, I suspect, that popularity is just one indication of merit.

(With a big hat tip to Dizzy)

More Ringo coverage

I can't believe I missed this while I was away.

Have you signed yet?