Only a British citizen can actually be knighted by the Queen but as we are a decent bunch here we do hand out 'honoury' knighthoods to deserving foreigners although they still can't call yourself 'Sir' or 'Madam', they can steer sheep up Brighton High Street or something ridiculous.
One such Johnny Foreigner being lined up for a bit of paper with Knighthood (Honoury Class) printed at the top is Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri in recognition of leading his team to the Premier League title, if they do win it of course.
The Italian said: 'Sir Claudio?! Unbelievable. I like this' before someone pointed out that as he isn't British he will still be called plain old Claudio Ranieri, only Claudio Ranieri with a nicely typed letter from the secretary of the Queens butler responsible for changing light bulbs or some such.
Britain does have a bit of a chequered history of handing out honoury knighthoods, previous recipients have included Robert Mugabe, Benito Mussolini, Nicolae Ceaușescu, Franz Joseph I of Austria, Prince Leopold of Bavaria, Colin Powell, Emperor Wilhelm II and Emperor Hirohito. Oops.
I have nothing against Claudio becoming an honoury Knight, unless of course he leaves football management to team up with an Austrian to invade most of Europe or present dodgy evidence about WMD's at the United Nations in which case him and his sheep will most certainly not be welcome in Brighton High Street.
2 comments:
Rest assured my proof reader will be flogged severely for her shoddy work.
She will be flogged, flougged and flagged for her slipshod work.
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