Well the New Year's Honours have been awarded yet again and still I wait for the 'real' people to be nominated and rewarded.

Am I remembering correctly? Didn't Tony Blair promise that the people in the street would be rewarded rather than those who are already famous?

I'm thinking of the people who have given most of their time and energy to serve the community and have done this over and above that which is necessary, such as ordinary doctors, teachers, nurses, charity workers and many others who are not necessarily in the higher echelons of the profession but are the 'workers'.

These are the people who should be rewarded. Showbiz personalities, sportsmen and women, actors and actresses have all received their acclamation in one way or another but the man in the street hasn't.

I know the present way of nomination is a quick and easy cut, but wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all have a voice? Perhaps we could have a public nomination list and a local panel of residents to select the names? This would be much fairer.

-Celia Webster, Shepherd's Croft, Brighton