Widnes are closer than ever to securing a return to the Super League in 2012 after the Rugby Football League announced a set of criteria for ambitious Championship clubs that only they are currently capable of meeting.
Whatever else might have changed, though, the reason for conferring honors is probably the same as ever: to secure loyalty and entrench an elite of what Britons call the great and the good.
Auction houses will be more eager than ever to secure these and, by conceding higher reserves to consignors, will themselves contribute to send prices climbing even higher.
Yet, getting paid on time, finding affordable insurance and obtaining business credit seem to be harder than ever to secure.
The school claims that no Acorn student applying for university has ever failed to secure a place.
Cardiff boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says it may take fewer points than ever before to secure a place in the Premier League.
The move ends an affiliation with the Woking-based outfit for Hamilton which stretches back to 1998 when he became the youngest ever driver to secure a Formula 1 deal aged 13.
After monitoring the fearless youngster's rapid progress in the junior karting ranks, Dennis got back in touch in 1998 to sign Hamilton, then 13, to McLaren's development programme and make him the youngest ever driver to secure a Formula 1 deal.
Indeed, in Israel no party has ever managed to secure an outright majority, and the eventual prime minister must be able to pull together a block that exceeds 61 of the 120 seats in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, in order to govern.
The big question, which Campbell asks but does not answer in his introduction, is whether it will ever be possible to secure a better balance between the tactical and the strategic in an age of instant communications.
