I'm always fascinated to wade through the full honours list.
The media cover things like Sir Michael Parkinson (his departure marks the end of the interview as part of a chat show), or, deservedly, Sir Ian McKellan being recognised for his equality work with Stonewall.
Locally, a police constable, "Barney" Barnes, made the front page of the Coventry Telegraph for news of his MBE.
Others (the chief executives of VSO and Cafedirect; Foreign Office staff who help British pilgrims on the hajj; people who work in the field of public health and female genital mutilation; or the chief executive of Punch Records) were also honoured.
The mainsteam media ignore, however, that gongs are repeatedly used to reward people in defence industry in Britain.
- CBEs were awarded to the chief executive of Cobham, to the managing director of the submarine division of BAE Systems, and to the head of Defence Export Services at the MOD
- OBEs were awarded to the chair of Northern Defence Industries, to the MD (Public Sector) of QinetiQ, to the MD of BAE Systems Surface Fleet Solutions, to a senior consultant of EADS, to the vice-chair of the committee in charge of media defence censorship, to people involved in the West of England Aerospace Forum, in SELEX Sensors and Airborne Systems, and Serco Defence Science and Technology.
- David Richmond, the Director General for Defence and Intelligence at the Foreign Office, even got a knighthood.
It takes the shine off one of the first moves by Gordon Brown in government, to shut DESO, the defence export service organisation.
Oh, and Tom Kelly, Blair's spokesperson who smeared Dr. David Kelly as a "Walter Mitty" fantasist, received the Order of Bath.
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