Free Republic

Blair 'wants Iraq honours list' The prime minister wants to reward civil servants with a "special Iraq honours list", it has been reported. A leaked Whitehall memo shows officials who worked on the flawed weapons dossier could be in line for awards, the Sunday Times said. The names are expected to be announced in the New Year honours list, it said. Number 10 said Prime Minister Tony Blair felt those in "incredibly difficult positions in Iraq" should be recognised for their work. 'Huge sacrifice' The Sunday Times said the memo showed Mr Blair believed some 50 non-military officials should be...

LONDON, July 20 - When it comes to the finer shadings of status, the British could never be called slouches at decoding those telltale clues of vocal inflection and sartorial manner that separate noblesse from nonentity, aristo from arriviste. But some of that may be about to change. Until now, when Queen Elizabeth II summoned some 3,000 of her subjects to Buckingham Palace each year to receive honors known colloquially as gongs (medals) and K's (knighthoods), even the list of the newly anointed notables offered grandeur by grade, respect by ranking. To a cacophony of approving grunts from some and...

Creator of the web turns knight Tim Berners-Lee, the British inventor of the world wide web, has received his knighthood from the Queen. The "father of the web", who already has an OBE, went to Buckingham Palace to get his reward for "services to the global development of the internet". In 1991, the knight of the web came up with a system to organise, link and browse pages on the net. Famously modest, he said he had just been "in the right place at the right time" and did not want his photo taken. During the hour-long ceremony held in...

LONDON (Reuters) - The "arcane" system of honouring citizens with knighthoods should be scrapped, a parliamentary committee says. Racial diversity should be better reflected in the awards and the inflammatory word "Empire" should be dropped from honours such as Order of the British Empire (OBE), the Public Administration Committee said in a report published on Tuesday. "The current system is terribly secretive ... It's over-complicated and it's certainly out of date," Labour committee member Anne Campbell, told BBC radio. "We need a system that really accords more with the modern day," she added. Obscure honours such as "Orders of...

Blair 'to strip Mugabe of knighthood' By Paul Waugh, Deputy Political Editor 10 December 2003 Tony Blair said yesterday that he would consider tighter sanctions and having Robert Mugabe stripped of his honorary knighthood in an attempt to force "regime change" in Zimbabwe. The Prime Minister admitted that the restrictions on the Harare regime were failing. He said only £500,000 worth of assets had been seized from Mr Mugabe's associates. In a Commons statement, Mr Blair said he would try to use February's EU summit to impose "sharper" sanctions on Zimbabwe. He said he would "certainly look at the issue...

LONDON (Reuters) - Keith Richards (news) is not amused. The legendary Rolling Stones' guitarist has flown into a rock and roll rage against Mick Jagger (news) over the singer's decision to accept a knighthood, the ultimate nod from the British establishment. "I don't want to step out onstage with someone wearing a coronet and sporting the old ermine," Richards told British music magazine "Uncut" in an expletive-rich interview. "I told Mick it's a paltry honor...It's not what the Stones is about, is it?" The Stones, still rocking after 40 years, made their names with crunching rock classics including "Satisfaction," "Street...

LONDON - After months of uncertainty, Mick Jagger has managed to fit Queen Elizabeth II into his busy schedule. The Rolling Stones star said Tuesday that he will go to Buckingham Palace on Dec. 12 to accept his knighthood. After difficulties caused by his touring schedule, Jagger was initially slated to be knighted on Dec. 10, the same date as rugby star Jonny Wilkinson will be made a Member of the Order of the British Empire, or MBE. But Jagger did not want to distract attention away from the man who led England to the rugby World Cup title last...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) --  He won't get to call himself "Sir Alan" but Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan -- often known as the second most powerful man in the United States -- will get another title: knight.</p> <p>Queen Elizabeth II has approved an honorary knighthood for Greenspan's "outstanding contribution to global economic stability," the British Treasury announced Tuesday. A copy of the release was distributed in Washington.</p>

LONDON (Reuters) - Aging rocker Mick Jagger, renowned for his bad-boy image and a long list of female conquests, is set to receive the ultimate accolade of the British establishment -- a knighthood, newspapers reported Sunday. "It's Sir Mick (and not for his services to women)," read the headline in the News of the World. The Sunday Times said: "At last, His Satanic Majesty is called to the palace." Neither Buckingham Palace nor Downing Street would comment on the reports that "Old Rubber Lips," who turns 59 next month, will be knighted by Queen Elizabeth in her birthday honors list...