New Year Honours trigger controversy
The New Year’s honours list has courted unusual controversy, with the Conservatives raising concerns over some of those commended.
Conservative Party Co-Chairman Liam Fox has claimed that the Government has rewarded failure, when it comes to a small number of the awards announced today.
Former Child Support Agency chief executive, Doug Smith, has been made a Commander of the Order of the Bath, despite serious criticism of the agency earlier this year.
The Conservatives also criticised the decision to award a CBE to Richard Bowker, latterly chairman and chief executive of the soon-to-be defunct Strategic Rail Authority.
Liam Fox said: “This Honours List is part of a picture: if you fail or mess things up in Tony Blair’s Government, you get rewarded. Crime is out of control, immigration is a shambles, our railways are in a mess and the Child Support Agency is in chaos. And what happens? Top civil servants at the Home Office, the Strategic Rail Authority and the Child Support Agency all get gongs for their gaffes.”
However, most awards passed without such concern.
Digby Jones, director general of the CBI, is among the list of people to receive a knighthood in the New Year Honours list. Rewarded for his services to business he will have led the CBI for five years on 1 January 2005.
Mike Tomlinson and Derek Wanless, have also been knighted after both published major reports for the Government in 2004.
Mr Tomlinson, who recently published his final report on reform of 14-19 education, is knighted for services to education.
He joined HM Inspectorate of Schools in 1978 and rose through the ranks to become HM Chief Inspector of Schools on 1 December 2000.
Derek Wanless, a former chief executive of NatWest, who published a major report on improving the nation’s health, receives his knighthood for public service.
In sport, rower Matthew Pinsent, who won his fourth successive Olympic gold medal in Athens during the summer, receives a knighthood for services to sport.
Kelly Holmes and Tanni Grey-Thompson receive CBEs for services to athletics and services to disabled sport respectively.
But while some of the awards have gone to household names, efforts to reward normal people for contributing to local life have seen a primary school teacher and a lollipop lady awarded MBEs.
