Lib Dem MP for East Dunbartonshire, Jo Swinson, has been awarded a CBE in the New Year’s Honours list.
The rumours were true, about Nick, then.
Elizabeth Riches, who came within two votes of winning North East Fife in June becomes an MBE. She was a councillor for many years and was depute leader of Fife Council from 2007-12.
Depute Leader of our group on York City Council, Ann Reid gets an MBE for services to local govermnent.
Another Scot, Graham Garvie, former Convener of the Borders Council and now a member of the Lib Dems’ Federal International Relations Committee, gets an OBE.
Reg Barry, Lib Dem Councillor on the Isle of Wight gets a BEM for services to the community.
Please update with other Lib Dems in the list if you find them before we do.
Follow @LibDemVoice on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
SSE PLC all at sea!!
Michael's weekly ward surgeries today! #dundeewestend
The past continues to haunt the UK's anti-corruption ministers
Richard Jefferies: The granddaddy of nature writing
Tristan Ward
John Grout
Craig Levene
Alex Macfie
25 Comments
Too soon for me. A few years on and when we are all looking back at how some of the early years, pensions and infrastructure policies have borne fruit, it would be more appropriate.
I’m sure I’m not the only person feeling a barrel of meh about this now however.
Absolutely delighted that Elizabeth Riches has been honoured – a worthy recipient.
There is no British Empire anymore. Why not use the word Commonwealth.
A rather to be reflected on thing, this.
Sir Nick, no more or less deserving than many Tory mps given it , who most have not heard of.
They get it because of service to their constituents and party.
Nick served his constituents , better than this, our party.
He is more worthy than Sir Danny A and Sir Steve W, but that is not a great statement.
I am pleased about Sir Barry Gibb !
Jo is a surprise, but again, the coalition a very contentious subject.
Layla Moran needs support to get re elected, or we must have a wider choice of non mps for leader, as elite and Liberal and Democrat are not connecting words.
The honour makes sense…….
Nick’s knighthood was in recognition of his early support for holding a referendum on our membership of the EU and the inclusion of it in our manifesto.
And for the return to two party politics in much of the UK.
I think Charlton Heston put it about right: “You finally really did it”.
I’m mainly excited about Professor John Curtice becoming Sir Professor, or possibly Professor Sir John Curtice for services to maintaining his cool and being right when everyone thinks he’s got it wrong.
I’m sure that the LibDems getting awards deserve them just as much, often more, than many others, but do have some slight concerns that it provides an opportunity for sneering by our political opponents. I’m not sure what the etiquette is for saying “can I get it in another few years please?”, but if that option were available to Nick, it would have been preferable IMO. Trying to convince the public that our policies are in tune with what the man on the street needs is a lot harder when an increasing proportion of our MPs have titles.
I expect that the knighthoods are a deliberate ploy to make the Liberal Democrats look ridiculous in order to destroy what is left of the party. What a pity the recipients did not have the courage to refuse them.
I’ve known Jo a long while, campaigned with her and donated to her re-election campaign.
Could someone say what she has done to merit a CBE?
A thoroughly well deserved knighthood for Nick, who brought stability to the country during a dark time.
its completely normal for the person who led the third lagest party in parlaIMENT TO GET A gong, kennedy got a peerage as did campbell , neither of whom served in the cabinet.
Nick Clegg’s record of public service is vastly superior to that of craig oliver, the tory’s not very good spin doctor for a couple of years who got a knighthood last time.
swinson got the same gong as samaantha camerons hairdresser. These honours are far superior than the last list given out by cameron, and i like the fact there are no tory or lib dem donors on the list
Did Kennedy get a peerage and if so what was his title ? There is no mention of it in his obituary. He died one month after losing his seat. David Steel, Paddy Ashdown and Jo Grimond got peerages but this was after they retired.
I do not doubt that Clegg’s peerage is more deserved than many others but the timing is unfortunate as were the equalling deserving peerages given to other former Liberal Democrat ministers. It will do the party no good but hopefully will be quickly forgotten.
Nvelope2003 Clegg has been given a knighthood, not a peerage.
@ TCO,
I can’t think of anything which will confirm in the public mind, that remainers are part of the establishment.
It undermines everything that some of us, without fanfare, are quietly trying to do to change opinions and views about the benefits of remaining in the EU.
The honours system as a whole is pretty arcane (I have no idea what a CBE for Jo Swinson means, for example), but I’m baffled by how people who are supposed to be interested in politics apparently don’t know the difference between a peerage and a knighthood.
The honours system is pretty easy to understand for anyone with 5 minutes and access to Google.
@Jayne Mansfield. Nick Clegg getting a knighthood is at the very perifery of events influencing attitudes to Brexit.
The primary influence is a hatred of immigration and a nostalgia for a past that never was; both interconnected and prevalent in the older generation (those over 50) who got us into this mess.
It will be very difficult to combat this other than let time take its course.
Jayne, there are knighthoods for Geoffrey Clifton-Brown and a few other Tory Brexiteers (people I’d never heard of). GCB’s most-famous exploit to date was house-flipping in the expenses scandal.
@ TCO,
I agree that immigration was the deciding factor for many who voted leave. One only has to look at the support for UKIP prior to 2004 and its support when Farage capitalised on concerns caused by the numbers of people arriving after the EU enlargement. A concern that was further whipped up by the shameful Balkans poster.
I don’t think that one can divorce the message from the messenger. There are politicians , Tony Blair for one that should be kept in the shadows when it comes to the EU debate.
I have no doubt that Blair and Clegg have decent instincts, ( as opposed to political nous), but Blair and Clegg have made political decisions that have made them deeply unpopular. I don’t think it is a good idea to remind the electorate of the decisions taken by these two men, nor parade their social success whilst others are still suffering from the decisions taken by them.
I am not an EU fundamentalist, but I share one aim with the Liberal Democrats, that is to persuade others, particularly those worse off, that their best interests lie in remaining within the EU. I don’t think Nick Clegg’s acceptance of a knighthood is helpful to that aim.
@ Cassie,
I expect no better of them.
That they, and the odious Farage, can trick a large proportion of the population into believing that they are, ‘ Men of the people’ is one of the great mysteries to me. It is inexplicable that they get away with it.
TCO – “The honours system is pretty easy to understand for anyone with 5 minutes and access to Google”.
Maybe, but I have better things to do with 5 minutes of my life.
A knighthood for Nick, who used our hard work to bring short term stability to the country during a dark time. But he did it in the most ill thought out and destructive way possible for the people, the country and Liberal Democracy.
For the record – Charles Kennedy got neither a peerage, nor a knighthood. His defeat in 2015 was perhaps foreseeable, but the SNP campaign against him was one of the most distasteful in that election. He had his flaws, but he was much liked, including by many
beyond the confines of the Lib Dems.
I believe Nick deserves his Knighthood for the principled stance he had over entering into and staying in a 5 year coalition for the state of the country, not party, after the last “New Labour” government and his open and honest views about Brexit. With his knowledge of the EU he would of made an outspoken critic of the Government in the Lords but made it plain he did not want a peerage.
It is a shame that the former MEP Bill Newton-Dunn has not been considered for a peerage due to his knowledge of the workings of the EU, he would make another great outspoken critic of the Government in the Lords.
David Dobbie 5th Jan ’18 – 6:56pm….. With his knowledge of the EU he would of made an outspoken critic of the Government in the Lords but made it plain he did not want a peerage…..
So he wouldn’t accept a peerage, which would have given him an enhanced position from which to further LibDem values, but he accepted a knighthood; which will enable him to do what?
David, The crisis in the state of the country was dealt within about six months. Thereafter it was a case of personal vanity coupled with a total unwillingness to listen to others who had done it before and could see what was coming. Now when there is a real crisis in the state of the country, there are next to no Lib Dems left in the House of Commons to stop it, Brexit is going on unopposed, and in the long term that will be much more damaging to the UK than the financial crisis.