Honour lost in British system

General, Sir Tommy Franks – not quite

Britain has secretly honoured a raft of senior US military and business figures in the past three years.

The recipients include General Tommy Franks, the man responsible for the "Shock and Awe" Iraq war attack plan, and Riley Bechtel, head of the Bechtel Corporation.

Bechtel, the billionaire head of the US-based engineering giant, was handed a CBE for "services to UK-American commercial relations" in 2003.

He is a likely bidder for future nuclear plants in the UK and has made hundreds of millions of dollars in reconstruction projects in Iraq.

Others honoured include several senior US military figures, among them Vice-Admiral Timothy Keating, the man in charge of maritime forces during the Iraq invasion, and Rear Admiral Barry Costello, commander of the Third Fleet and Task Force 55.

The secrecy of these awards was explained away by Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, said: "Awards to citizens where Her Majesty the Queen is not head of state are not formally announced."

Opposition MPs have charged that the awards were kept quiet to avoid awkward questions. Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat MP who helped unearth the full list of foreign honour recipients, said: "These awards are supposed to be for good works and those who have helped Britain. Instead it seems they are being handed out to those that have supported Blair's misguided policies."

The revelation came during concern over the award in the Queen's Birthday Honours of a CBE for the police chief under investigation by the inquiry into the recent shooting of an innocent during a London terror raid.

Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman received the award despite facing a disciplinary charge as a result of the Independent Police Complaints Commission inquiry.

Of course, the whole Honours system is under a cloud of suspicion because the ruling Labour were caught out selling Honours to raise campaign funds.

Not that I think Tommy Franks would have been all that interested in paying for a gong, but the Bechtel bauble must raise an eyebrow or two.

The Honours system has always been a bit dubious, but the Blair government seems to have been particularly profligate in its bestowing of these ‘gifts’.

The apparent secrecy of the US awards, on top of the pure debasement of the system by simply selling them off might be the beginning of the end for a system which obviously lacks the honour of its title.

For Blair, it is just one more on a growing list of blunders which will, hopefully, speed his farewell.