We here at Londonist like to think of ourselves as a forward thinking bunch and the latest honours list should have us sneering at such an archaic and elitist exercise. But, when we looked at it properly, we couldn't help making small 'yay' noises.
Six people who bravely gave help during the July 2005 bombings have been awarded MBEs, despite the Cabinet Office previously saying that doing amazing things during the carnage wasn't enough. Tim Coulson was one of three people who broke into the bombed Edgware Road train, and helped save the life of a woman who had been blasted onto the tracks. PC Elizabeth Kenworthy was on the train at Aldgate and is credited with saving three lives. Stephen Hucklesby also helped the injured at Edgware Road. Off-duty policeman Gerald McIllmurray was one of the first people on the scene at Oval on 21 July, where he protected passengers and examined the failed bomb. Also getting MBEs for not doing what most of us would - i.e., leg it - are David Matthews and Antonio Silvestro. Gill Hicks, who lost both legs in the Russell Square attack, gets an MBE for her charity work. She completed a 200 mile awareness raising walk this summer.
There are MBEs for London Olympians Christine Ohuruogo and James DeGale, making the point that it's not all about the cyclists, y'know.
And to round off a rather splendid sweep for the capital, we can claim four of the six newly created Dames: Jenny Abramsky, Professor Sally Davies, Anne Owers and Rosalind Savill.
(By the way, Terry Pratchett is also now a Sir, but he lives in Wiltshire so we're temporarily expanding London's borders for this one paragraph.)
Londonist: forgetting our progressive principles whenever it bally well suits us.
Image by marcus_jb1973 under the Creative Commons licence
