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December 31st, 2011 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda - Ex-convict Gerald Ronson and Conservative Party supporter Paul Ruddock both honoured
- David Cameron accused of being ‘out of touch’ with decent British people
By
David Wilkes and Jason Groves
Last updated at 12:01 AM on 31st December 2011
Controversial: Ex-convict Gerald Ronson, the great survivor of the Guinness share-trading scandal, is appointed CBE. He is pictured here with his wife Gail
A disgraced property tycoon and a hedge fund trader who cashed in on the credit crunch are both in the New Year Honours list.
Ex-convict Gerald Ronson – the great survivor of the Guinness share-trading scandal – is appointed CBE.
And there is a knighthood for Tory donor Paul Ruddock, who has given more than £500,000 to party coffers since 2003.
His firm, Lansdowne Partners, made a
staggering £100million from the financial crash by betting that the
price of Northern Rock shares would fall and also made millions in a
matter of days by predicting the likely slide of other banking shares.
Michael
Dugher, Labour’s Shadow Cabinet Office Minister, said: ‘David Cameron
promised to clean up politics, but in office he has shown he is utterly
out of touch with decent British people.
‘He’s
giving a knighthood to Paul Ruddock, who made millions from the
collapse of Northern Rock and has given over half a million pounds to
the Tories, and another to Gerald Ronson, who was jailed for his part in
a share-trading fraud.
This tells you everything you need to
know about the Tories’ priorities. At a time when millions of families
are struggling to get by, it’s the Tories’ friends in the City who get
the rewards.’
A Government source last night stressed that the Prime Minister has no personal involvement in deciding who receives honours.
But a member of the Treasury Select Committee, John Mann, described the knighthood for Mr Ruddock as a ‘disgrace’.
The
Labour MP for Bassetlaw said: ‘The country is sick to death of bankers
getting knighthoods from successive governments. My constituents will be
angry about this and I agree.
‘It is extrordinary that when there are so many hard working people who have done a lot for this country that it is people who have caused us so many problems that are getting awarded.
It sends a bad message to young people. I despair. Small business owners who went under and normal people who lost their jobs when Northern Rock failed will be extremely angry.’
Others from the business world whose honours might raise eyebrows include Denise Coates, founder and chief executive of the online gambling company bet365.
No decision to make: A Government source said that the Prime Minister has no personal involvement in deciding who receives honours
She receives the OBE for services to
the community and business. The wife of Stoke City FC owner Peter
Coates, she has a £750million fortune and was this year ranked the
eighth-richest woman in the Sunday Times Rich List.
A Government source last night stressed that the Prime Minister has no personal involvement in deciding who receives honours.
Property tycoon and philanthropist Ronson, 72, who was jailed in 1990 for his part in the Guinness scam, has been honoured for services to charity. It is rare for a former prisoner to be bestowed with such an honour.
Indeed, one of his co-defendants, the late Jack Lyons, was stripped of his knighthood after they were convicted along with two other top City figures.
Honoured: Tory donor Paul Ruddock, who has given more than £500,000 to the party since 2003, is to be knighted
Lyons, who was spared a 30-month
term because of his poor health, was knighted by the 1973 Labour
government and had his title taken away by John Major.
Ronson
founded Heron Group – now Heron International Plc – when he was 17,
brought self-service petrol stations to the UK in the 1960s and was once
the 14th-richest person in Britain and worth £548million.
In 1990 he was, along with Lyons, Ernest
Saunders and Anthony Parnes, convicted over Guinness’s £2.7billion
takeover of the Scottish drinks group Distillers.
The fraud had the effect of boosting the
Guinness share price. As it rose, the group’s offer to Distillers’
shareholders increased in value, helping Guinness fend off a bid from
rival Argyll and secure the deal.
Ronson was convicted of conspiring to create a false market, two charges of false accounting and one of theft. He was fined £5million and sentenced to a year, but freed after six months for good behaviour.
He has always protested his innocence, saying he did not knowingly act dishonestly.
A father of four, he is also the uncle of chart-topping musician Mark Ronson.
He has raised more than £100million for, and personally donated more than £30million to, charities such as the Community Security Trust, NSPCC, the Prince’s Trust and Jewish Care.
Asked if Ronson’s conviction had any influence over the decision to award him a CBE, a Cabinet Office spokesman said every nomination for an honour was considered on its own merits.
Other former prisoners to be honoured include footballer Tony Adams, who was jailed for drink-driving in 1990 and made an MBE 14 years later. And Mick Jagger was knighted in 2002, 35 years after being given three months for possession of amphetamines.
Proud moment: Those people on the New Year Honours list will enjoy a day at Buckingham Palace
The sentence was reduced on appeal to a conditional discharge.
Paul Ruddock, 53, becomes a Knight Bachelor for services to the Arts in today’s honours list.
During the credit crunch in 2007 and
2008 the activities of so called ‘short sellers’ enraged politicians who
were desperately trying to shore up plunging bank shares.
Many observers blamed the practice –
based on traders selling stock, allowing the price to fall and then
buying it back – for the multi-billion-pound bail-out funded by
taxpayers.
A bet that a share price will fall can become self-fulfilling if enough traders make it.
Short-sellers were accused of targeting Halifax owner HBOS in particular before it was rescued by Lloyds and then the taxpayer.
Mr Ruddock has given £551,598.42 to the Conservative Party since 2003. He is one of the City’s wealthiest men, with a fortune estimated at £280million.
Among his philanthropic work, he is chairman of the Victoria and Albert Museum, for which he has helped raise more than £120million.
It is not known who recommended him for the honour.
But the names of all candidates are submitted to 10 Downing Street from where they go to the Honours team of the Honours and Appointments Secretariat.
Once the case reaches the Honours team it is prepared for consideration by one of a series of specialist assessment sub-committees composed of senior civil servants and independent experts.
The main committee considers the balance of the proposals and forwards its recommendations to the Cabinet Secretary who, in turn, submits the list to the Prime Minister for submission to the Queen.
Delighted: Peter Bazalgette, the man who brought Big Brother to UK screens, has been given a knighthood for services to broadcasting
Peter Bazalgette has the dubious distinction of being the man who brought Big Brother – the epitome of downmarket reality TV – to UK screens.
Despite what many will regard as a less than enriching contribution to British life, the media executive has been given a knighthood for services to broadcasting.
The 58-year-old was also credited with being instrumental in the rise of lifestyle and make-over shows, having been behind series such as Ground Force, Changing Rooms and Ready Steady Cook.
Yesterday Baz, as he is known within the TV industry, said the honour was a ‘delightful compliment’.
Bazalgette, great great grandson of civil engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette, oversaw the launch, and several series, of Big Brother for Endemol as well as shows such as Fame Academy, Restoration and Deal Or No Deal.
While he did not invent the format for Big Brother he was credited with playing a major part in making the show a success.
During his time at the company the reality series was involved in a number of controversies including showing a couple apparently having sex, albeit under the covers, on Teen Big Brother in 2003.
Five years ago, in the ‘celebrity’ version of the show, viewers were treated to the dubious privilege of seeing maverick MP George Galloway dressed in a cat costume and as a vampire, while more recent participants include Sally Bercow, wife of the Commons Speaker.
One critic has accused Bazalgette of doing more to ‘debase’ TV over the past decade than anyone else.
In recent years he has acted largely as a consultant to the TV industry and for digital media.
He has also written about the business of TV formats, with his book Billion Dollar Game published in 2005.
Bazalgette said he viewed the award as an acknowledgment of the work of independent TV production firms.
After graduating from Cambridge University, Bazalgette joined the BBC’s news trainee scheme, moving on to become a researcher for That’s Life and then a reporter for Man Alive. Moving behind the cameras, he produced the long-running series Food And Drink before setting up his own company Bazal, later to be absorbed into the Dutch TV giant Endemol.
He went on to become Endemol’s chief creative officer, leaving the company in 2007.
Bazalgette is president of the Royal Television Society, deputy chairman of English National Opera and the National Film and Television School, and has served on the board of Channel 4.
In January this year he was made a non-executive director to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport for his ‘business acumen’ and ‘particular insight into a broad spectrum of media issues’.
Another successful TV executive, Paul Smith, the man behind Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, is made a CBE.
He was also executive producer of the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire.
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