General secretary of the General Federation of Trade Unions GAWAIN LITTLE calls for support and participation in the national partnership organised to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 1926 general strike
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New Year’s Honours – who said ‘No, thanks’?
MAT COWARD offers a roll call of refuseniks – some for political reasons, others for quirky reasons of their own
Philip Noel-Baker
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JB PRIESTLEY, socialist writer and broadcaster, turned down a life peerage in 1965 and a Companion of Honour in 1969. Almost as if to underline his point, in 1979 he accepted the title of Pipe Smoker of the Year.
Some acts of rebellion are very small, but that doesn’t mean they don’t count. When they read out the New Year Honours List on the news you might enjoy playing this seasonal game: try and guess who said “No, thanks.”
Labour MP and peace campaigner Philip Noel-Baker must have had a pretty big mantelpiece on which to keep his Nobel prize, his Olympic medal and the decorations for bravery he won from France, Britain and Italy as an ambulance driver in the first world war. Maybe he turned down a Companion of Honour in 1965 because it seemed a trivial trinket alongside his other trophies, though some suggest that he was motivated by opposition to the war against Vietnam.
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