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Mr Ahern worked with Tony Blair’s in the run-up to the Good Friday and St Andrews agreements
Former Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern has confirmed that he will not be standing in the Republic’s forthcoming election.
Mr Ahern, who worked closely with Tony Blair in the run-up to the Good Friday and St Andrews agreements, made his comments at a meeting of his local Fianna Fáil branch in Dublin.
He said that he had planned to step down from the Dail before he reached 60 as far back as 2002.
Fianna Fail, the former Taoiseach’s party is widely expected to face a humiliating defeat in next year’s election.
Mr Ahern resigned in May 2008 after 11 years as prime minister.
His successor Brian Cowen has been tackling the country’s economic problems which hit their lowest point last month with an 85 billion euro (£73.24bn) IMF/EU bailout.
He said in a statement: “It was always my plan that I would step down before I was 60. With an election due in the spring and my next birthday in September being my 60th, I want to confirm tonight that I will not be a candidate at the next general election.”
Mr Ahern has been the most successful politician in the Republic of Ireland since Eamon De Valera, winning three elections. He was Ireland’s second-longest serving Taoiseach.
He will be remembered for his role in the negotiations leading up to the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.
When the talks at Stormont were in their crucial final stages, he returned from his mother’s funeral to rejoin the negotiations.
Mr Ahern stood aside as Taoiseach to fight corruption allegations that risked tarnishing his achievements while in office.
“Years of apparently great success then, are apparently tainted by great failures now.”
Bertie Ahern Former Taoiseach
In his statement, Mr Ahern said: “It is not given to anyone in life who tries and tries again not to sometimes fail. Years of apparently great success then, are apparently tainted by great failures now.
“But when that stock is taken, when the eleven years I had the honour to be Taoiseach are more coldly considered, the many positives will be put into the balance with the negatives.”
Two other senior members of Fianna Fail — Justice Minister Dermot Ahern and Transport Minister Noel Dempsey — have already said they will not run in elections Mr Cowen has promised to call in the first quarter of 2011.
Opinion polls suggest Fianna Fail’s presence in the lower house could be halved after the vote, with the centre-right Fine Gael and centre-left Labour parties overwhelming favourites to form a coalition.
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The Birmingham-based doctor responsible for the care of soldiers wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq is knighted in the New Year Honours.
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Actors David Suchet and Sheila Hancock are among the stars of stage and screen recognised in the New Year Honours.
Suchet, 64, and Hancock, 77, become CBEs, as do influential record producer Trevor Horn, sculptor Richard Wentworth and dance choreographer Wayne McGregor.
Writer Lady Antonia Fraser said she was “very pleased and surprised” to be made a dame for services to literature.
Folk musician Richard Thompson and Les Miserables lyricist Herbert Kretzmer are appointed OBEs.
Suchet is best known for playing Agatha Christie’s detective Hercule Poirot in the long-running TV series that bears the Belgian sleuth’s name.
The London-born actor has played a wide variety of roles on stage and screen during a career spanning more than 40 years.
Hancock, the widow of Inspector Morse star John Thaw, has also enjoyed a varied and successful career.
She has appeared in numerous plays and TV sitcoms and was seen this year in West End musical Sister Act.
“It is lovely, really lovely,” the actress said. “I’m surprised how pleased I am.
“I got a letter saying the Prime Minister’s office was going to ask the Queen to consider me and I immediately thought she would say no.”
Lady Antonia, Sir Harold Pinter’s widow, recently published an account of her 34-year relationship with the late playwright.
Dame Antonia Fraser (right) is the widow of playwright Sir Harold Pinter
She has also written best-selling biographies of Marie Antoinette and Mary, Queen of Scots.
Award-winning actress Harriet Walter is appointed a dame for services to drama.
The 60-year-old, who has appeared in scores of plays, TV series and films, previously became a CBE in 2000.
Turner prize-winning artist Steve McQueen, 41, is appointed a CBE, as are former Radio 4 controller Mark Damazar and Blackadder composer Howard Goodall.
Meanwhile comedy producer and writer John Lloyd – who counts Blackadder among his achievements – has been made a CBE.
Lloyd, 59, began in TV with Not the Nine O’Clock News, before going on to produce satirical show Spitting Image and Blackadder. In 1990 he was given a Bafta lifetime achievement award at just 39.
In the film world, costume designer Sandy Powell and film director Andrea Arnold are both appointed OBEs.
Powell, 50, won Oscars for her work on Shakespeare In Love, The Aviator and The Young Victoria, while Arnold directed Red Road, Fish Tank and the Oscar-winning short Wasp.
Burt Kwouk, the 80-year-old actor best known for his recurring role as Cato in the Pink Panther films, has also been made an OBE.
Trevor Horn, who was behind Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Welcome To The Pleasure Dome album, said he was “completely taken by surprise”.
“I wondered what it was and thought it was tax,” he said of the official envelope which carried news of his honour.
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One in 10 of the awards are for services to education
The founder of a school for teenage mothers is among those given New Year Honours for services to education.
Julie Stamper is rewarded for her role in the Schoolgirl Mums’ Unit in Hull, which has helped hundreds of young mothers continue their education.
Head teachers, academics, governors and lollipop men and women received awards.
London head Susan John, Merseyside college principal Patricia Bacon and Cambridge professor Caroline Humphrey become dames.
About one in 10 of those on the New Year’s list is being honoured for services to education.
Seven school governors and three lollipop men and women are made MBEs.
Mrs Stamper’s MBE for her role in the Schoolgirl Mums’ Unit in Hull rewards her work going back to her setting up the facility in 1989. She is currently its head teacher.
It has space for 35 pupils, who attend while pregnant and after they have had their babies. There is a baby unit on the same site.
The latest report by the England schools’ watchdog, Ofsted, rates the unit as outstanding in terms of education, care and support for students, and praises Mrs Stamper’s leadership.
It says: “The unit has a transformational effect in engaging vulnerable students in learning and building their confidence during what is for many an emotional and difficult period in their lives as they have their babies”.
Most pupils come from disadvantaged areas and arrive with below-average attainment, but make good or outstanding progress, the report says.
The list of education CBEs includes Howard Goodall, the award-winning composer and broadcaster, for his work of the past five years in promoting music education in England.
In total, 15 head teachers, and 14 school and college principals are honoured, the government says.
One of the highest awards for services to education goes to Susan John, head of Lampton School in Hounslow, west London, who has been made a dame.
The secondary school featured in a list drawn up by Ofsted inspectors in 2009 of schools which are outstanding and are “excelling against the odds”.
Mrs John’s leadership of the school was praised in the school’s latest Ofsted report.
She was described as “an inspirational head teacher who systematically searches for and implements strategies to develop people, eliminate under-performance and do the best for the students”.
The school has a high proportion of children on free school meals.
It is due to switch to become an academy, meaning it will become directly-funded by central government and have more independence.
Also made a dame in the New Year Honours is Caroline Humphrey, professor of collaborative anthropology at the University of Cambridge.
She has carried out research on Siberia and Mongolia in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods.
And Patricia Bacon, the principal of St Helens College, Merseyside, has also been made a dame.
The college has about 15,000 students on more than 600 different courses – which include both further and higher education programmes.
It has partnerships with a number of universities.
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Kevin Pietersen believes the actions that saw him lose the captaincy were key to England retaining the Ashes.
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Veteran Conservative MP Peter Bottomley is awarded a knighthood in the New Years Honours list.
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Piers Sellers has logged 35 days in space on three Nasa shuttle missions
British-born astronaut Piers Sellers has been appointed an OBE in the New Year Honours List for his services to science.
Dr Sellers, who was born in Crowborough, East Sussex, has flown on three space shuttle missions – most recently in May this year.
Like other astronaut candidates born outside the US, he had to become an American citizen to be considered.
The science journalist and broadcaster Vivienne Parry is also awarded an OBE.
Dr Sellers is one of only five UK-born people to have flown into orbit so far – out of some 500 in total across the world.
“It is a tremendous honour, and I’m really glad that the whole business of spaceflight has been recognised in the UK,” he told BBC News.
He first joined Nasa in the 1980s, working at the Nasa Goddard Space Center in Maryland. It was there that he succeeded in getting on to the Nasa astronaut programme.
Dr Sellers first flew into space aboard the shuttle Atlantis in 2002, during which he carried out three spacewalks to help continue the assembly of the International Space Station.
“I’m really glad that the whole business of spaceflight has been recognised in the UK”
Piers Sellers Nasa astronaut
His next flight was aboard Discovery in 2006, a crucial mission designed to test improved safety measures following the 2003 Columbia disaster, in which seven astronauts died.
In May this year, Dr Sellers boarded Atlantis for a second time to deliver a Russian-built module to the space station.
With the shuttle programme coming to an end, Dr Sellers – who holds a degree in ecology and a PhD in climate simulation – is set to return to Nasa Goddard to resume his science pursuits.
In 1994, Ms Parry became a presenter for the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World programme. But she is also well known as a broadcaster on BBC Radio 4 and as a columnist and writer for the Guardian and Times newspapers.
She is also active in the charity sector, having worked with the Princess of Wales for several years at Birthright – now called Wellbeing of Women – which works in partnership with the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
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The government hopes the new rules will avert any more customer panic if a bank is in trouble
The compensation limit for people who lose money if their bank, building society or credit union goes bust, has increased from £50,000 to £85,000.
The new limit starts on 31 December 2010, and applies to each customer at each authorised firm.
The new limit is part of a Europe-wide requirement for each country to offer compensation equivalent to 100,000 euros.
Compensation will be paid by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) said the new higher limit would cover the “vast majority” of UK savers.
At the start of the banking crisis in 2007 the maximum payout for depositors was just £31,700 per person, made up of 100% of the first £2,000 and then 90% of their next £33,000.
When the Northern Rock bank went bust that year it became obvious that this limit was not high enough to reassure savers, who were then staging a crippling run on the bank.
The government stepped in to announce a 100% government guarantee for all savers’ money in the Northern Rock.
In October 2007 the FSCS limit was raised to £35,000 and then again a year later to £50,000.
However as the financial crisis gathered pace in 2008, the practical policy of a 100% government guarantee was extended to savers in other banks that became insolvent or were in danger of becoming so.
These were the Bradford & Bingley and then the Icelandic internet banks Icesave and Kaupthing Edge.
The formal 100% government guarantee for the Northern Rock’s savers was brought to an end in May 2010 after the bank had been nationalised and then split in two.
The government has not said if it would step in again and offer blanket compensation for savers if another UK bank went bust or appeared to be in danger of doing so.
The authorities hope that the revamped FSCS rules, which will be the subject of a publicity campaign in early 2011, will be enough to stop another run on a bank.
As well as offering higher compensation payouts, the new rules aim to give most claimants their money much faster than before – within seven days and the rest within 20 days.
Payouts will also no longer be reduced by the amount of money that a saver might also owe their savings institution – for instance by the size of a mortgage or other loan.
However temporary rules in place since 2009, which gave separate protection to savers with money in two merged building societies, have now ended.
The new FSCS rules apply to all members of the European Economic Area – the EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
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The 2011 New Year Honours have been announced and among those recognised is actress Sheila Hancock who will be presented her CBE for her services to drama.
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Her work as an Oxfam ambassador earned Annie Lennox her OBE
Ex-Eurythmics singer Annie Lennox is among the stars recognised with a New Year Honour – appointed an OBE for work fighting Aids and poverty in Africa.
Actors Sheila Hancock and David Suchet become CBEs, while stage start Harriet Walter is appointed a dame.
Football’s World Cup Final referee Howard Webb and US Open golf champion Graeme McDowell become MBEs.
MPs feature for the first time since the expenses scandal. Peter Bottomley is made a knight and Anne Begg a dame.
Dame Anne became the first full-time wheelchair user elected to Parliament when she took the Aberdeen South seat for Labour in 1997. She has been honoured for her services to disabled people and for being a supporter of equal opportunities.
Sir Peter, 66, the Conservative MP for Worthing West in Sussex who was elected in 1975, receives his knighthood for his public service.
Some 120 military figures are honoured, including the chief of the defence staff, Gen Sir David Richards, who is made a Knight Grand Cross in the Order of the Bath. Surgeon Professor Keith Porter, who co-ordinates the care of seriously-injured British troops flown back from Afghanistan, becomes a knight.
The Armed Forces’ highest-ranking Muslim, Rear Admiral Amjad Hussain, becomes a Companion of the Order of the Bath.
Meanwhile, Holocaust survivor Hermann Hirschberger, who chaired the Association of Jewish Refugees’ Kindertransport Committee, is appointed an MBE.
“It will be a real treat to go to the Palace with my wife and family”
Howard Webb Football referee
In broadcasting, former ITN foreign correspondent Sandy Gall, 83, is made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George for his decades of charity work supporting disabled Afghans.
John Lloyd, 59, producer of Not The Nine O’Clock News, Spitting Image, Blackadder and QI, becomes a CBE while rugby league commentator Ray French is appointed an MBE.
Artist Steve McQueen and record producer Trevor Horn are made CBEs.
In a reference to the costume worn in the video to his former band’s single Video Killed The Radio Star, Horn joked he would “put my Buggles glasses on” for the investiture.
Other entertainment figures to be honoured include National Ambassador for Singing, Howard Goodall, former Radio 4 controller Mark Damazer, who become CBEs, and director of the acclaimed film Fish Tank, Andrea Arnold, who is appointed an OBE.
Herbert Kretzmer, who penned the lyrics for hit musical Les Miserables, is made an OBE, along with ex-Fairport Convention songwriter Richard Thompson.
Costume designer Sandy Powell, who picked up Oscars for Shakespeare In Love, The Aviator and The Young Victoria, is appointed an OBE, while English National Opera chairman Vernon Ellis, becomes a knight.
Veteran actors Suchet and Walter were both honoured
In the fashion world, protest T-shirt designer Katherine Hamnett and Ted Baker founder Raymond Kelvin, 55, are made CBEs, while designer Alice Temperley, 35, becomes an MBE.
Business figures honoured include BA chairman Martin Broughton, who brokered the recent sale of Liverpool FC. He receives a knighthood, with the same honour going to CBI chief Richard Lambert and Roger Carr, chairman of energy giant Centrica.
Aberdeen-born Lennox, 56, who is an Oxfam ambassador and founded her Sing campaign to raise awareness of Aids in Africa, said she was “genuinely honoured” to be made an OBE.
“As somewhat of a renegade, it either means I’ve done something terribly right – or they’ve done something terribly wrong,” said the singer, whose hits include Sweet Dreams, Thorn in My Side and Walking on Broken Glass.
“In any case, whatever powers-that-be have deemed me worthy of such a recognition, I’m getting my fake leopard pillbox hat dusted and ready.”
Webb, 39, a police sergeant from Rotherham, said his honour topped off “an unbelieveable 12 months”, during which he became the first person to referee both the Uefa Champions League and World Cup finals.
“It will be a real treat to go to the Palace with my wife and family and it should be a marvellous occasion,” he said.
British-born astronaut Piers Sellers becomes an OBE
Hancock, who recently received a Women in Film and Television lifetime achievement award admitted that, as a practising Quaker, she had to clarify whether the award was compatible with the group’s beliefs on equality.
“They said it was fine because it was for my work and it was earned,” she said
And she vowed not to make the same mistake as when she accepted her OBE in 1974, when she borrowed a pigskin outfit only to return it with a large hole where the pin for the honour had to be forced in.
Bert Kwouk, 80, is named an OBE. He is best known as martial arts expert Cato from the Pink Panther movies but more recently starred in Last of the Summer Wine and Channel 4 comedy betting show Banzai!
McDowell, a key member of Europe’s Ryder Cup winning team, said his appointment to MBE was a “huge honour”.
“For my achievements as a professional golfer to be recognised in this way is truly special,” he said.
As usual, the majority of the 998 honours go to ordinary people for work in their community.
Examples include MBEs for beekeeper Anne Buckingham, from Farnham, Surrey, Dr Marjorie Ziff, who has funded numerous projects and events in Leeds over 60 years, and Eric Sutherns, the bridge master of London’s Tower Bridge.
Bridge master Eric Sutherns was among the non-famous folk honoured
Metropolitan Police Constable Ivor MacGregor, 62, who disarmed a gunman who attempted to kidnap the Princess Royal in 1974, was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal in recognition of his 43-year career.
Further honours go to Lady Antonia Fraser, 78, the widow of playwright Harold Pinter and author of biographies of Marie Antoinette and Mary Queen of Scots, who is made a dame for services to literature.
Meanwhile, the Queen Mother’s biographer William Shawcross is appointed Commander of the Royal Victorian Order.
Mountaineer Joe Brown, 80, nicknamed the “human fly” for his televised ascents, becomes a CBE, along with British Chamber of Commerce director-general David Frost and sculptor Richard Wentworth.
Former Rugby Football Union chief Francis Barron and British Judo Association president George Kerr, 73, one of only five 10th Dans in the world, are also appointed CBE.
Newly-appointed OBEs include Lush Cosmetics co-founders Mo and Mark Constantine, Miles Jacobson, creator of computer game series Championship Manager, Nasa astronaut Piers Sellers, 55, and recently retired Grand National-winning racehorse trainer Toby Balding.
Northern Ireland football great Jimmy McIlroy is made an MBE.
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Martin Broughton had a busy year helping to fire-fight at British Airways and Liverpool football club
The chairman of British Airways, Martin Broughton, has received a knighthood in the New Year Honours.
Sir Martin, who had another high-profile role recently as the chairman who oversaw the sale of Liverpool FC, was honoured for services to business.
Also knighted are Centrica and ex-Cadbury’s chairman Roger Carr, Reed Recruitment founder Alec Reed, and the CBI’s director general Richard Lambert.
The founders of retailers Ted Baker and Lush have received other honours.
Sir Martin, 63, who lives in Oxted, Surrey, had an eventful 12 months dealing with strikes by BA cabin crew and massive disruption to flights caused by snow and the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud.
He also oversaw the protracted sale of Liverpool football club, bought by New England Sports Ventures. He had been brought in by the club on a temporary basis with a brief to find a suitable buyer.
Sir Martin, married with two children, is a fan of football, and Chelsea in particular, but horse racing is his real love.
He is credited with helping to safeguard the future of the horse racing industry during his stint as chairman of the British Horseracing Board between 2004 and 2007.
Sir Roger Carr, 64, who lives in Kensington, west London, has presided over a huge increase in profits at Centrica-owned British Gas, and the controversial sale of Cadbury to the US food giant Kraft.
The sale of the chocolate company brought criticism that Britain was selling another of its business jewels into foreign hands.
Sir Roger is also chairman of Centrica, which came under fire after its British Gas subsidiary put up prices by 7% in December despite the parent company being forecast to double its profits in 2010.
Sir Alec Reed, 76, gets his knighthood for services to business and charity. He founded the Reed employment company in 1960, and went on to establish a foundation that supports a diverse range of charitable projects.
The foundation supports efforts to improve the lives of women around the world, and introduced a much-admired Give As You Earn scheme allowing employees to donate to charities in a tax efficient way.
Sir Peter Ellwood, 67, chairman of the packaging company Rexam, is knighted for services to business and the public sector.
He spent most of his career in the banking sector, and is former group chief executive of Lloyds TSB.
Sir Richard Lambert, 66, a former member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, is stepping down after more than four years as the CBI’s director general. He is a former editor of the Financial Times newspaper.
Other business-related honours include CBEs for David Frost, director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce, and for Raymond Kelvin, founder and chief executive of retailer Ted Baker.
Margaret and Mark Constantine, co-founders of retailer Lush, receive OBEs for services to the beauty industry.
The couple started their business in a shed in their back garden but Lush now has more than 600 stores in 43 countries.
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Annie Lennox, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, Dougie Maclean and Anne Begg MP are among the Scots honoured
Politicians, musicians and artists are among the Scots named in the New Year Honours List.
Anne Begg MP, the first person with disabilities to become an MP, is made a dame for her services to disabled people and equal opportunities.
Singer Annie Lennox is awarded an OBE for her many years of charity work.
Other Scots recipients include artist John Lowrie Morrison, the folk singer Dougie Maclean and Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, the founder of Mary’s Meals.
Anne Begg was elected MP for Aberdeen South in 1997, after a career as a secondary school teacher.
Since entering parliament, she has chaired the all-party group on equalities, the all-party group on chronic pain and is now chairwoman of the work and pensions select committee.
The 55-year-old from Angus was born with Gaucher’s disease, a rare genetic condition which causes regular bone breakages, and has used a wheelchair since 1984.
She said she was “humbled” to receive the honour.
“I am still a bit stunned and still coming to terms with what this means,” she said.
Former Eurythmics singer and charity campaigner Annie Lennox said she was “genuinely honoured” to be appointed an OBE.
The Aberdonian, who is now a solo artist, joked that she was getting her hat ready for a visit to Buckingham Palace.
“As somewhat of a renegade, it either means I’ve done something terribly right – or they’ve done something terribly wrong,” she said.
The artist John Lowrie Morrison signs all his work Jolomo
“In any case, whatever powers-that-be have deemed me worthy of such a recognition, I’m getting my fake leopard pillbox hat dusted and ready.”
The 56-year-old has long campaigned to raised awareness of Aids in Africa and in 2007 established SING, inspired by Nelson Mandela, to help children and women affected by the disease.
Lennox has also worked as a Unesco Goodwill Ambassador for Aids.
John Lowrie Morrison said receiving his OBE was “a simply marvellous honour”.
The painter, who is best known for his contemporary Scottish landscapes and signs all his work Jolomo, is honoured for services to art and charity in Scotland.
He said: “Painting and the Scottish landscape have been lifelong passions for me and there are charities whose fantastic work my wife and I are hugely keen to support.
“It’s great to be recognised in this way for doing things you love.”
Another recipient of the OBE, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, founded Mary’s Meals, which aims to give the world’s poorest children a meal a day.
He started the charity in 2002, following an encounter with the children of a woman dying from Aids in Malawi.
The 42-year-old said: “I feel that the honour is a recognition of the hard work of everyone who has been involved in the Mary’s Meals journey, giving their time, resources and love to help us to grow from a tiny group of volunteers carrying blankets to Bosnia, to an international charity that is feeding more than 450,000 school children worldwide.”
George Kerr’s CBE for services to judo comes just months after he was recognised by Japan’s Emperor
Singer Dougie Maclean, who is best known for penning the folk ballad Caledonia, has been honoured for his services to music and charity in Scotland.
He said he was gobsmacked to become an OBE and said he could not “wait to tell his mammy”.
Speaking from his home in Perthshire, he said it was “a great thrill” to be recognised after 36 years in the music business.
“The letter dropped through the door a few weeks ago and I couldn’t believe it,” he said.
“It’s only this morning that I’ve accepted the fact that it’s actually real. It’s a great thrill to be honoured in this way.”
The 56-year-old has been involved in a number of charities over the years, including homelessness charities the Cyrenians and Shelter.
Other people recognised in the Queen’s New Year Honours include George Kerr, one of the top judo experts and president of the British Judo Association.
The 73-year-old becomes a CBE for his services to judo, which comes just months after he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun by the Emperor of Japan.
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Nasa astronaut Piers Sellers has been appointed OBE
A Nasa astronaut, a beekeeper and a World Cup football referee are among those in England recognised in the New Year Honours list.
Piers Sellers, 55, who was born in East Sussex and has been on three space flights, becomes an OBE.
Howard Webb, 39, from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, has been appointed MBE after becoming the first Englishman to referee a World Cup final since 1974.
Many local heroes and community figures have also been recognised.
Beekeeper Anne Buckingham, from Farnham, was appointed MBE for services to beekeeping in Surrey, with the same honour going to Eric Sutherns, who is the bridge master of London’s Tower Bridge.
Ray Edwards, from Sandhurst, Berkshire, who lost his legs and arms in 1987 due to blood poisoning after being treated for Hodgkin’s lymphoma, has been appointed MBE.
Mr Edwards, who founded Limbcare, a charity that offers help to those who have lost limbs and to their families and partners, said: “I am very, very proud.
“A lot of people said with what I do with helping others it would be quite nice to have an honour, but just for me personally it’s mind-blowing.
“I am just a normal bloke and decided to help.”
In Suffolk, Dr Michael Field, a specialist in managing not-for profit organisations, has been appointed OBE.
Dr Field, a non-executive board member of the James Paget University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and chair of Great Yarmouth College in Norfolk, said he was “absolutely thrilled”.
“I’ve been associated with voluntary organisations for most of my career and I get a great deal of pleasure in witnessing the amazing work they undertake for our communities,” he said.
Referee Howard Webb was appointed MBE for services to football
Manchester-born rock climber Joe Brown, 80, who now lives in Llanberis, Snowdonia, nicknamed the “human fly” for his televised ascents of mountains, was appointed CBE.
There was a knighthood for Professor Keith Porter, consultant at the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine, at the newly-built Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.
Prof Porter, from Alvechurch, Worcestershire, co-ordinates the care of injured British troops flown back from Afghanistan and was recognised for his services to the armed forces.
Mr Webb, a police sergeant from Rotherham who is on a break from South Yorkshire Police, refereed the World Cup final between Spain and Holland in South Africa in July, which Spain won 1-0.
He also officiated at the Champions League final between Inter Milan and Bayern Munich in May.
There was an OBE for rugby star Mike Catt, 39, who retired from playing in May having won 75 England caps.
In Parliament, Conservative MP for Worthing West in West Sussex, Peter Bottomley, has been knighted for his public service.
The 66-year-old was first elected in 1975 and served as a junior minister under Margaret Thatcher.
There were also knighthoods for Martin Broughton, chairman of British Airways, Roger Carr, chairman of energy giant Centrica, and Richard Lambert, the director-general of the Confederation of British Industry.
In the world of film and theatre, veteran actress Sheila Hancock, 77, who was born on the Isle of Wight and now lives in London, has been appointed CBE.
Poirot actor David Suchet, 64, from London, was appointed CBE for services to drama, having played a variety of roles on stage and screen for more than 40 years.
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World Cup final referee Howard Webb and Ryder Cup hero Graeme McDowell are both awarded MBEs in the New Year Honours List while former England rugby player Mike Catt gets an OBE.
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Lisa Murkowski could be sworn in on Wednesday
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Lisa Murkowski has been officially declared winner of the US Senate contest in Alaska, following a long legal challenge by rival Joe Miller.
Ms Murkowski lost the Republican nomination in August to Mr Miller, a candidate backed by the Tea Party.
But she ran a write-in campaign, asking her supporters to add her name to the ballot paper to vote for her.
She is the first Senate candidate to be elected in a write-in campaign since 1954.
State authorities said Ms Murkowski’s margin of victory in the officially certified result was 10,252 votes.
Mr Miller had appealed after votes were hand-counted following the 2 November election.
He said ballots on which Ms Murkowski’s name was not spelt correctly or the oval next to her name was not filled in, should not count.
A federal judge, Ralph Beistline, lifted his hold on the certification of the results after Alaska’s Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that allowed misspellings.
Voter intent was “paramount”, the state Supreme Court said.
The certification is expected to be hand-delivered to Washington, in order to avoid delays that could prevent Ms Murkowski being sworn in with other senators on Wednesday, the Associated Press news agency reported.
Mr Miller is expected to announce on Friday whether he will mount a further legal challenge over the election.
Analysts have described Ms Murkowski’s victory as a rebuke for Ms Palin, the 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate and Tea Party figurehead.
She has been openly at odds with Ms Murkowski since defeating her father Frank Murkowski to win Alaska’s governorship in 2006.
The last US senator to win an election via a write-in was Strom Thurmond in the US Senate contest in South Carolina in 1954.
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