Liberal Democrats should have none of this honours for departing ministers business

I just want to quickly add my voice to that of Stephen Tall, who has said that Liberal Democrats should not accept honours for departing ministers.

However sad I might be to see Nick Harvey, Paul Burstow, Sarah Teather and Andrew Stunell leave government, there's something unpleasant about that sort of political patronage. Honours are there for exceptional performance, not routine stuff.

Our Nick Harvey is in line for a knighthood and Stunell and Burstow get made Privy Councillors. I can cope with the latter a bit better as there is an advisory role where their experience might be helpful. However, membership of that august body is hardly open to the rest of us - maybe opening it up to ordinary people is something the Lord President of the Council, one Nicholas William Peter Clegg, might like to consider. At the moment it looks like a place for retired gentleministers.

So three of our departees have had stuff - you have to ask why not Sarah Teather. Jobs for the boys? Or maybe she turned them down flat - in which case, well done.

And don't get me started on Ashcroft getting on. We can't stop the Tories appointing who we like, but we can be annoyed about it. Surely their obvious honouring of someone who gives them shedloads of cash will make people draw their own conclusions....

An Honoured New Year for Stewart, Brawn and Lloyd - but what about Brucie?

I'm just sipping some tea, earl grey, hot in honour of Sir Patrick Stewart who has been knighted in today's New Year's Honours list. About time too! He's one of our best actors. I'm looking forward to watching his and David Tennant's Hamlet which is waiting for me on my Sky Plus.

Of course, being a Star Trek fan, he will always be, above all, Captain Jean-Luc Picard to me. The role required great versatility. From being assimilated by the Borg, tortured by the Cardassians, to playing detective in the Holodeck, to the episode where he was stuck in a turbolift with a bunch of kids, he played the role brilliantly.

And then, of course, there's honours for the Brawn F1 team whose triumph over adversity is one of the hopeful stories from this year. Team Principal and all round lovely genius Ross gets an OBE. A friend of mine said last night that really it should have been a Dukedom for all he's done over the last 20 years and I see his point, even if I can't stand that level of royal patronage. Jenson Button, the world champion driver gets an MBE.

The last name I want to pick out from the list is Phyllida Lloyd, the director of Mamma Mia, who gets a CBE. Anyone who has made as many people smile as she has deserves recognition. Apparently, according to the channel 5 programme the other night, 1 in 4 households in the UK own a Mamma Mia DVD. I've watched the film many times, the first being as a birthday present from my friend Siobhan at Ocean Terminal in Edinburgh. I think that was the night she introduced me to this, too. If you haven't tried it, you are missing out.

I am completely mystified, though, at the continued lack of a knighthood for Bruce Forsyth. I absolutely love him to bits and his shows have been entertaining me on Saturday nights for as long as I can remember. Why hasn't he been recognised with a knighthood as many of his peers have been? This article from the Torygraph says he can't be considered until next year because he was awarded a CBE in 2005 and there has to be a 5 year gap. Even so, why did he have to wait that long for an honour at all? And I don't want to sound full of doom, and I hope he's going to be with us for a long time to come, but surely there has to be some flexibility on these things as people get older?

I've just been looking at the full PDF of the list and I'm on my high horse a bit. Now that we're in the 21st century, don't you think we could just have one form of address for everyone, regardless of gender? I mean, you have, in the OBE list, Ross Brawn and Susan, Mrs Knox. If you're not married, you have a Ms in front of your name. Is that really necessary?

Anyway, if I'm going to make this party tonight, I am going to need to go and have a nap, so this rant is now officially over.