Steve Schwartz wrote:

>I find it rather amusing that the liberal democrat VW refused the
>knighthood and the far more left Tippett and Britten accepted.

Actually, to be precise, Britten was never Knighted either.  He got the OM
and then, at the end of his life, was given a Peerage.  One can see reasons
why a Knighthood might have been withheld for some years, of course.  By
the time it would have been judged OK to give him one he was then in the
"Let's give him an honour before he dies" period, so they probably thought
a Peerage was even more apropriate to make up for it.

Tony Duggan,
England