What would Malcolm Tucker say? Iannucci heads Scots on Honours list

Cutting edge: Armando Iannucci has worked on The Thick Of It and I'm Alan Partridge.SWNS

Comedian and writer Armando Iannucci, best known for creating the scathing political satire The Thick Of It, leads the list of Scots on this year's Queen's Birthday Honours List.

More conventional political honours go to former Holyrood presiding officer George Reid and long-serving Liberal Democrat MP Malcolm Bruce, who are both knighted.

In sport, former world super-featherweight champion boxer Alex Arthur receives an MBE, while the same honour is bestowed on Hamish Adam, an 8th Dan in karate who has been involved in the sport for more than 40 years.

Former Celtic director Willie Haughey receives a knighthood for his services to business and philanthropy after founding City Refrigeration Holdings, which he started from scratch and which now employs 11,000 staff worldwide. He also founded the City Charitable Trust, which has donated around £5m to good causes.

Trevor Francis, a 65-year-old station master, receives an MBE in recognition of his unpaid gardening work at Aberdour Railway Station in Fife, where he spends up to six hours a day tending the plants and shrubs.

Mr Iannucci, 48, who turned the apoplectic, potty-mouthed Malcolm Tucker into a household name, receives an OBE. He said: "The honour is working with lots of performers and writers, so I did feel a bit guilty,

"I just hope it's not an attempt by the government to stop me because that's not going to happen."

Mr Reid, who was elected to Holyrood for the SNP in 1999 before becoming Presiding Officer in 2003, said he had had a "rough haul", as his tenure coincided with the row over the cost of the new Parliament building.

He said: "It's nice to feel that other people feel that you have made a difference in public life within Scots politics."

Mr Bruce, who joined the Liberal Democrats as a schoolboy and has been MP for Gordon for nearly 30 years, has also been a national vice-president of the National Deaf Children's Society.

He said: "I'd like to think the knighthood is not just for political longevity but for the work with charities.

"I've been an MP here since 1983, so I do owe a lot of this to the constituents."

Local heroes

Many of the awards go to those outside the public eye who are involved in their local communities.

Barbara Johnstone, 67, receives an MBE for services to charity. She founded Ravelrig Riding for the Disabled, based in Balerno, Edinburgh, and has raised more than £1m for it over the years.

The same award goes to Vanessa Orr, 54, a long-term foster carer for Edinburgh City Council, who has fostered over 144 children in more than 25 years. She is recognised for her services to vulnerable children and young people.

Another high profile Scot to be knighted is opera director David McVicar. Born in Glasgow, he discovered opera while growing up in the city by catching a TV screening of Bergman's Magic Flute. Since the early 1990s he has directed opera all around the world, sometimes as many as five a year.

Also knighted is Professor Jim McDonald, principal and vice-chancellor of Strathclyde University. He started his Strathclyde career as an undergraduate, studied for an MSc and later a PhD in power engineering and power system economics.

Comics writer Grant Morrison, from Glasgow, receives an MBE. His Batman book Arkham Asylum has sold more than 600,000 copies worldwide and is the most successful original graphic novel to be published in the US.

The writer, educated at Glasgow's Mosspark Primary and the Allan Glen School for Boys and who has homes in both his home city and Los Angeles in the US, has won a series of industry awards. In 1997 he became the first comic book writer in Entertainment Weekly's top 100 creative people in the US.

Bob Winter, Lord Provost of Glasgow from 2007 till earlier this year, gets an OBE for services to local government and the community in the city, while David Liddell, director of the Scottish Drugs Forum, receives the same honour for his services to disadvantaged people in Scotland.

First minister Alex Salmond said: "Scots from all walks of life - including from the voluntary sector, public services, business and sport - have been honoured for their service to communities across the country.

"All of us in Scotland can take pride in the many and varied achievements of the successful nominees, whose achievements are rightly celebrated today."

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