Gordon Brown blocked honorary knighthood for Steve Jobs after Jobs declined to speak at Labour Party conference

“Gordon Brown blocked an honorary knighthood for Apple founder Steve Jobs, it has emerged,” Christopher Williams reports for The Telegraph.

“The then-Prime Minister refused to knight Mr Jobs in 2009 because he turned down an invitation to speak at the Labour Party conference, a former senior Labour MP said,” Williams reports.

“Mr Jobs was put forward for the honour by the MP for services to technology,” Williams reports. “Apple was aware of the proposal, [the former MP] said, and it reached the final stages of approval, but was rejected by Downing Street.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: No surprise here as Steve Jobs doesn’t strike us as being very big on the whole quid pro quo thing. When presented with the terms of the “deal,” he likely told Brown precisely where to place The Queen’s sword.

Related articles:
Queen Elizabeth to give ‘honorary knighthood’ to Microsoft’s Bill Gates today – March 2, 2005
Apple’s Jonathan Ive named Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire – December 31, 2005

62 Comments

  1. Is anybody aware that Gordon Brown is a member of SocialistInternational?

    In addition, Joseph Stiglitz (a former Clinton admin official), Tony Blair, and Carol Browner are also listed on their site.

    WTF is going on?

  2. Sometimes snobbishness is in the eye of the beholder.

    A very intelligent and wise person once told me, what you see in others is often what you look for. If you are pre-judged to think Brits are snobbish, you will see that. If you are pre-judged to think that Americans are shallow celebrity adulators, you will see that.

    I choose to see the best in both, and there is much, much to admire in the Brit and the Yank. So if you see a bunch of bad in anyone, perhaps you should consider what is inside yourself?

    (Having said that if I were Steve, I wouldn’t have wanted a knighthood either, especially if political strings were attached.)

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