It seems not. He was quite cosy with Thatcher and had several photo opportunities with her. He was regarded as an untouchable national treasure. For me he was always just weird.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

John Lydon had a clue. This is from a 1978 radio interview.

“I want to kill Jimmy Savile – he’s a hypocrite. I bet he’s into all kinds of seediness that we all know about but aren’t allowed to talk about. I know some rumours,”

You have to remember that the overwhelming public face of Savile was a humble man who did things for other people - he made so many children's dreams come true on Jim'll Fix It; ran marathon after marathon for various charities, bringing in millions for them;he worked tirelessly in his 'free' time as an unpaid porter in Leeds hospital, and he even got himself involved in the fund raising for Royal charities - the ultimate stamp of approval. Yes, he was a bit of an oddball, but don't we British love our eccentric National Treasures?

Now here's the rub, the public at large had no idea of his vile behaviour, so therefore, to not give him some sort of public recognition for charitable endeavours way above what others were being rewarded for every year would almost certainly have started questions being asked as to why he was being overlooked. Which would certainly have either made a lot of people 'in the know, but silent' very, very uncomfortable, or it would have blown the lid off the whole evil mess that was the truth behind the facade and a lot of heads would have had to roll.

As for Sir Jerry Adams...... just give it time.

A stairway to Heaven and a Highway to Hell give some indication of expected traffic numbers

Excellent post.

Much has been made about Thatcher but there is a committee that vets these things. I'm sure Maggie had plenty to do back then running the country rather then delving into every nomination.

So the question is did the committee warn against him if not why not. If yes then why did Thatcher over rule them?

And before people start saying these were rumours he wasn't charged with anything therefore.... Plenty of people have been turned down for gongs because there was the whiff of impropriety against them, plenty also have got them because the PM has been keen, which also stinks.

One more point

He provided valuable assistance during the Falklands war. My mate who served flew to Chile via Washington and then from there to the Falklands.

Yes he was a nasty dictator, if Thatcher had not helped him then the next time we needed help from another foreign leader why would they trust us. Sometimes you have to sup with the devil.

I doubt she cared about him at all.

One more point

Sign of the times - seems waiting for anything has gone out of fashion.