Ally McCoist and Graeme Souness among Scots recognised in King’s Birthday Honours

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Ex-footballer Ally McCoist and pundit Graeme Souness are among the Scots recognised in the King’s Birthday Honours list.Former prime minister Gordon Brown is also in the running alongside writer and satirist Armando Iannucci.

Mr Brown becomes a Companion of Honour for public and charitable services in the UK and abroad.The honour recognises significant contributions to the arts, science, medicine or government over a long period of time and is limited to just 65 people at any one time.

Mr Brown told the PA news agency: “I feel slightly embarrassed as the opportunity to serve is an honour in itself and my preference has always been to recognise all those brilliant, unsung, local heroes who quietly and selflessly give their time to contribute to the vitality of our communities.“I want to thank those who put my name forward and thank too my family and all who have worked with me during the last 50 years in public life, to whom I owe everything.” There is a knighthood for historian Professor Sir Niall Ferguson, who first came to the attention of many in the UK with the hit 2003 Channel 4 series Empire: How Britain Made The Modern World, and a best-selling book of the same name.The Glasgow-born academic, who has written 16 books, told PA: “When an individual is honoured by the King, implicitly his formative influences are the real recipients of the honour. “Anything I have achieved is in truth the achievement of my grandparents; my parents, Molly and Campbell; my school, the Glasgow Academy; my college, Magdalen, Oxford; and all the family members, teachers, mentors and friends who encouraged and supported me.”Professor Moira Whyte, the Sir John Crofton Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, becomes