ISLANDERS looking at the full list of recipients in today’s new year’s honours will struggle to come to the same conclusion as those responsible for its publication: that there is no one in this Bailiwick deserving of such accolade.

Indeed, even history is against the odds of it happening. As far as is known, this is the first time for at least 10 years that it has happened and people are entitled to ask why.

After all, there are many deserving people in these islands who give freely of their time for good causes and who, in many varying ways, have made a difference to the lives of others – and all without thought or desire of reward.

Some of them will be nominated for local awards, including the forthcoming Ambassador of the Year and Guernsey’s unsung hero, and the charitable endeavours made by many individuals are well known locally.

So, the question islanders will want answered is why was this community overlooked? The answer is disturbingly simple: because nominations have been blocked at UK political level.

Government House here forwards nominations to the Ministry of Justice and, because the process is becoming increasingly politicised, does so only in the case of those it believes have a good chance of making it. This year will have been no different.

Word coming back is that while the MoJ has backed Guernsey, the requests are rejected at a higher level much closer to Downing Street and that will have been the case this year.

We can say so with certainty because – again – Guernsey’s Bailiff has not received a knighthood but would have been nominated for one and with a strengthened case being made.

In some respects, this should have been an easier time to keep the tradition of knighting the Bailiff because there was apparently no one else whose achievements – as distinct from their job – warranted a civil honour.

The point, of course, is that a knighthood as much, if not more, reflects on the communities of these islands as a Bailiwick and is seen as a reflection of the regard in which it is held by the UK.

And as Chancellor Alistair Darling’s hostile review of the islands’ financial status revealed, these are indeed troubled times.