Establishment figures who refused a medal to Britain’s nuclear test heroes have been showered with honours themselves - for overseeing Whitehall budgets, running sports events, and reintegrating the Taliban into Afghan society.
It comes after their secretive Whitehall medal committee denied the veterans’ request for a medal for a third time, saying there was not enough "risk and rigour" for men who walked, flew, and sailed through radiation for Queen and country.
Many of the test vets since died, and their children report 10 times the normal rate of birth defects. At the end of last year, US President Joe Biden awarded a gong to his own atomic heroes, some of whom served alongside British personnel at the Cold War tests.
