Then perhaps Cape you could get off your high horse for long enough to acknowledge that TC is at the very least, no less deserving than many many others who have received similar awards?
I'm no great fan of the man either, but I do recognise that outside of London he has done a very great deal to improve access via the airline to the rest of the world. BA have for years neglected the regions, numurous wanderings through water-world with a longtime BA chum who has described at great length the almost allergic reaction that BA had to any thought of even a token presence beyond LHR/LGW merely confirmed to me what many have already said.
You can lament as much as you like about the double standards and hypocrisy that you perceive in a place like Dubai, but the fact is, that is the reality of the place and neither you or I can change it.
Along the way TC has led a highly successful business to the point where he has been recognised for its contribution to the UK, by default it has also led many of us to pursue successful tenures in our time with EK, allowed us to educate our kids, my wife has been able to complete her masters degree, and in general lots of us have experienced the type of job security (within the usual cultural caveats that exist in the Middle East) that many of us would never had experienced back home in Blighty.
I personally own a few rental properties (purchased essentially derelict and rebuilt by myself and local tradespeople) all funded through UK banks on the back of my EK salary, now rented to working families in the UK.....and I am only one of 3400 pilots, 14000 cabin crew who for their part contribute financially to their own home economies. I haven't mentioned the Bangladeshi guy I spoke to on the ramp the other day who was driving a loader who told me his "meagre" EK salary has supported his extended family for the past 8 years and helped him buy a farm.
If all that is detrimental to the wider UK economy, then I'm yet to see it for myself.