WHAT HAS BOB WON?

Great news for Bob Geldof - he's won the prestigious Man Of Peace award, conveniently enough at the same time as he's pushing the Live8 DVD. (Live8 was an event designed to raise awareness of this Christmas stocking-stuffer, in case you forgot.) The what? Yes, the Man of Peace award. It's voted for by Nobel Laureates at an annual gathering paid for by the Gorbachev foundation, so it's, well, astonishing, isn't it? Bob says yes:

“It’s almost too big — all the Nobel Peace Prize winners voting for you as their Man of Peace. I feel weird.

“It reaffirms the progress made by Live 8 and the Make Poverty History campaign."

Well, certainly the progress towards garnishing Geldof with awards, prizes, and an all-important profile to help get those public speaking engagements can't be denied, can it?

But you might be asking yourself: if this is such a big deal, how come the Man of Peace prize is something I've never heard of, but also has a name that makes it sound like one of those books they include you in and then charge you £250 to buy a copy of ("Men of Destiny, 2005")?

Well, it's not "all the Nobel peace prize winners", for a start - apart from anything, quite often the prize goes to an organisation rather than a person, and not everyone bothers with the foundation anyway. But it is some Nobel winners.

More curiously, though, are the previous winners. In 2003, Roberto Benigni won the prize - coincidentally, the meeting was held in Rome. Last year's winner? Cat Stevens. You might notice there's something of a showbiz theme emerging here. We would suggest that the prize is little more than a cheap way of getting a celeb to attend the Laureate Bash, rather than a real award for hard work, but we're sure Nobel Prize Winners would never be so cyncial.

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