What they have in common…
…is that they are Catholics. Mark Thompson, the director general of the BBC, is the most influential Roman Catholic lay person in Britain, according to The Tablet, the excellent London journal. Not only is the BBC's chief a Catholic, but his deputy, Mark Byford, is too. The Tablet, which has published its list of Britain's 100 top Catholics, says this shows how accepted Catholics are in the establishment. The outsiders are now insiders.
Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary, who has been linked with Opus Dei, and Cherie Booth, Tony Blair's wife, are second and third. Sir Gus O'Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary, is at number five, while Michael Martin, a working class Scot who became the first Catholic speaker of the House of Commons since the Reformation, is sixth. Jose Mourinho, the Chelsea manager, is in seventh place, Terry Leahy, CEO of Tesco, is eighth, Delia Smith, the cook and Norwich City football club director is ninth. Robert Thomson, the editor of The Times, is in 10th place. The Duchess of Kent, the first senior Royal to convert since 1701, is 13th, John Reid, the Defence Secretary, is 15th, while Anthony Minghella, the film director, is in 18th place.
The top 100 British Catholics is the lead story in a redesigned Tablet and the editor Catherine Pepinster says: "Our intention, in making it much more attractive, is to make The Tablet a more pleasurable read. For, as the Catholic Church recognises, the image and the written word are an extraordinarily powerful combination."
