MICK JAGGER'S ROYAL GONG RILES KEITH

WHEN Mick Jagger at last collects his knighthood at Buckingham Palace this
month, it's a fair bet that his lifelong sidekick Keith Richards won't be
there offering congratulations.

Richards has launched a stinging attack on his fellow Rolling Stone for
accepting the honour.

"I don't want to step out on stage with someone wearing a ----ing coronet
and sporting the old ermine," declared the 59-year-old guitarist.

"I told Mick, 'It's a ----ing paltry honour.'

"I thought it was ludicrous to take one of those gongs from the
establishment, when they did their best to throw us in jail."

In 1967, Richards and Jagger were given prison sentences for drug offences
and spent a night behind bars before being freed pending appeals.

Both convictions were quashed, but Richards believes that accepting a
knighthood from the very same establishment smacks of hypocrisy.

"I thought it sent out the wrong message," he told Uncut magazine.

"It's not what the Stones is about, is it?"

Richards said 60-year-old Jagger "defended himself by saying that Tony
Blair insisted that he took the knighthood."

"Like that's an excuse. Like you can't turn down anything. Like it doesn't
depend on how you feel about it."

He sarcastically suggested that Jagger might have held out a little longer
for an even bigger prize.

"If you're into this s---, hang on for the peerage," he sneered. "Don't
settle for a little badge."

Jagger's response to the attack was to describe Richards's views as
"endearing" but sometimes "very irritating."

Jagger will enter Buckingham Palace next week, accompanied by his
90-year-old father, Joe.

Another former anti-establishment figure, Billy Connolly, received a CBE
from Prince Charles at the palace yesterday.

The 61-year-old comedian wore top hat and tails, and said the prince "had
never seen me so smartly dressed".