Hip hop DJ Tim Westwood, football supremo Graham Kelly and the inventor of the mini-roundabout Frank Blackmore have been included in a list of 50 figures who have, allegedly, made a mess of the country.

The catalogue of shame has been compiled by Daily Mail columnist Quentin Letts, and the list includes many household and much loved names from Princess Diana to broadcaster and TV presenter Sir Jimmy Savile.

Mr Letts is particular scathing about former FA chief executive Mr Kelly, who used to live in Folksworth, a village near Peterborough, and who comes in the list at number eight.

He labels him a "myopic, mumbling former Blackpool bank teller" and blames him for local football teams going bust after he signed away the TV rights to top-flight football.

The journalist adds: "It was this deal, signed by Kelly, that created football's Premier League with its flash cars, trashy values, vast pay-offs and scavenging agents – one of the unchecked fountains of decadence in Britain today, gushing raw greed into society's open gutters."

He is no kinder to Frank Blackmore, the Ministry of Transport boffin who is credited with inventing the mini-roundabout, and who is listed at number 13.

Mr Blackmore, who died this June, changed people's driving habits with his invention – and the first so-called pimple was placed in Peterborough in 1969.

But Mr Letts was full of vitriol for the "aesthetic blots" which he claimed "kill the spirit of the road".

He said: "The mini-roundabout has run amok.

"Heavy traffic has to screech to a halt for even just one vehicle. Mini-roundabouts are the very opposite of democratic. We should have no truck with them."

Also lined up for a barrage of criticism was radio 1 DJ Tim Westwood – at number 20 – and whose father is the former Bishop of Peterborough, Bill Westwood.

Mr Letts accuses him of speaking in the "gibberish dialect of the jewel-encrusted Los Angeleno rap guy while, in fact, being a white, middle-class nincompoop" and urges people to switch him off.

But leader of Peterborough City Council Cllr John Peach branded the criticisms as unfair.

He said: "If mini-roundabouts are the appropriate type and in the right position, I think they are alright and save people having to stop at traffic lights.

"I wouldn't agree with them being in the list."

Related:
Mini-roundabout inventor Frank Blackmore is dead, 4 Jul 2008.
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While admitting he knew little about Tim Westwood, he remembered the DJ's father as a "very good Bishop of Peterborough who was quite outspoken."

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