It's become increasingly clear to many that the honours system is anachronistic and filled with irrelevant cronyism that is constantly stained with controversy. Stretching right back to Norman times, honours were historically bestowed for wartime bravery or to monied aristocrats. In 1917 George V invented the Order of the British Empire to honour everyday citizens, particularly those in non-combative roles during World War One, honours for celebrities followed.
The British government’s website declares “the honours system recognises people who have made achievements in public life and have committed themselves to serving and helping Britain”. Those fit to receive a knighthood, MBE or OBE should also “have made life better for other people or be outstanding at what they do” https://www.gov.uk/honours
Now, Queen's Honours are dished out twice a year - to approximately 3,000 people in total, names from the world of showbiz, sport and politics have recently been announced Though there are some worthy recipients, more and more people are becoming disillusioned with the current system as it is seen as being used as a political pay off, and the list of those who have been awarded honours only to be exposed as being unworthy of anyones admiration keeps getting longer.
It is really hard as hell to see how the following qualified or see what they had done to deserve an award. Child abusers like Jimmy Saville and Liberal politician Cyril Smith were both given knighthoods by the Queen on the advice of the Uk Prime Minister, alongside rogue businessmen like Fred Goodwin and Philip Green, who went on to destroy their companies through their greed. The likes of cricketer Geoffrey Boycott too who was convicted of domestic abuse of his partner and now it's been announced that former leader of the Conservatives, architect of controversial Universal Credit system and of death and misery Iain Duncan Smith MP is going to be given one too by Boris Johnson. It was his reforms and total incompetence at the DWP that saw thousands of vulnerable and disabled people die, and cruelly suffer. The announcement has sparked a furious backlash, with a petition, entitled 'Iain Duncan Smith should not receive a Knighthood' already having been signed by 150,000 people, in it he is labelled as "responsible for some of the cruellest most extreme welfare reforms this country has ever seen"' https://www.change.org/p/uk-government-and-parliament-we-object-to-iain-duncan-smith-receiving-a-knighthood
Opposition parties said it "beggared belief" that someone whose policies had caused so much distress should be honorued in this way. Labour's Lisa Nandy said it was a "disgraceful decision by Boris Johnson to reward a legacy of cruelty and failure",
Writing on Twitter, she added, "This regime deliberately removed the safety net. It stripped people of their dignity. There is no honour in that."
The Labour MSP Neil Findlay has submitted a motion to the Scottish Parliament calling for the honours system to be scrapped. His motion described the honours systemas "completely discredited" and Duncan Smiths knighthood "an award for services to the Tory party and nothing else."
Many critics see the whole honours system, including appointments to the bloated unelected House of Lords, as an affront to democracy. In his six years as Prime Minister David Cameron stuffed unelected cronies into the House of Lords at a faster rate than any Prime Minister in history. He thoroughly deserved his ‘Dodgy Dave’ nickname. He stuffed so many establishment insiders into the unelected upper house that the House of Lords is now the second biggest legislative chamber on earth, second only to the Chinese parliament. The fact a Chamber of 800 failed politicians, retired Bishops and Archbishops, assorted do-gooders from the professions and 92 Hereditary Peers, who are there because of birth right, have the ability to delay and amend laws is just unacceptable and makes a mockery of ‘British democracy’.
There are thousands of incredible ordinary people who go through life caring for others,,that we should be grateful to, our healthcare professionals, our educators and those involved in voluntary organisations who enrich our society, and many other deserving recipients who have done good work in their communities, who never appear on the radar of the political administrators who prepare honours lists, and .subsequently go without any kind of official reward. Thus the honours list is too narrow and fails to recognize the achievements of many while rewarding a select few.
A number of well-known individuals have refused an honour for a variety of reasons, whether political, personal, or because they did not feel it was appropriate. For example Ken Loach the film director, is one of a very honourable group of individuals who have turned down a discreditable British bauble. He told the Radio Times in March 2001:
“It’s all the things I think are despicable: patronage, deferring to the monarchy and the name of the British Empire, which is a monument of exploitation and conquest.
“I turned down the OBE because it’s not a club you want to join when you look at the villains who’ve got it” http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/1217962.stm. and Benjamin Zephaniah, the celebrated black British poet, was similarly strident in 2003 when he referred to why he turned down a British Honour offered by war criminal PM Tony Blair:
“Me? I thought, OBE me? Up yours, I thought. I get angry when I hear the word ’empire’; it reminds me of slavery, it reminds me of thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalised.”
“My obsession is about the future and the political rights of all people. Benjamin Zephaniah OBE – no way Mr Blair, no way Mrs Queen. I am profoundly anti-Empire” https://web.archive.org/web/20100616162002/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/benjamin-zephaniah-declines-an-obe-in-protest-against-colonialism-737107.html.
Personally the distasteful honours system is a shame on our country. greatly discredited, problematic,and not fit for purpose, yet what is extraordinary, is the British public’s continuing acceptance of it all, as 2019 draws to a close and 2020 approaches is it not time for us to consider that this outdated and ultimately archaic and devalued relic of our country’s colonial past, be scrapped, or at the very least we could get rid of the life peerages and knighthoods, because they smack of elitism. and replace the current system with a people's panel recognising and honouring only conspicuous public service and sacrifice and those that are truly deserving. Remember to daily honour too all that you consider worthy, our mothers, the peacemakers and advocates of positive change, that truly make a difference to our lives.
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