Queen's honors stir debate in the UK

LONDON, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- So, rock guitarist Eric Clapton and Kinks songwriter-singer Ray Davies are now officially Commanders of the British Empire. All 31 members of England's rugby World Cup champions team are also now officially members of the Order of the British Empire. Their coach Clive Woodward has a knighthood and from now on should be called Sir Clive.

But what bit of empire will Clapton and Davies be commanding with their electric guitars and powerful amps? How will Sir Clive wield his team of OBEs, CBEs and MBEs in defense of Queen and empire? Indeed, what empire? And how did they merit such awards anyway, when others weren't even asked?

These have been questions hanging over Wednesday's announcement of the Queen's annual New Year's Day awards to nearly 1,000 individuals ever since a Sunday newspaper revealed confidential discussions of the government's honors nominating committee and significant flaws in the fundamental British national awards system. The ancient system, originally established nearly 800 years ago to reward a handful of those closest to the king for their loyalty, has been expanded and greatly reformed in recent years, but apparently not nearly enough.

On Dec. 21 The Sunday Times revealed extracts from confidential documents naming almost 300 people who had privately refused to accept awards offered to them. These included many internationally renowned names, ranging from rock star David Bowie to the late actor Albert Finney, actress Vanessa Redgrave, authors J.B.Priestley and J.G. Ballard, who wrote "Empire of the Sun;" movie director Alfred Hitchcock, who ultimately did accept a knighthood on his death bed; playwright Harold Pinter, Beatle John Lennon, and more recently TV cook Nigella Lawson.

Many did so either because they rejected being part of what they considered an elitist, class-driven system, or because they didn't want to be associated with an imperialist, racist system they despised.

Despite increasing attempts to offer awards to as wide a circle of contemporary British society as possible, in November Rastafarian poet Benjamin Zephaniah rejected an Order of the British Empire award with the words: "Stick it Mr. Blair -- and Mrs. Queen...I get angry when I hear the word Empire; it reminds me of slavery, it reminds me of thousands of years of brutality."

Novelist J.G. Ballard, one of whose works was turned into the controversial Hollywood movie "Cocaine Nights," was quoted by The Sunday Times as saying that he received a letter from the government's Cabinet Office recommending him for a Commander of the British Empire award earlier this year but that "I am opposed to the honors system. The whole thing is a preposterous charade. Thousands of medals are given out in the name of a non-existent empire. It makes us look a laughing stock and encourages deference to the crown. I think it is exploited by politicians and always has been."

Indeed, the Queen has little or nothing to do with the awards except to present them at Buckingham Palace. Much of the current controversy centers on the fact that it is a secretive government committee of senior civil servants and directed by ministers of Prime Minister Tony Blair's government that sorts out the award winners, almost half of whom these days are nominated by the public. And their decisions, based on a detailed, e-mailed committee minute obtained by The Sunday Times, had much to do with political acceptability.

Professor Colin Blakemore, a senior scientist and head of the Medical Research Council, was rejected for a knighthood, according to the minutes, because of fears that his 'controversial' use of vivisection might upset the animal rights lobby. Blakemore later launched a furious attack on the government and said he was considering resignation. The committee was also reported to have said it would nominate Tim Henman, Britain's top tennis player, only to 'add interest' to the list, a comment Henman did not appreciate but said he would collect his Order of the British Empire "with a massive amount of pride."

For most recipients -- and for much of the British public as well -- the system remains an appreciated way of thanks that links them personally to their sovereign and to some of the deepest traditions that made their country. Admiral Sir Alan West, head of the Royal Navy, for instance, gets a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) to add to his titles, the bath bit owing its origins to the ritual washing -- spiritual purification based on the washing of baptism -- of an individual as preparation for his conferment of knighthood. Its earliest mention is in 1128, in an official document about the knighthood of 15-year-old Geoffrey Count of Anjou. Former Presidents Reagan and Bush are honorary GCBs.

While some foreign diplomats struggle to explain the meaning of the letters after their name, sometimes in countries which regard the old British Empire with disdain, other British subjects relish the idea of kneeling before the Queen, being tapped on the shoulder with a sword and being told by her to 'Arise, Sir (or Dame).....'

In New York, publisher Tina Brown told The Daily Telegraph that she was 'thrilled' her husband Harold Evans, former newspaper editor and former head of Random House publishers, was to receive a knighthood. "He has always been my white knight," she said from a city where a knighthood does a great deal for social invitations.

Many award recipients, well known or unknown, consider themselves just 'ordinary' and are flattered to be called before the Queen. Tim Berners-Lee, the Boston-based scientist who invented the internet's world wide web in 1991, said he felt "quite like an ordinary person, and so the good news is that it does happen to ordinary people who work on things that happen to work out." He gets a knighthood, while lesser awards go to an 'ordinary' 77-year-old school janitor (Member of the British Empire) and to two women in their 90s who have run the London Marathon 16 times (MBE).

But many of the most ancient awards still go to senior military officers and civil servants merely because of their position rather than for merit. In an editorial in The Times Wednesday noted that the odds of a diplomat getting an honor were one in 123, compared to one in 20,000 for a nurse. "Every honors list contains superannuated MPs, donors and party workers," it said. "This makes it harder for politically independent people to accept an honor. By doing so they risk being caricatured as a prime minister's poodle."

Tony Blair has promised further reform to a system last given significant change by Tory Premier John Major in 1993. There is increasing talk, too, of dropping the word 'empire' from OBE and going to a less charged "Order of Britain" or "Order of British Excellence" in order to satisfy the anti-imperialists.

But perhaps the last word on the system's general acceptability should go to 67-year-old comedian Roy Hudd, who gets an OBE. "I don't care whether it's the British Empire, the Croydon Empire, the Chelsea Palace or the Lewisham Hippodrome, I am just delighted to be thought of," he said.