Express POLL: Should the word ‘Empire’ be removed from UK honours system? VOTE HERE
LABOUR leadership hopeful Lisa Nandy has called for the word "Empire" to be removed from the UK honours system - but do you agree? THIS POLL HAS NOW CLOSED.
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Speaking at a hustings event in Bristol on Saturday, Lisa Nandy hit out at the wording of the UK’s honour system and called for the word “Empire” to be replaced with “excellence”. The Labour leadership hopeful said the current wording “alienates” people who were oppressed by Britain in the past. She suggested Order of the British Empire should be changed to Order of British Excellence, to be more inclusive to Britons from black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds.
The Wigan MP pointed to the example of poet Benjamin Zephaniah - who turned down an OBE in 2003 because it reminded him of “thousands of years of brutality” in Britain’s colonial past.
The Labour leadership contender isn’t the only politician to suggest the word “Empire” should be scrapped.
In 2017, the centenary of the Order of the British Empire, crossbench peer Digby Jones, a former director general of the CBI, said the use of the word was anachronistic and “embarrassing”.
He said using “Empire” in the honours system was outdated, “especially in a post-Brexit world where we are reaching out to the Commonwealth”.
He said: “How embarrassing to introduce ‘Fred Smith, OBE’. And then ask, ‘OBE - what does that stand for?’
“‘Order of the British Empire’. Possibly not the way to start saying we are equals.”
Scottish television presenter Lynn Faulds Wood, who refused an MBE in 2016, agrees.
The former BBC presenter said the honours system needed to be brought into the 21st century and the word “Empire” removed.
READ MORE: Ex-MP demands 'Empire' to be removed from British honours system
She said: “I love honours. But not one with empire attached. It’s too tainted, and we don’t have an empire.”
Benjamin Zephaniah rejected the honour on similar grounds, saying he was “profoundly anti-Empire”.
He said: “I get angry when I hear that word ‘empire’; it reminds me of slavery, it reminds of thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalised.
“Benjamin Zephaniah OBE - no way Mr Blair, no way Mrs Queen. I am profoundly anti-empire.”
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In 2004 the Government ordered a review of the honours system, titled ‘A Matter of Honour: Reforming of the Honours System’.
The review found the word “Empire” to be “anachronistic and insensitive”, and recommended changing it to the Order of British Excellence as it would save changing acronyms and abbreviations.
The report said: “The presence of the word “Empire” in the title of this most frequently-conferred Order is, we believe, no longer acceptable.
“The term is thought to embody values that are no longer shared by many of the population.”
A second inquiry held in 2012 heard three Lords lieutenants express unease over the use of the word “Empire”.
Former chancellor Alistair Darling said: “We do not have an empire. We are making someone a commander of the British Empire and we are in no position to offer such a command.”
The inquiry concluded that while the word “Empire” was disliked by some, and “the title may need to change in the future”, it should not be done “ahead of the order’s centenary in 2017”.
The matter has not yet been reviewed.
The term “Order of the British Empire” comprises five classes of appointment, including CBE (Commander of the British Empire), MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) and OBE (Officer of the British Empire).
The CBE is the highest ranking Order of the British Empire award, followed by OBE and MBE.
The final two awards are the most prestigious, which make people a Knight or a Dame.
They are split into the Knight/Dame Grande Cross of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (GBE) and Knight/Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE or DBE).
King George V first established the Order of the British Empire in 1917, as a way of honouring civilians and servicemen for their contribution to the war effort.