Posted on 07/13/2004 11:32:55 AM PDT by HAL9000
LONDON (Reuters) - The "arcane" system of honouring citizens with knighthoods should be scrapped, a parliamentary committee says.Racial diversity should be better reflected in the awards and the inflammatory word "Empire" should be dropped from honours such as Order of the British Empire (OBE), the Public Administration Committee said in a report published on Tuesday.
"The current system is terribly secretive ... It's over-complicated and it's certainly out of date," Labour committee member Anne Campbell, told BBC radio.
"We need a system that really accords more with the modern day," she added.
Obscure honours such as "Orders of the Bath" should be scrapped, and the OBE should become the Order of British Excellence, said the report.
"Consideration should be given to ... a decrease in awards of knighthoods and damehoods, with the objective of phasing out the awards of knighthoods within five years," it added.
Last month, former England midfielder Trevor Brooking received a knighthood, while Ukrainian-born Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal received an honorary knighthood.
A second report into transparency within the system is due later this week, and the government has two months to decide its response.
Campbell said gestures like Prime Minister Tony Blair awarding honours to the entire England rugby team after they won last year's World Cup had been unhelpful.
"That sort of thing we don't think does the honours very many favours," she said.
Another Marxist multiculturist Brit wanting to throw away centuries of British history and tradition. Its a crying shame that there are such people in Parliament.
Sir Elton John......Sir Paul McCartney.........
Those two alone are enough reason to get rid of this idiocy.
PING.
What's up with this?
Ping
Considering the depths to which England has fallen, why not call them "Comrade?"
Actually, if I remember correctly only subjects of the Crown actually get dubbed. Non-Crown subjects get an honorary knighthood. So you are not going to hear those words.
And I was holding out for a knighthood one of these days...
Excuse me? It seems to me that we haven't fallen far enough to not be a reliable ally and for our lads to not fight and die alongside yours.
Think twice before spouting off - the only cracks in the Anglo-American alliance appear when idiots on this side of the Pond spout off against America, and when people on your side spout off against us.
Ivan
Regards, Ivan
Agreed.
Cursed firing mechanism is jammed again
The "Knights who say Neet!" are sad today, I'm sure.....
Well, whatever. They abolished everything else about Britain.
Sir Edward Grey was only half right. The lights never came back on.
If you check back far enough in genealogy, you'll
probably find a knight in your family tree if any of
your ancestors came from England. My great grandfather
going back nine times over was Sir Richard Denton, but
I figure going back that far I have literally hundreds
of 9th great grandfathers & Sir Richard probably has
thousands of ninth great grandchildren. So, the inheritance
will be very small. Of course, that was back in the days
of fighting knights and the round table and all that jazz.
Alas, no such luck.
My ancestors came to the New World via Iberia and Siberia.
I'm afraid that too many of the Englishmen and mad dogs have spent too much time in the noon day sun that is about to set on what's left of Her Majesty's Empire...
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