The REAL HONOURS LIST! by Christopher Draper

TWICE a year, Buckingham Palace bestows royal recognition on hundreds of celebrity nonentities and local minions. For centuries the Crown and its serially sycophantic governments refused to release the names of the honourable men and women who declined the blandishment of these trinkets and tawdry titles. It eventually required the Freedom of Information Act and the intervention of the Information Commissioner’s Office to enable me to compile this select list of our most truly honourable citizens.

1) L S LOWRY (1887-1976) Refused OBE 1955, refused CBE 1961, refused Knighthood 1968, refused Order of Companion of Honour 1972 and 1976.

Salford painter Laurence Stephen Lowry holds the supreme honour of having turned down more pathetic baubles than anyone else. The Establishment initially upped the ante from MBE, through CBE until it reached the level of Knighthood in 1968 and when that failed to impress they tried another tack, attempting, twice, right up to the year of his death, to lure Lowry with offers of the more modest title “CH” but he never succumbed to such unworthy blandishments. Respect!

2) KEN LOACH (1936 - - - ) Refused OBE 1977 – “I turned down the OBE for several reasons; it’s not a club you want to join when you look at the villains who’ve got it… As a republican, I can’t accept anything from the Queen… It also meant I would be receiving something in the name of the Empire, which as an anti-Imperialist I don’t see how anyone can accept.”

3) HOWARD GAYLE (1958 - - - ) Refused MBE 2016 – the first black footballer to play for Liverpool FC declined “for the reason that my ancestors would be turning in their graves after how the Empire and Colonialism had enslaved them.”

4) KINGSLEY MARTIN (1897-1969) Refused Knighthood 1965 – Conscientious Objector to WWI. Martin was a journalist with the Manchester Guardian before editing the leading left-wing magazine the New Statesman from 1930 to 1960, where “Martin positively relished being a perpetual critic of the Labour leadership”. In 1957 he chaired the founding meeting of CND and in his books “The Magic of Monarchy (1937)” and “The Crown and the Establishment (1962)” Kingsley Martin put forward the first modern arguments for British Republicanism. “The Monarchy…is the secret well from which the flourishing institution of British Snobbery draws its nourishment.” In a cynical and ill-judged attempt to undermine Martin’s reputation, in 1965 he was offered a Knighthood which he rapidly rejected.

5) ALBERT FINNEY (1936-2019) Refused CB 1980, refused Knighthood 2000 – “Knighthood is a disease that perpetuates snobbery… Maybe people in America think being a 'Sir' is a big deal but I think we should all be misters together.”

6) IORWERTH PEATE (1901-1982) Refused OBE 1963 – joint founder of “St Fagan’s Museum”, Wales’ national folk-life collection. After registering as a Conscientious Objector in 1941 Peate was sacked as Curator of the collection but later re-instated by the museum’s Board of Governors. Uninterested in joining the English Establishment and committed to studying, preserving and promoting the culture, language and everyday artefacts of the people of Wales, in 1963 Iorwerth Peate creditably refused to be appointed an “Officer of the Order of the British Empire”. Da Iawn, ti!

7) BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH (1958- - - ) Refused OBE 2003 – Rastafarian performance poet Benjamin Zephaniah comprehensively rejects everything the honours system represents - “I get angry when I see 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.” Benjamin deserves an extra honours point as his eloquent shaming, live on Channel Four News, of Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, MBE not only prompted her to guiltily return the bauble but transformed her in into a vociferous (if belated) critic of these cringeworthy awards.

8) HONOR BLACKMAN (1925-2020) Refused CBE 2002 – Acclaimed actor, self-declared republican and Liberal who opposed Monarchy and Margaret Thatcher, “She was merciless…she did damn all for empowering women… I’m not too happy about the Falklands either…” Honor by name, Honour by nature!

9) J G BALLARD (1930-2009) Refused CBE 2003 – Novelist James Graham Ballard was contemptuous of the honours system, “It is exploited by politicians and always has been…I think it’s deplorable when leftwing playwrights like David Hare who have worn their socialist colours on both sleeves for so many years, should accept a knighthood… The honours system is a Ruritanian charade that helps to prop up the top-heavy monarchy… It makes us look a laughing stock and encourages deference to the crown.”

10) BOB HOLMAN (1936-2016) Refused MBE 2012 – In 1987 Christian Socialist Bob Holman abandoned his comfy life teaching “Social Administration” at Bath University to put theory into practice and work on community projects in Easterhouse, one of the most deprived parts of Glasgow. Spurning the condescension of royal recognition in 1987, Holman comprehensively excoriated the honours system not just to explain his own action but explicitly to incite others to decline: “The unelected monarchy reinforces and sanctions inequality. The BBC and most of the press pour undiluted praise on the royals whilst imposing a virtual gag on the views of republicans. No senior politician has the courage to question the continuation of the monarchy…Refusing a royal honour is a small step but one in the right direction.” Amen brothers and sisters!

(This is the third and final part of Chris’s series on the British Honours System – previous articles are archived and available on this NORTHERN VOICES site)

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The DISHONOUR'S LIST by Christopher Draper

“Ye see yon birkie, c’ad a Lord,

Wha struts, and stares, and a’ that;

Though hundreds worship at his word,

He’s but a coof for a’ that”

His riband star and a’ that:

The man of independent mind,

He looks and laughs at a’ that!”

Robert Burns

OUR ABSURD SOCIETY is awash with champagne socialists courting popularity by railing against privilege and inequality whilst brown-nosing their way onto the Honours List…

1) Bea Campbell – Officer of the Order of the British Empire – Ms Campbell claimed that, 'The survival of an honours system clothed in royalism and imperialism is a reproach to New Labour' and insisted that 'every morsel, every cameo, scandal and chapter in the story of the Spencers, the Windsors, their servants, their scribes and us, confirms the case for a Republic'. Marking Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee, in 2002 she wrote, 'My republican hope is that when she dies, she takes the monarchy with her.' As the daughter of communist parents Bea joined the CP as a teenager, married a party member and joined him as a journalist on The Morning Star. Subsequently divorced, in 2009 she described herself in the Guardian as 'republican with politics rooted in Marxism and feminism' and accepted an OBE from the Queen!

2) Clement Attlee – Companion of Honour 1945, Order of Merit 1951, Earl 1955, Knight of the Order of the Garter 1956, – When the iconic Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee offered an Earldom to R H Tawney, the historian declined, expressing surprise “that Labour still valued such baubles” yet, pathetically, Attlee considered his bauble collection his career validation, boasting in a 1956 letter to his son;

'Few thought he was ever a starter –

There were many who thought themselves smarter –

But he ended PM

CH and OM

An Earl and a Knight of the Garter.'

3) Janet Street-Porter – Commander of the Order of the British Empire – Extravagantly vulgar and rebellious, JSP was born to unmarried working-class parents, had an illegal abortion as a schoolgirl and famously carved out a media career as the unbridled 'Voice of Yoof'. She famously described TV management as, 'male, middle-class, middle-aged and mediocre' and in 2015 called the BBC, 'a cosy middle-class' club prone to 'creeping fucking paralysis' yet having achieved fame upsetting establishment apple carts, in 2016 Janet Street Porter graciously accepted a CBE.

4) Paul Kenny – Knighthood – after spending most of his life employed as a full-time GMB union official in 2005 he was appointed acting General Secretary and elected unopposed the following year and again in 2010. At the 2012 GMB Conference he accused the Labour Party of elitism, 'Even good trade unionists don’t engage with the Labour Party. Everyone agrees it looks too much like a political elite'. In 2015 Paul Kenny knelt before the Queen and was Knighted.

5) Vanessa Redgrave – Commander of the Order of the British Empire – Acclaimed actor, from 1971 key member of the Troskyist Workers Revolutionary Party until expelled in the late 1980’s, has been a constant critic of British State policy from treatment of asylum seekers to 'the war on terror'. Curiously, this erstwhile revolutionary having accepted a CBE, declined being ennobled as a 'Dame' in 1999 although, 'I’m not agains't the royal family, they do many good things' but because she objected to being nominated by Tony Blair.

6) David Olusoga – Officer of the Order of the British Empire – brought up on a Gateshead council estate his family were forced to move after repeated racist attacks on their home. After studying the history of slavery at Liverpool University, Olusoga worked in television, first as a researcher and then a presenter. His authoritative, sustained criticism of British Imperialism has brought him fame and fortune; in 2019 he accepted appointment as an, 'Officer of the Order of the British Empire.'

7) Claire Fox – Peerage – Broadcaster and political panellist Fox joined the Revolutionary Communist Party in 1980 and for more than two decades was a key RCP activist, organiser and co-publisher of “Living Marxism”. She continued to work with former RCP associates after the Party, in the 2000’s, morphed into 'The Institute for Ideas'. Having called for abolition of the Lords and in 2015 tweeted congratulations to the Liberal Democrats for not taking up Peerages, in 2020 Claire Fox accepted the title 'Baroness' and membership of the House of Lords

.

8) John Prescott – Peerage – Trade union official and Labour Minister who played the role of pantomime 'working class hero'. In 2009 he boasted to the BBC, 'I’ve always felt very proud of Wales and being Welsh…I was born in Wales, went to school in Wales and my mother was Welsh. I’m Welsh. It’s my place of birth, my country' despite leaving Wales in 1942, aged four! Having previously described members of the House of Lords as 'The vermin in ermine' in 2010 he was delighted to join them as 'Baron Prescott of Kingston-Upon-Hull” insisting, “I need a peerage to save the planet!'

9) Shami Chakrabarti – Commander of the Order of the British Empire, Peerage – The daughter of Bengali parents, a human-rights lawyer with a long and honourable record of opposing the State’s excessive use of anti-terror legislation, its control orders and attempted imposition of identity cards. Committed to social equality, against privilege and the expansion of grammar schools she sent her own son to Dulwich College (annual fees £18,000) and in 2007 accepted a CBE followed in 2016 by a peerage when Baroness Chakrabarti joined the House of Lords.

10) Neil Kinnock – Peerage – after working for just three years as a WEA tutor in 1970 Kinnock began his long career as a professional, nominally left-wing, politician. On 19th November 1977 he wrote in Tribune, 'The House of Lords must go. Not to be replaced, not to be reformed in some life-after-death patronage paradise, just closed down, abolished, finished' In 2005 Kinnock accepted a peerage, becoming a 'Baron' and entered the House of Lords, where in 2009 he was joined by his equally 'left-wing' wife, who similarly accepted a Peerage and the title, Baroness!

Fortunately, amidst all the flotsam and jetsom of washed up politicians and media luvvies there are still people with integrity who refuse to bend the knee. Next time on NV I’ll unveil the REAL HONOURS LIST and identify honourable individuals who spurned these tawdry titles…

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