Calls to ditch empire gongs under attack
SECRET plans to remove the word Empire from Queen’s service awards like the OBE and MBE were branded a “diversion” yesterday.
The high- powered committee which decides who will get a gong has been asked to consider removing the term linked to Britain’s colonial past.
Critics believe the word – which also appears in the CBE and the British Empire Medal – could offend recipients from a black and minority ethic background.
The debate echoes that which was sparked by the BBC’s aborted attempt to cut the lyrics of Rule Britannia and Land Of Hope And Glory from this year’s Proms. Both were under threat after the Black Lives Matter movement objected to statues and other cultural icons with links to slavery.
High- achievers to have rejected an award because of the empire association include Anglo- Caribbean poet Benjamin Zephaniah.
But Sir Geoff Palmer, a Jamaicanborn academic who was awarded the OBE, told the Daily Express: “It is nothing but a diversion. It is a diversion in terms of what the Black Lives Movement is all about. The object is to remove racism and therefore all these things like the statues point away from it.
“It isn’t based on anything that is scientifically reasonable. We need to concentrate on beating racism.”
The objections emerged after an honours committee member said the panel was influenced by the summer demos, the removal of colonial statues and the BBC Proms row.
The three ranks of Order of the British Empire are Commander (CBE), Officer (OBE) and Member (MBE). They are given for exceptional public service. In 2003, when Sir Geoff received his OBE for services to science, Zephaniah turned the same award down. The source said some members favour the removal of the word empire, but others prefer the introduction of a new medal.
The change is currently “only under discussion,” they added, but insisted it could lead to a full Government review.
A Cabinet spokesman said: “There are no plans to do this. There has been considerable reform to the honours system in the last 25 years to ensure it is inclusive.”