UK Honours Rejection Doubles

In the UK, the number of people refusing state honours has doubled in the last nine years. There are compelling reasons to do so among certain awardees: for instance those who feel compromised and decline honours with reference to “empire” or who feel they are bestowed in return for “favours” thus devaluing the whole exercise. Figures on refusals are kept closely guarded in Australia but awardees can decline an honour before it is publicly announced as in Britain but our honours no longer refer to “empire” – they have Australian titles but are a clone of the British chivalric system of rank where some awards are more prestigious than others and the system is approved by our Head of State in London not by the Australian Government. [“Number of people rejecting Queen’s honours doubles in past decade” by Mattha Busby, The Guardian online, 2 December 2020]