Honours are awards given by the state to acknowledge a personal achievement, bravery, exceptional performance or extended periods of service in public life or in institutions like the military.
Today – as a companion piece to last week’s post on titles and heraldry (and another re-write) – I’ll be looking at how an independent Wales could run an honours system.
With this out of the way, the next “meaty” series on independence will be:
How the UK honours system works
The monarch sits at the top of the UK honours system and is the only person who has the authority to confer honours on people.
Anyone is (theoretically) able to nominate anyone else for an honour – though it’s all supposed to remain secret and nominations usually have to be sponsored or seconded in some way through letters of support. Recommendations go through subject-specific honours committees made up of senior civil servants for approval. After this, the recommendations go via the UK Prime Minister to the monarch for their final say.
Honours are usually awarded at particular times of the year – usually around the monarch’s birthday and the new year.
People who receive British honours are inducted into a “chivalric order”. Some of these are restricted by profession (i.e. civil servants, diplomats, military officers), while the Order of the British Empire is generally open to anyone (and is the one into which most people are honoured). The order an inductee belongs to will also determine their post-nominal letters.
The orders themselves are stratified. The higher the order, the “closer” you are to the monarch – with the Order of the Garter being the highest order in EnglandandWales (the Order of the Thistle in Scotland) and restricted to just 24 members at any given time who are hand-picked by the monarch.
Decorations (a specific type of honour) are usually only given for acts of bravery/gallantry during military service – so much so that for the higher-ranked decorations like the Victoria Cross you’re unlikely to live to be awarded it. The Elizabeth Cross – introduced in 2009 – is awarded to the next-of-kin of military personnel killed in action since the Second World War.
Peerages are awarded as honours with titles given for life, though it comes with political responsibilities through membership of the UK House of Lords. Some people may, in exceptional circumstances, be granted a hereditary title which passes down the family line (see also: IndyWales, Titles & Heraldry).
It’s fair to say that we like awards ceremonies in Wales, to the point where they’re beginning to lose meaning and value. It won’t be long until we have an awards ceremony for awards ceremonies.
Nevertheless, Wales has an unofficial honours system. The Gorsedd of Bards acts as an honours system in cultural fields and (particularly) the Welsh-speaking community, while the St. David Awards – established in 2014 – is backed by the Welsh Government with awards in several different fields.
What’s wrong with the current honours system?
One of the most remarkable things about the UK is that you can be a complete shit yet if you have the right connections and the right person puts your name in, you’ll get your state honour without question.
It’s not exactly streamlined – There’s a bewildering array of orders and decorations. In one way it may be a good thing as specific deeds are easier to honour. Though it’s more a result of an increasing number of orders and honours being added over centuries to the point of becoming unwieldy and labyrinthine.
It’s unclear what the specific requirements are to receive an honour – This doesn’t apply to decorations/military and galantry awards because you can be certain someone has done something somewhere to deserve it. That said, does anyone know what the requirements are to get an OBE as opposed to a CBE or a knighthood/damehood? Does anyone – other than those receiving honours or deciding them – really know the difference? It must be galling if you’ve been awarded one on merit after 30-40 years work only to be overtaken in precedence by a time-serving MP, unpopular ex-PM, nonce, oligarch or party donor. It cheapens the whole thing.
Political interference and lack of transparency – It might not make that much of a difference in the end, but having to go through a Prime Minister and civil service presents conflict of interest issues. In this day and age, any chump in the civil service or local government can get an OBE for turning up to work. Some honours can effectively be bought through political donations. So surely it’s no longer in the public interest to have even light touch political involvement in the honours system?
Aristocratic and imperial relics – “Order of the British Empire”. There’s something to be said for tradition – and, yes, the Gorsedd can come across as being a bit silly too – but it reeks of trying to recapture past glories in the faint hope that it’ll one day come back. Despite moves in recent years to improve things, there has been criticism of the lack of diversity in UK honours in terms of race and social class; the “British Empire Medal” is still labelled as a so-called “working-class gong” as though it’s lesser than other honours.
