Author: Hugh Muir
Reports suggest King Charles would not object to a move away from awards with ‘empire’ in the title. Not before timeBenjamin Zephaniah did it. So did Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. Howard Gayle, the pioneering black footballer, did it without a second thought.Britain, keen to highlight their achievements as outstanding citizens who have made a notable contribution to how we live, dangled the recognition of a state-backed honour in front of each of them. And each, ultimately unable to reconcile the link between those honours and the misty-eyed evocation in the title of Britain’s brutal empire, said “no thanks”. Or “up yours”, in…