Honours system: Have a gong, and leave your principles at home

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Part of the deal is fielding questions from smarmy broadcasters who think nothing of tossing out questions like this one: “Did you ever imagine, when you were growing up on a council estate, that you would one day be Dame This or Sir That?” The correct response is self-deprecating laughter and a joke about whether it comes with land and a castle. It’s also correct form to say you are “chuffed” – a nod to your chirpy working-class background – or that you are really accepting it for your Mum. It’s a world where traditional “British” values – snobbery, deference and minute degrees of distinction – exist in defiance of modern principles of equality and social justice. But the honours system is so entwined with colonial history and privilege – the posher you are, the bigger the bauble – that it can’t be reconciled with egalitarian principles.