Max Beerbohm once wrote that there would come a moment when knights would constitute a majority of the population and it would be deemed a greater distinction not to be a knight than to be one. Years later he himself arose as Sir Max, cherishing the irony that his satires on the honours system, the nobility and royalty had culminated in that nevertheless desirable tap on his shoulder. His point, perhaps, was that if you have to have an honours system, you ought to have a sense of humour as well.
Honours in Britain these days are a muddle, recognising merit often, but also rewarding political cronies, timeservers, and, of course, generous contributors to party funds. Their mock feudal trappings are a bit of a joke, or a link with the past, according to taste.
In the former dominions, British-style honours have been problematic for a long time. They did not sit well with the more egalitarian societies of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and that was almost made worse, such is the contradictory nature of men, by the fact that they were rather meanly doled out. Come independence, and even before, a process of distancing from the old imperial centre inevitably began. First Canada, then Australia, then New Zealand started their own national honours systems, which co-existed with versions of the old imperial one. New Zealand today still has knighthoods, Canada does not (although there are those who urge they should be restored), while Australia’s new prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has just abolished them, only a year after his predecessor, Tony Abbott, had reintroduced them. There is a low-level and not entirely serious culture war in all three countries between those who retain some affection for the monarchy and the British connection, and those whose instincts are more republican.
Australia, in particular, has been trying, and failing, to settle this question for many years. These pesky imperial vestiges have sticking power. New Zealand is finding the process of replacing its British-style flag with something probably fernlike more difficult and delicate than expected. Some Canadians, meanwhile, find it infuriating that Americans can be given British knighthoods while Canadians cannot. To arise or not to arise? Sir Max must be chuckling in his grave.
