Lingerie Designer Turns Down MBE

Joseph Corre, co-founder of lingerie brand Agent Provocateur, has decided that the MBE offered to him in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list isn’t for him after all. He has nothing against Her Britannic Majesty, and he thinks the recognition is wonderful. He just doesn’t think accepting it while Tony Blair is Prime Minister is ethically justified. Perhaps he should have decided that Mr. Blair was “morally corrupt” before he said “yes.” It isn’t like he’s the first to turn down an honour, but he has done it less gracefully than most.

The way these things work, usually, is for the heads of the political parties to put some names together and decide who gets what medal or title. Those on the list are usually sounded out, and at this stage, some turn down the offer for reasons that vary. Those who accept then have their names placed in the London Gazette and come round to the palace on a given day to pick up their gong. According to the Cabinet Office, Mr. Corre initially wrote that he’d accept an MBE for designing underwear. This is perhaps a better assessment of the Blair years than anything else.

Mr. Corre, whose partner Serene Rees is going to collect her MBE, said with regard to his second thoughts, “To accept this MBE as an honour would mean to me that I would have to accept the prime minister as someone capable of giving an honour i.e. an honourable man, which I cannot find it in my heart to do.” He pointed to Iraq, Afghanistan and civil liberties as grounds for his decision. Technically, this is bollocks, as the Queen bestows the honours, but the PM's hand looms large in the selection.

Now, a great many people have opted not to take an offered honour. Winston Churchill, for example turned down a dukedom, so that he could remain in the House of Commons and so his son might have a political career. Almost as spectacularly, Hugh Bruce Cunningham turned down a knighthood in the reign of George III for religious reasons. This miffed George Hanover so much that all official records of the family were stricken off. Alexander Mackenzie, Canada’s second Prime Minister, rejected an offered knighthood as he felt it an affront to his Scottish ancestry. And Bill Woodfull turned down a knighthood in 1934 for his services to cricket, while accepting an OBE in 1963 for services to education (cricket apparently being more important than education, it came with a bigger honour)

Elsewhere, Sir Alfred Hitchcock declined a CBE in 1962, accepting a knighthood in 1980 (apparently, a CBE was inadequate). Lady Callaghan of Cardiff rejected Mrs. Thatcher’s offer of a damehood (the female equivalent of a knighthood) for fundraising for children’s charity; since she was, by virtue of being married to the former PM already a Baroness, so the DBE was rather beside the point. Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones turned down a CBE when Mick Jagger was knighted (Keith deserved as much as Mick); Jon Snow rejected an OBE and then broadcast a Channel 4 documentary “Secrets of the Honours System” so he really couldn’t. And musician Paul Weller kept his street cred intact by rejecting a CBE in the 2007 New Year’s list (besides, is there a better title than “The Modfather”?).

Some honours have been given back as a protest, as folk singer Roy Bailey returned his 2000 MBE in 2006 to protest Mr. Blair’s policies in Lebanon and Palestine. Sidney Poitier is actually Sir Sidney having been given a KBE in 1974, but he just doesn’t use it (now, that’s cool). But not one of them accepted and then rejected an honour in the space of a week or so. Mr. Corre may well deserve some sort of honour, but one would like to see him better mannered first. Of course, this could well be sour grapes from those never asked to accept nor decline such.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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