The Most Honourable Order of the Bath

I watched an episode of Dr. Who today. Then I checked up Christopher Eccleston in Wikipedia. There was a connection to Nigel Hawthorne, who I loved watching in "Yes, Minister". Apparently he had a KBE. After reviewing the meanings of different orders of knighthood, I clicked on the foreigners who received honourary knighhoods. As I was scrolling down the page, looking for familiar names, I came upon Nicolae Ceauşescu. I could not believe it. Why would this brute be rewarded by UK?

After some googling, I came up with this article:

[Telegraph: 8th November 2005]

In 1978, Nicolae Ceausescu was known to be a thoroughly nasty piece of work but Romania's insubordination within the Warsaw Pact ensured a warm welcome in London.

The same year saw Amnesty International begin a campaign against human rights violations in the totalitarian state.

Still, James Callaghan, the prime minister, considered Ceausescu worthy of an honorary Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath.

The old tyrant responded by awarding the Queen the Star of the Socialist Republic of Romania First Class. Sixteen years later the British asked for their medal back.

I wonder if the Queen sent back her award.

Another famous Knight Grand Cross of Bath (since removed) was Robert Mugabe. What was John Major thinking?

This is what Benjamin Zephaniah thought about his OBE.

[Guardian: November 27th, 2003]

Me? I thought, OBE me? Up yours, I thought. I get angry when I hear that word "empire"; it reminds me of slavery, it reminds of thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalised. It is because of this concept of empire that my British education led me to believe that the history of black people started with slavery and that we were born slaves, and should therefore be grateful that we were given freedom by our caring white masters. It is because of this idea of empire that black people like myself don't even know our true names or our true historical culture. I am not one of those who are obsessed with their roots, and I'm certainly not suffering from a crisis of identity; my obsession is about the future and the political rights of all people. Benjamin Zephaniah OBE - no way Mr Blair, no way Mrs Queen. I am profoundly anti-empire.

..and I got all this information because of Dr. Who. That's exactly why I enjoy science fiction.