Councillor Joyce Edmond-Smith should be congratulated on her refusal of an OBE (The Argus, December 24).
The honours system not only reinforces monarchy, helps perpetuate the class system and social snobbery and evokes nostalgia for our lost empire but it also plays on people's insecurity about their identity and worth.
Politicians and the Establishment have long corrupted the honours. It's time they were consigned to history along with the monarchy.
Why not have a single Order of Britain awarded by an independent body on behalf of a democratic head of state?
-David Featherstone, Shoreham
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