The Sunday Observer today has an article  advocating the removal of all mention of the 'Empire' from all of the orders of merit gongs going to pillars of our communities.

Apparently some people refuse to accept the OBE or CBE or whatever, because of their feelings about the 'Empire' that was. I can understand that but these sensitive people need to remember that if it were not for the Empire, they would not be here living in Great Britain, enjoying full democracy, freedom of speech and the right to partake in civic life.I am assuming that these refusals are from people who are from the former empire countries. However for those who are not  from former colonies, maybe they can dwell upon the advantages the empire did leave behind it in most cases....democracy, civil service, railway infrastructure still extant in India. It's not all black and white. There are so many shades of grey.

However I agree that the nmes of the gongs need to be modernised perhaps to refer to the Commonwealth, a great force for consensus and good amongst people around the globe. And of course it came about at the end of our empire.