get these nets
Veteran
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context of discussion below, OBE seems to the equivalent of the Kennedy Honors in America
Labour leadership hopeful Lisa Nandy demands the term 'Empire' is removed from OBE honours because it 'alienates' people who were oppressed by Britain in the past
- The Labour leadership candidates have been facing off at hustings in Bristol
- Lisa Nandy called for OBEs to replace the term 'empire' with 'excellence'
- She said it 'alienates' people like poet Benjamin Zephaniah who turned one down
Published: 11:08 EST, 1 February 2020 | Updated: 04:57 EST, 3 February 2020
Lisa Nandy today demanded that 'Empire' is removed from OBE honours because it 'alienates' people.
The Labour leadership hopeful insisted doing away with the reference to Britain's colonial past would help make the country 'different'.
She pointed to the example of poet Benjamin Zephaniah - who turned down an OBE in 2003 because it 'reminded him of thousands of years of brutality'.
The Order of the British Empire recognises contributions to the UK across the arts and sciences, charity, public service and the military.
It is split into a number of different ranks - the most senior of which makes people a knight or a dame.
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Speaking at a Labour leadership hustings in Bristol today, Ms Nandy set out why she did not believe OBEs should refer to 'empire'
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The four Labour leadership candidates (left to right, Emily Thornberry, Ms Nandy, Sir Keir Starmer and Rebecca Long-Bailey) faced off at a hustings today
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Ms Nandy pointed to the example of poet Benjamin Zephaniah (pictured in 2003) - who turned down an OBE because it 'reminded him of thousands of years of brutality'
Speaking at a Labour leadership hustings in Bristol today, Ms Nandy set out why she did not believe the term should be used.
'The self-confident, empowered country I will lead will be one that is different,' she said.
'Where people like Benjamin Zephaniah can accept the Order of Excellence not reject the Order of the British Empire.
'That celebrates those who built us not seeks to alienate them.
'To remake this country as it should and can be, Written, as he says, in ''verses of fire''.'
After he was put forward for an OBE in the 2003 New Year's Honours, Zephaniah wrote an article explaining why he had rejected it.
'It reminds me of slavery, it reminds me of the thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalised,' he wrote in the Guardian.
