Congratulations must go to Alan Cumming who has today worked out what the acronym ‘OBE’ stands for – a mere 14 years after receiving the award. It’s one thing to refuse an honour on the grounds of political developments (John Lennon), taste (Michael Winner) or historic objections (Benjamin Zephaniah). But it’s quite another to do as Cumming has done which is accept the Order of the British Empire, wear proudly and then renounce it more than a decade later.

The Scottish actor was given the honour to mark his work as an actor and LGBT activist. But now, apparently, the fight for same-sex rights has changed so much since 2009 that the ‘great good the award brought to the LGBTQ+ cause back in 2009 is now less potent than the misgivings I have being associated with the toxicity of empire.’ What prompted this Damascene conversion? Apparently, the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September and the:

ensuing conversations about the role of monarchy and especially the way the British Empire profited at the expense (and death) of indigenous peoples across the world really opened my eyes.

Who knew that OBE stood for Order of the British Empire eh? Still, such logic is the kind of thinking we have come to expect from Cumming. This, after all, is the man who claims that you experience an ‘insidious and subliminal racism’ in London ‘because of how you sound as a Scottish person’ but that Brexit was caused by ‘stupid English people.’ Naturally, like most Scexit-supporting ‘slebs, he also lives in New York.

A reminder perhaps of the pitfalls in giving out honours too freely…