As Robert Mugabe carries on doing his best impression of a despotic tyrant, the British Government have decided to get serious. No more mister nice guy, we have had enough and the foot is coming down. We are withdrawing his honorary knighthood.
I didn't even know he was an Honorary Knight, or to give him his full title 'Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath', but it seems the Queen deemed him a worthy recipient in 1994 for his work in liberating Zimbabwe from white minority rule and as a proponent of reconciliation with the white population. How's that working then?
Her Majesty goes dishing out Honorary Knighthoods to reward the Commonwealth citizens and non-British friends her Government regards as worthy folk around the world although as this episode shows, it can be all turn a bit sour afterwards.
Presidents Eisenhower, Reagan and Bush snr all got Hon. Knighthoods as have Bill Gates and Steven Spielberg but including Mugabe, there have been some glorious embarrassments.
German Emperor Wilhelm II and Japanese Emperor Hirohito were both on the receiving end of shiny British baubles before doing their level best to kill us and it was probably not that well received by the Romanian public when we gave a KBE and a hearty handshake to our pal Nicolae Ceaucescu, although we did snatch it back the day before he was shot.
Luckily Hitler never made the cut but probably the greatest faux pas was when we deemed his ally Benito Mussolini worthy. Il Duce got one in 1923 although it was rescinded in 1940. We don't just let anyone have them you know.
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