Order of the empire? Where's the empire?

If there's a day when the word 'Empire' has to pop up in (normal) people's heads, it has to be today. Yes, 79 yrs ago, we kinda started the ball rolling to what would ultimately lead to the British empire being declared kaput.

But hang on.

Is British imperialism - as opposed to monarchism - dead? We ask because if there is no empire, how can there still be GBE, KBE/DBE, OBE, CBE, MBE (not related to MBA), and BEM - grand cross, knight/dame, officer, commander, member of the Order of the British Empire, and recipient of the British Empire Medal, respectively, eh? It's as if Rome continued to award 'Gladiator of the Western Empire' medals centuries after Visigoth redecoration. Or Russia pinning 'Soviet Hero 2026' on some Kremlin favourite.


Sure, who wouldn't want a shiny bauble with imperial gravitas? Even Brit anti-imperialists get pleased as Christmas punch getting one of these acronyms tagged on to their names. But without sounding predictably postcolonial, what's the point of having a lottery prize of a cruise vacation for two to Pompeii?

Unless, of course, the empire still exists - hidden in the heavy foliage of Farage nostalgia, in the back of Charles Mountbatten-Windsor's mind, and in the quiet insistence that Britain's imperial reach remains tucked away. Have enough G&T at Gymkhana or Tolly, and the Empire exists on August 15, 2026.