A few cheers to Paul Weller, who apparently turned down the offer of a CBE in the New Year's Honours list. It's also reported that he turned down a similar offer last summer.
What's a little odd, though, is the timidity of his given reason. Apparently "Paul was surprised and flattered, but it wasn't really for him." Unlike, say, poet Benjamin Zephaniah, who refused a gong four years ago, saying "Stick it, Mr Blair and Mrs Queen" and laying into privatisation, war and all things empire.
Mind you, Mr Weller's politics have seriously faded over the last two decades or so, to the extent that he now sends his kids to private school. And this from the man who wrote 'Eton Rifles'! Still, he may no longer be tearing down the House of Commons with his brand new shoes, but at least he hasn't knelt before the monarch. Two cheers, at least.
