British panel: Age of knighthood is dead

LONDON – Long gone are the days when a knight was a champion rider in gleaming body armor charging to save a damsel in distress – and the title should go, too, a British parliamentary committee said Tuesday.

The committee said the age of chivalry is dead, and Queen Elizabeth II should stop making sirs and dames of everyone from rock stars to civil servants.

“Increasingly, titles appear to be an embarrassment rather than a cause for celebration,” said a report by the Public Administration Select Committee, which includes lawmakers from Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Labor Party.

“We share the unease of critics who were concerned at the continued award of honors to political donors and others who have rendered political services,” Tuesday’s report said.

The committee, which held a series of hearings on the honors system, called for more transparency in the system and said titles including sir and dame should be scrapped. It recommended reducing the number of honors from 16 to four.

The proposed new honors would be called Companion of Honor, and three grades – Companion, Officer and Member – of the Order of British Excellence.