I do get a lot more mail, for luxury hotels and houses, the paper so thick they barely fit through the door They can be a bit of a bore. "The value of this system is that it gives enormous pleasure." WHY HAVE A KNIGHTHOOD? Sir Robert Dowling, state school headteacherWell, being a Sir certainly doesn't help pay your gas or electricity bills I was Bob Dowling before, and I'm still Bob to all my staff It's an honour, not a title. I don't see it as a personal honour, but for the profession and for education; all headteachers, pupils, parents. Although the health service produces more honours than any other occupation, nurses' leaders complained that nurses were rarely rewarded while civil servants regularly got "gongs".The report will add to the pressure on the Prime Minister to act.

The MPs said that attempts by the former prime minister John Major to make the honours system more representative, particularly to women and people from ethnic minorities, had failed to penetrate the secrecy in Whitehall.The Tory MP Alan Duncan described the committee's findings as sad "They are honing in on the wrong targets," he said. Harold Wilson, who appointed the Beatles MBEs, said he wanted to "sprinkle stardust" on the list.They also called for an end to automatic awards for civil servants. It called for an independent commission to take over the role.The use of honours as the tools of political management by No 10 casts suspicion on the system, the report said. Only 2.7 per cent of knighthoods and 6.3 per cent of OBEs and MBEs were given to people from ethnic minorities.The MPs also called for the Prime Minister to be stripped of all power of patronage over the honours currently in his gift. He added: "I cannot accept the system of antiquated titles and medals that really belong on a Christmas tree."The MPs called for 16 titles to be declared redundant, including the Knight and Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB), Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG/DCMG), and Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).The MPs said the number of awards should trimmed to four: Companion of Honour (CH) as the highest award; Companion of the Order of British Excellence (CBE); Officer of the Order of British Excellence (OBE); and Member of the Order of British Excellence (MBE). "This is anachronistic and insensitive, an inappropriate symbol for today's Britain," the committee said.People from ethnic minorities were more likely to get the lowest awards, if they were honoured at all, the MPs found. Colonial titles, such as the Order of the British Empire, should be consigned to history.

The most coveted of titles - peerages - only escaped criticism because the Government has yet to decide how it will reform the House of Lords.Welcoming the report, the author J G Ballard, one of 300 people who declined a CBE, said the titles were "Ruritanian". Titles allowing the great and good to be known as "Sir" or "Dame" should be shelved in a reform of the honours system, Tony Blair was told yesterday by a Commons select committee. The honours system was condemned by the MPs as anachronistic, dominated by secrecy, riddled with class prejudice and biased against ethnic minorities and women.Titles in the honours system were "redolent of past preoccupations with rank and class, just as the 'Empire' is redolent of an imperial history," said the Public Administration Committee, chaired by the Labour MP Tony Wright.The MPs said the Queen could still award titles in her gift, but their continued use by the Prime Minister "strikes a false note" and should be ended. Britain has so far avoided a major terrorist attack, but any attempt to use intelligence to justify future military action would be met with scepticism.. There will be a new emphasis on recruiting Arabic speakers in an effort to infiltrate al-Qa'ida cells and ministers claim information sharing around the world has improved. The Attorney General's advice conflicted with that of other senior law officers.