Why Some Brits Don't Want a Sir Ted Kennedy - TIME:
The holders of honorary knighthoods — a motley crew that includes U2 lead singer Bono, his potty-mouthed countryman Bob Geldof, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and, until the honor's revocation last year, Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe — are not allowed to style themselves "Sir," a distinction reserved solely for subjects of Queen Liz. But where Brown really got himself in hot water was with his explanation of what the Massachusetts senator had done to deserve his quasi-ennoblement. Kennedy had contributed to improving American health care, boosting educational provision around the world and, Brown told his congressional audience on March 4, "Northern Ireland is today at peace." (See pictures from JFK's inner circle.)Less than 24 hours later, the head of Northern Ireland's police force revealed that the threat of a terrorist attack currently stands at its highest level in seven years. But that's not why Kennedy's gong has proved controversial. During the 30 years of the Troubles and in the centuries that proceeded this dark period of history and even since some kind of stability has been achieved in the region, the status and politics of Northern Ireland have always been capable of dividing neighbors and friends, much less politicians. "Edward Kennedy may never have said outwardly he supported the [Irish Republican terror group] IRA, but he certainly ...was no friend of the U.K.," said Lord Tebbitt, a stalwart of Margaret Thatcher's government, whose wife was crippled by an IRA bomb attack in 1984. "This honor is wholly inappropriate on the basis of the sleaze attached to [Kennedy] after the crash at Chappaquiddick, let alone his support for nationalism in Northern Ireland."
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