For a long time, there has been a joke about one of the many sets of British honours.

Members of the The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George fall into three classes: Companion of the Order (CMG), Knight Commander of the Order (KCMG) and, best of all, Knight Grand Cross of the Order (GCMG).

Often given to top officials of the Foreign Office and to others who have given service to Commonwealth and foreign countries, it carries another set of meanings: CMG stands for "Call me God", KCMG for "Kindly Call me God" and GCMG for ... "God Calls me God".

That proves at least that the British have a sense of humour about the honours system, and that helps to puncture the self-importance that sometimes goes along with the titles given in the Queen's name.

But it does not mean that the honours serve no purpose. People who receive honours have generally earned them, and these days, people are recognised not only for their services in politics and the civil service, but throughout society. With people from all walks of life receiving the awards, they truly recognise public service in the broadest sense of the word.

With that in mind, the recent brouhaha over Dame Jennifer Smith's decision to accept her title may come as a surprise. Of Bermuda's living Premiers, only Dr. David Saul has not received a title (and if one was offered, he may well have turned it down), so by that measure alone, Dame Jennifer, as the first Progressive Labour Party Premier and the first elected woman Premier, earned it.

Indeed, after former United Bermuda Party Premier Dame Pamela Gordon received her title, it was a fair bet that Dame Jennifer wouldn't be far behind. Indeed, having served longer and having won an election, a stronger case could be made for her, especially if you skated over her rather ugly departure.

So what's wrong with giving her a title? Nothing, at least nothing until you look at the way the long-standing Progressive Labour Party policy against receiving titles was thrown away soon after 1998 when long-standing former Leader Lois Browne-Evans became a Dame.

Dame Lois said she mainly accepted the title because her children ? who were rightly proud of her accomplishments ? urged her to.

But that still made her look rather hypocritical. After all, many pillars of the PLP turned down various awards over the years. More may never have had the chance to refuse one since the PLP's policy was so well known that no one bothered to nominate them.

On the other hand, if the PLP was merely waiting to become the Government before accepting honours, then that would make sense. That does not seem to be the case.

Instead the policy was usually attributed to the party's commitment to Independence and its accompanying dislike of "royal" honours and all of the colonialist baggage that carried with it. Instead, the PLP has long called for, but has never enacted (perhaps because Bermuda would be unable to as an overseas territory) a local order of merit of some kind.

So both Dame Lois and Dame Jennifer have earned their awards. But the PLP should state now just what its policy is, and it should probably give an overdue apology to those members who toed the party line for all those years.