IT WAS with sadness that we read in the SN&J (23/1/19) of the passing of Bob Woodward who had founded the charity Cancer and Leukaemia in Childhood (CLIC) and raised more than £100 million for this charity, writes Huw Niland.

What puzzled me though was that whilst he never asked for reward for his work he was the recipient of only an OBE from the Queen when surely he was deserving of a knighthood at the very least.

This exposes how flawed and tainted our present honours system can be.

We see a knighthood going to the lead singer (no names mentioned!) of a still functioning rock band who hightailed it to live in France for a year to avoid paying income tax in this country.

Then a knighthood going to a businessman who chooses to live abroad for most of the year to avoid income tax.

And as for David Cameron’s resignation honours list which was rightly lambasted for handing out honours to relatively unknown people whose contribution to this country is questionable to say the least – what more can we say!

This must surely devalue the honours system for those people who do deserve an award.

The people I feel really sorry for this are the members of the Royal Family who between them have to hand out these awards and have no say in who gets what.

I do wonder that when bestowing an award to someone standing in front of them, are they thinking to themselves: “Why am I having to award this to you because I cannot think of a single reason why you should be getting it!”

If only they were allowed to speak their minds.

Huw Niland

Stroud