When David Cameron handed out gongs to people engaged in such critical roles as choosing his wife’s frocks (Leaked ‘cronies’ honours list puts May under pressure, 1 August 2016), I thought the bottom of the barrel had been reached, and scraped. However, news that John Redwood has been given a knighthood for “political and public service” takes the biscuit (Report, 29 December).

Les Bright

Exeter, Devon

• The only thing of note that John Redwood has done in his political career is to fail to sing the words of the Welsh national anthem when he was appointed Welsh secretary in 1993. I presume that his knighthood in the New Year honours list is simply Theresa May’s attempt to remind us that the Tories are the party of what William Cobbett called “Old Corruption”, where preferment in public life depended not on merit but on who you were and who you knew.

Keith Flett

London

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