Robbie Williams deserves a knighthood as much as David Beckham – his snub proves everything wrong with ‘corrupt' system
WHAT more does a man need to do, besides get down on one knee then beg and/or give the King some homemade honey?
Robbie Williams co-created Soccer Aid — the most-watched thing on telly on Sunday night — and has raised more than £115million for Unicef in the process.
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He is Britain's best-selling solo artist of all time, and recently embarked on a sell-out European tour, which has received five-star reviews across the board.
As one fifth of Take That, he helped to redefine British pop culture and, more than two decades sober, he is also one of the nicest blokes in showbiz. Like, not a sober dullard.
Much the same as David Beckham, whose much-craved knighthood was confirmed last week, Rob is a Unicef ambassador.
And like David Beckham, he was caught up in the Ingenious tax avoidance scheme — meaning he was red-flagged by the Honours Committee.
But unlike David, Rob hasn't had so much as an OBE, let alone a knighthood, although the pair were embroiled in the same year of Ingenious.
Good causes
So, why? Why has he been systematically overlooked by a nonsensical committee, which once upon a time made 'bully' Philip Green a Sir?
Sure, he has spent much of the past 20 years Stateside, but Stoke-born Robbie has always had a family home over here and paid his due taxes.
His parents still live in Stoke and he's a patron of the city's incredible Donna Louise Children's Hospice.
He has raised money for more than 29 charities and, I'm told, quietly gives away millions to good causes without fuss or publicity.
And those tax affairs — similar to which dozens of celebs were embroiled in — have long since been settled.
Robbie, who perhaps hasn't played the royal honey card as well as his pal Dave, has 15 numbers one albums, more than anyone. Well, anyone besides The Beatles with whom he's tied in the album-selling stakes.
Also like Goldenballs, he has a global Netflix documentary chart-topper to his name.
On a football field, Robbie has an only fair-to-middling right foot on him but he does also boast a record-breaking 18 Brit awards.
To be clear, both men deserve honours — and Becks' one was long overdue. But the bigger question is WHY Robbie hasn't been recognised — by an awards system that has long been seen as slightly corrupt and quite possibly biased?
This, after all, was the year that Tess and Claudia were given MBEs, basically for services to Strictly.
Why not, when his Take That bandmate Gary Barlow — who was caught up in an even more aggressive tax-avoidance scheme — was given an OBE in 2012 for services to entertainment and charity work?
In 2017 — the year they, too, got collared — Prince's Trust ambassadors Ant and Dec were down the Palace collecting their OBEs from the then Prince Charles.
Rolling Stone Mick Jagger, Britain's first celebrity tax exile, is also a Sir. Ditto, the late Sir Sean Connery, who was the Bahamas' most famous British resident.
And let's not forget whippersnapper Sir Lewis Hamilton, who long ago buggered off out of Britain and, in 2017, was named in the BBC's Paradise Papers for avoiding £3.3million of VAT on his private jet.
As a happily married man, and a devoted dad of four — Robbie missed Fathers' Day to drive four hours from on stage in Bath to Soccer Aid at Old Trafford — there hasn't been so much as a WHIFF of scandal about his private life.
He is kind to fans, has raised awareness about mental health and gave the world Angels, as well as underrated banger Love My Life.
Unlike Sir David — of whom I'm a huge fan, BTW — Robbie has never knowingly labelled the Honours Committee as ungrateful 'c****'.
But he does refuse to kowtow to politicians or royals, and has never publicly asked for recognition.
And therein lies the problem.
Just give the man his gong. And a bee suit.
ROSE N' SHINE, PEOPLE
ROSÉ, the wine synonymous with summer and Jeremy Clarkson, has an official 'tipping point' as the weather warms up, found a poll conducted by Waitrose.
Once temperatures hit 20C, sales apparently jump by 150 per cent.
Us Brits have been blessed with an unusually wonderful start to summer – as my own 2025 rosé intake would testify. But, really, as my esteemed colleague Harry Cole swears, the pink season begins on Good Friday and ends the Sunday of the Labour conference in autumn.
Cheers.
HOUSE CALL
MUCH discussion in the House of Commons about the possible banning of smartphones in schools.
Whatever their political persuasion, most MPs agree mobile phone addiction in young people is bad. And only getting worse.
So why, then, are we faced with politicians clutching their mobiles in Parliament, furtively texting and scrolling as their colleagues speak?
Get your own house in order first, chaps.
ADD A LITTLE SENSE
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PUPILS need algebra rather than diversity, says a leading headteacher.
Katharine Birbalsingh, famously dubbed Britain's strictest educator, is 50 per cent correct.
Speaking as someone without a mathematical bone in her body – although, TBF, I was pretty solid at times tables – not once have I thought about linear equations, nor, indeed, a quadratic one, since the day I popped down my biro after my final GCSE maths paper.
In this age of AI and pocket calculators – on your smartphone – traditional school subjects are starting to look increasingly outdated.
What we do need, though, is the return of some common sense teaching.
SHOE SIGHS
NOW I'm not sure about you, but I really want our scientists undertaking some groundbreaking, revolutionary stuff that will change lives, and save lives.
How refreshing to learn, then, that experts from Shandong Sport University in China have been testing a range of heel sizes on women to determine how their body movements were affected.
And the results?
'The higher the heel, the more unstable the women became.'
Well knock me down with a Louboutin.
WANNABE POSH NOW A TRUE LADY
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IN their 1996 breakthrough hit Wannabe, the Spice Girls sang this immortal line about Victoria Beckham: 'Easy V, she doesn't come for free; she's a real Lady.'
Now, c/o Sir Dave, she really is.
That, as spiritual bandmate Geri Halliwell might say, really is manifestation.
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