Barometer | 4 August 2016

Knight falls

There were calls for Sir Philip Green to be stripped of his knighthood. Who is stripped of such an honour? Some past cases:

ROGER CASEMENT, diplomat. Lost knighthood shortly before being executed for treason in 1916, having attempted to negotiate a supply of weapons from the Germans for the Easter Rising

JOSEPH KAGAN, manufacturer of Gannex raincoats and one of Harold Wilson’s favourite businessmen. Stripped of knighthood after a conviction for theft in 1980. He retained his peerage.

ALBERT HENRY, premier of the Cook Islands. Convicted of electoral fraud in 1980.

JACK LYONS, one of ‘Guinness Four’ convicted of share-trading fraud in 1987.

Cancer charts

People diagnosed with cancer are twice as likely still to be alive ten years later as in the 1970s. Death rates from cancer are partly a function of a country’s oncology units — and partly a function of longevity, with more people eventually dying of cancer if they don’t die of something else first.