Douglas Murray Douglas Murray

The strange obsession with Phillip Schofield

[Getty Images]

As I have noted before, there is always another circle. I thought that last week’s scandal (originally entitled ‘Suellagate’ or ‘speedgate’ by the papers) could not be surpassed for its sheer vacuousness and pointlessness. But then I did not foresee that the next week would be one in which every newspaper and news bulletin would lead with a story about a morning television presenter. Yet here we are, after more than a week of national debate about Phillip Schofield.

I first became aware of Schofield when he was presenting children’s television from the BBC’s ‘broom cupboard’ with Gordon the Gopher. I have not followed the career of either character very closely since. Nor, I think, have many other people.

In case you think that claim an exaggeration, I just checked the viewing ratings for ITV’s This Morning, which Schofield until recently presented with Holly Willoughby. For their last Christmas special, they had more than a million viewers, but in recent times they had been bumping along with a bit over 500,000 viewers a day. And I am sorry if this sounds cruel, but that means that only about 1 per cent of the population cared even slightly about Phillip Schofield. So how has this minority interest become a majority one?

I cannot help thinking that this is not a healthy use of our nation’s time and energies

There seems to be some desire to prove that the presenter’s relationship with a young male employee at ITV started before the boy was of legal age. Schofield denies this, but the insinuations of the press suggest a different direction of travel. Still the blanket coverage confounds me. Perhaps the nation is gearing up for another ‘paedophiles in public life’ stampede. It is around ten years since our last one, so we’re probably due. Doubtless Tom Watson and James O’Brien are sharpening their pitchforks as I type and will soon be making unfounded allegations against a fresh group of innocent men.

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