The Fall Of Phillip Schofield

It wasn’t that long ago this bloke was a popular host on morning TV. Now, suddenly he is poison. True, he did come out as a homo in February 2020. He married in 1993, but Elton John went down the same perverted route and didn’t attract unwarranted criticism for it. More recently it was claimed he and his co-presenter Holly Willoughby jumped the queue at the Queen’s lying-in-state, hardly a hanging offence. Then his brother was given a heavy sentence for child sexual offences – sins of the siblings? And now he is gone from his morning television programme and possibly from TV period.

None of that is surprising, disappointing undoubtedly, but suddenly we are told he is a narcissist, a thug, if not in the literal sense then a verbal bully, and a few other unpleasant things besides. Why would any woman want to sit next to him on the sofa?

Now take a gander at the photograph below. The woman with the scarred face is Naomi Oni. Those scars were caused by acid. In December 2012, she was attacked by a work colleague and former friend in a well-publicised incident. Mary Konye received a twelve year sentence for that attack, not a day too long. Although plastic surgery has repaired some of the damage, Naomi is clearly serving a life sentence. She appeared on Schofield’s morning TV programme less than six weeks after the attack, and broke down visibly distressed. He doesn’t look quite such a monster here, does he?

What will people say about you after you fall from grace, or when you are dead?

Last Night In Trafalgar Square

New Year’s Eve was an improvement on last year, sort of. People were allowed in Trafalgar Square again and there was water in the fountains, but they and the centre were totally sealed off by the police and security. That was as good as it got. There was no big screen with music and live broadcasting, even worse the toilets were closed and I don’t think there were toilets anywhere except in restaurants and the like. Does it make sense when countless thousands of people are expected to flood the area – including families with at times very young kids – to close all the public toilets? This led to men urinating discreetly in corners after the event. And women?

There was the usual firework display over by the Thames which was visible over the tall buildings, but there were two additional mini-displays as well: one by Pret A Manger and another, shortly after or during the end of the main display in the north-east corner of the Square itself. I left shortly after these to carry out my annual ritual, the one I have performed since New Year’s Day 1999, then made my way home by a somewhat circuitous route via Clock House and my local kebab shop.