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Julian Farrows
Julian Farrows
11 months ago

The fact that Holly addressed the audience as if they were PTSD survivors 

It’s not just Holly. The entire British state does this. Every time I go back to England I’m always amazed and disheartened by the amount of scolding and proselytizing I see on TV and big billboards. It’s quite pervasive, but I wonder if the general public is either affected by it or just ignores it. A lot of it is overly sentimental and maudlin in a way that is peculiar to Britain.

Last edited 11 months ago by Julian Farrows
Ben Scott
Ben Scott
11 months ago
Reply to  Julian Farrows

Yep. It seems as if, ever since the “wrong” vote was made by so many (obviously uninformed) people, we have been bombarded with infantilising messages. Turbo-charged by the pandemic response (where to stand, which way to walk, how to wash your hands, how to sneeze safely, etc), the public is given no credit for being able to think, rationalise and respond. We are treated, as the author says, “as a passive vessel, a lump of clay moulded and shaped by everything that has happened to you”. Personally, I like to think I have a little more conscious control over my life.

Julian Pellatt
Julian Pellatt
11 months ago
Reply to  Julian Farrows

Consider yourself fortunate that you apparently don’t have the BBC on your doorstep. Non-stop WokeWashing, anti-Brexit propaganda and decolonising agenda inserted into every possible subject area.

Ben Scott
Ben Scott
11 months ago
Reply to  Julian Farrows

Yep. It seems as if, ever since the “wrong” vote was made by so many (obviously uninformed) people, we have been bombarded with infantilising messages. Turbo-charged by the pandemic response (where to stand, which way to walk, how to wash your hands, how to sneeze safely, etc), the public is given no credit for being able to think, rationalise and respond. We are treated, as the author says, “as a passive vessel, a lump of clay moulded and shaped by everything that has happened to you”. Personally, I like to think I have a little more conscious control over my life.

Julian Pellatt
Julian Pellatt
11 months ago
Reply to  Julian Farrows

Consider yourself fortunate that you apparently don’t have the BBC on your doorstep. Non-stop WokeWashing, anti-Brexit propaganda and decolonising agenda inserted into every possible subject area.

Julian Farrows
Julian Farrows
11 months ago

The fact that Holly addressed the audience as if they were PTSD survivors 

It’s not just Holly. The entire British state does this. Every time I go back to England I’m always amazed and disheartened by the amount of scolding and proselytizing I see on TV and big billboards. It’s quite pervasive, but I wonder if the general public is either affected by it or just ignores it. A lot of it is overly sentimental and maudlin in a way that is peculiar to Britain.

Last edited 11 months ago by Julian Farrows
Albireo Double
Albireo Double
11 months ago

I’ve actually had PTSD, having suddenly been left trapped and surrounded, out of the blue, by wreckage and dead people – I was the only one left alive.

It does put this sort of rubbish into its correct perspective (which is trivial and self-indulgent). But it can be slightly irritating to read. It also inclines me towards a somewhat acerbic response to these pathetic milquetoasts, I’m afraid.

Katharine Eyre
Katharine Eyre
11 months ago
Reply to  Albireo Double

I’m really sorry to hear about what happened to you and hope you are now fully recovered.

Dermot O'Sullivan
Dermot O'Sullivan
11 months ago
Reply to  Albireo Double

milquetoasts

Never heard of it and have looked it up. When we were sick as kids we got a thing called Goody – warm milk with torn up pieces of white bread and sugar. Yummy!

Katharine Eyre
Katharine Eyre
11 months ago
Reply to  Albireo Double

I’m really sorry to hear about what happened to you and hope you are now fully recovered.

Dermot O'Sullivan
Dermot O'Sullivan
11 months ago
Reply to  Albireo Double

milquetoasts

Never heard of it and have looked it up. When we were sick as kids we got a thing called Goody – warm milk with torn up pieces of white bread and sugar. Yummy!

Albireo Double
Albireo Double
11 months ago

I’ve actually had PTSD, having suddenly been left trapped and surrounded, out of the blue, by wreckage and dead people – I was the only one left alive.

It does put this sort of rubbish into its correct perspective (which is trivial and self-indulgent). But it can be slightly irritating to read. It also inclines me towards a somewhat acerbic response to these pathetic milquetoasts, I’m afraid.

Simon Neale
Simon Neale
11 months ago

She’s not trying to be your – or anyone else’s – therapist. She is pretending to care about stuff that nobody in their right mind would really bother about. And she’s doing that because the general public seem to like that sort of thing, and will therefore increase her company’s viewing figures. She acts as if she is hurt because viewers prefer emotion more than dispassionate analysis. She’s there because women want to see a woman of a certain age who brushes up nice, and men can develop a mild sexual fantasy around her. From what I can see of it (and that’s all from BBC and other outlets reporting from the sidelines) it’s nothing more than a big soap-opera story.

Simon Neale
Simon Neale
11 months ago

She’s not trying to be your – or anyone else’s – therapist. She is pretending to care about stuff that nobody in their right mind would really bother about. And she’s doing that because the general public seem to like that sort of thing, and will therefore increase her company’s viewing figures. She acts as if she is hurt because viewers prefer emotion more than dispassionate analysis. She’s there because women want to see a woman of a certain age who brushes up nice, and men can develop a mild sexual fantasy around her. From what I can see of it (and that’s all from BBC and other outlets reporting from the sidelines) it’s nothing more than a big soap-opera story.

Lesley van Reenen
Lesley van Reenen
11 months ago

I cannot read about this story. Headlines and questions and discussions for weeks. Can the UK please move on.

Peter B
Peter B
11 months ago

I know what you mean – the gut reaction is “frankly, who cares ?”.
But the article is really quite good. And hopefully enough to conclude reporting on this sideshow. But we all know it won’t be. Talking endlessly about stuff like this is so much easier than actually solving real problems. We might start talking about “displacement activity” – but then we’d be going full-on amateur therapy speak and lining ourselves up to replace Schofield on the sofa.

james goater
james goater
11 months ago

Exactly. In Shakespearean terms, “Much ado about Nothing”.

Peter B
Peter B
11 months ago

I know what you mean – the gut reaction is “frankly, who cares ?”.
But the article is really quite good. And hopefully enough to conclude reporting on this sideshow. But we all know it won’t be. Talking endlessly about stuff like this is so much easier than actually solving real problems. We might start talking about “displacement activity” – but then we’d be going full-on amateur therapy speak and lining ourselves up to replace Schofield on the sofa.

james goater
james goater
11 months ago

Exactly. In Shakespearean terms, “Much ado about Nothing”.

Lesley van Reenen
Lesley van Reenen
11 months ago

I cannot read about this story. Headlines and questions and discussions for weeks. Can the UK please move on.

Katharine Eyre
Katharine Eyre
11 months ago

Rather than “Why is Holly Willoughby trying to be my therapist?”, may I suggest the more pertinent question of “Why are you all still talking about Holly Willoughby?”
Watching this whole drama from the outside has been nothing short of bizarre. For days, this non-issue has been all over the news. As if there’s nothing else going on – like a war, inflation, a housing crisis, a collapsed health service…I’m guessing that the reporting is not a reflection of how the majority of people feel (I’m guessing most are as uninterested as I am), but it is very odd to watch.
(And, before you ask, I will not be needing counselling for PTSD due to this. I just would like news that contains actual NEWS.)

Last edited 11 months ago by Katharine Eyre
Philippe W
Philippe W
11 months ago
Reply to  Katharine Eyre

It’s another reveal of how we got into such ridiculous hysterics over covid. What everyone needs is a universal “ignore this story” button that simply removes it from your view permanently,

Think of the quiet you’d have enjoyed from 2020 not hearing about a certain low-threat, flu-adjacent bug that was knocking off a few olds; the joy of not hearing about the troubles of countries you can’t even identify on a map.

After a week you’d open a newspaper and see absolutely nothing on the page, which would end up saving you a few bob in subscriptions…

Katharine Eyre
Katharine Eyre
11 months ago
Reply to  Philippe W

An “ignore this story” button would be great. I’d also love an “Accept/reject all cookies, FOREVER” button. Those banners annoy me so badly.

Last edited 11 months ago by Katharine Eyre
Laura Creighton
Laura Creighton
11 months ago
Reply to  Katharine Eyre

reject all non-essential cookies forever and get rid of the banners
for Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ninja-cookie/jifeafcpcjjgnlcnkffmeegehmnmkefl
for Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ninja-cookie/
You’re welcome.

Last edited 11 months ago by Laura Creighton
Dermot O'Sullivan
Dermot O'Sullivan
11 months ago

Do these features also mean you have to log in every time to sites like Unherd?

Laura Creighton
Laura Creighton
11 months ago

I don’t.

Laura Creighton
Laura Creighton
11 months ago

I don’t.

Rob N
Rob N
11 months ago

Or use Brave browser which is, so I hear, the most secure and privacy focused browser.
https://brave.com/

Philippe W
Philippe W
11 months ago
Reply to  Rob N

Can it block all articles on Schofield and Willoughby?

Laura Creighton
Laura Creighton
11 months ago
Reply to  Philippe W

They are actually working on something like that. Figuring out ‘is this an article on Schofield’ rather than something that just mentions the name Schofield (and possibly is about a completely different person, or the resting metabolic rate of human beings (the Schofield equation) or a brand of revolver) is something that could be done in the same way that spam has been detected. But I don’t know anything that is accomplishing this now.

Laura Creighton
Laura Creighton
11 months ago
Reply to  Philippe W

They are actually working on something like that. Figuring out ‘is this an article on Schofield’ rather than something that just mentions the name Schofield (and possibly is about a completely different person, or the resting metabolic rate of human beings (the Schofield equation) or a brand of revolver) is something that could be done in the same way that spam has been detected. But I don’t know anything that is accomplishing this now.

Laura Creighton
Laura Creighton
11 months ago
Reply to  Rob N

But doesn’t deal with this automatically, (at least it didn’t last time I looked which was more than a year ago) unless you installed an addon. Brave works with most chrome addons, so the cookie-ninja addon should work — but I have not tested this.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search/cookie%20ninja

Last edited 11 months ago by Laura Creighton
Philippe W
Philippe W
11 months ago
Reply to  Rob N

Can it block all articles on Schofield and Willoughby?

Laura Creighton
Laura Creighton
11 months ago
Reply to  Rob N

But doesn’t deal with this automatically, (at least it didn’t last time I looked which was more than a year ago) unless you installed an addon. Brave works with most chrome addons, so the cookie-ninja addon should work — but I have not tested this.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search/cookie%20ninja

Last edited 11 months ago by Laura Creighton
Dermot O'Sullivan
Dermot O'Sullivan
11 months ago

Do these features also mean you have to log in every time to sites like Unherd?

Rob N
Rob N
11 months ago

Or use Brave browser which is, so I hear, the most secure and privacy focused browser.
https://brave.com/

Laura Creighton
Laura Creighton
11 months ago
Reply to  Katharine Eyre

reject all non-essential cookies forever and get rid of the banners
for Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ninja-cookie/jifeafcpcjjgnlcnkffmeegehmnmkefl
for Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ninja-cookie/
You’re welcome.

Last edited 11 months ago by Laura Creighton
0 0
0 0
11 months ago
Reply to  Philippe W

Knocking off a few olds?
You are not a nice person.

Katharine Eyre
Katharine Eyre
11 months ago
Reply to  Philippe W

An “ignore this story” button would be great. I’d also love an “Accept/reject all cookies, FOREVER” button. Those banners annoy me so badly.

Last edited 11 months ago by Katharine Eyre
0 0
0 0
11 months ago
Reply to  Philippe W

Knocking off a few olds?
You are not a nice person.

Philippe W
Philippe W
11 months ago
Reply to  Katharine Eyre

It’s another reveal of how we got into such ridiculous hysterics over covid. What everyone needs is a universal “ignore this story” button that simply removes it from your view permanently,

Think of the quiet you’d have enjoyed from 2020 not hearing about a certain low-threat, flu-adjacent bug that was knocking off a few olds; the joy of not hearing about the troubles of countries you can’t even identify on a map.

After a week you’d open a newspaper and see absolutely nothing on the page, which would end up saving you a few bob in subscriptions…

Katharine Eyre
Katharine Eyre
11 months ago

Rather than “Why is Holly Willoughby trying to be my therapist?”, may I suggest the more pertinent question of “Why are you all still talking about Holly Willoughby?”
Watching this whole drama from the outside has been nothing short of bizarre. For days, this non-issue has been all over the news. As if there’s nothing else going on – like a war, inflation, a housing crisis, a collapsed health service…I’m guessing that the reporting is not a reflection of how the majority of people feel (I’m guessing most are as uninterested as I am), but it is very odd to watch.
(And, before you ask, I will not be needing counselling for PTSD due to this. I just would like news that contains actual NEWS.)

Last edited 11 months ago by Katharine Eyre
polidori redux
polidori redux
11 months ago

Theodore Dalrymple has been writing along similar lines for years: “I am not responsible for my actions and so cannot be held accountable for them”. It has become a popular line of defence as it works.

David B
David B
11 months ago
Reply to  polidori redux

“the knife went in”

David B
David B
11 months ago
Reply to  polidori redux

“the knife went in”

polidori redux
polidori redux
11 months ago

Theodore Dalrymple has been writing along similar lines for years: “I am not responsible for my actions and so cannot be held accountable for them”. It has become a popular line of defence as it works.

Chris Amies
Chris Amies
11 months ago

What is actually the issue anyway? PS had apparently an affair with a consenting adult. Haven’t we got past that?

Peter B
Peter B
11 months ago
Reply to  Chris Amies

Actually a number of things, including the fact that the consenting adult was promoted within an organisation in which Philip Schofield had enormous power and influence which suggests at least the possibility of nepotism (and who would possibly have suspected that about the media ?). I’m fairly sure that an organisation of ITV’s size and ethical standards (at least the ones they claim to have) had guidelines and employment rules which were not followed.
A lot of the – entirely justified – schadenfreude here is due to the fact that these media organisations have been preaching to us for years about how we should be behaving and why we’ve all been doing it wrong all our lives. It’s the hypocrisy and double standards.
So it runs much wider than Schofield’s relationships.
Note also how all participants are currently claiming to be “victims”.

Klive Roland
Klive Roland
11 months ago
Reply to  Peter B

TBH I heard Phillip Schofield being interviewed last weekend and he sounded pretty devastated by the whole thing.
I am aware of workplace relationships elsewhere between staff members of very different seniority levels which have gone more or less unremarked.

Klive Roland
Klive Roland
11 months ago
Reply to  Peter B

TBH I heard Phillip Schofield being interviewed last weekend and he sounded pretty devastated by the whole thing.
I am aware of workplace relationships elsewhere between staff members of very different seniority levels which have gone more or less unremarked.

Lou Davey
Lou Davey
11 months ago
Reply to  Chris Amies

He had an affair with a ‘consenting adult’ if you believe that the fiftysomething Schofield did actually wait until the 18th birthday of the boy he’d known since he was 14/15, and got him his job at ITV. Arguably he was in a ‘trusted position’ over him.
Mainly, though, I think it’s to do with the brother being convicted of paedophilia, and then the long-kept secret about Schofield’s affair coming to light and prompting the settling of scores and vendettas.

Peter B
Peter B
11 months ago
Reply to  Chris Amies

Actually a number of things, including the fact that the consenting adult was promoted within an organisation in which Philip Schofield had enormous power and influence which suggests at least the possibility of nepotism (and who would possibly have suspected that about the media ?). I’m fairly sure that an organisation of ITV’s size and ethical standards (at least the ones they claim to have) had guidelines and employment rules which were not followed.
A lot of the – entirely justified – schadenfreude here is due to the fact that these media organisations have been preaching to us for years about how we should be behaving and why we’ve all been doing it wrong all our lives. It’s the hypocrisy and double standards.
So it runs much wider than Schofield’s relationships.
Note also how all participants are currently claiming to be “victims”.

Lou Davey
Lou Davey
11 months ago
Reply to  Chris Amies

He had an affair with a ‘consenting adult’ if you believe that the fiftysomething Schofield did actually wait until the 18th birthday of the boy he’d known since he was 14/15, and got him his job at ITV. Arguably he was in a ‘trusted position’ over him.
Mainly, though, I think it’s to do with the brother being convicted of paedophilia, and then the long-kept secret about Schofield’s affair coming to light and prompting the settling of scores and vendettas.

Chris Amies
Chris Amies
11 months ago

What is actually the issue anyway? PS had apparently an affair with a consenting adult. Haven’t we got past that?

Nicky Samengo-Turner
Nicky Samengo-Turner
11 months ago

Her and the other creature now binned , po faced, tedious, patronising, dull, central casting heome ceounties woke middle class from some Waitrose in Surrey: God help nu britn hew kay if this is what the ” ooh look at my new Tesla” social meountaineers aspire to being… They all need a night out in working man’s pub in The North to really put them in their place…

Nicky Samengo-Turner
Nicky Samengo-Turner
11 months ago

Her and the other creature now binned , po faced, tedious, patronising, dull, central casting heome ceounties woke middle class from some Waitrose in Surrey: God help nu britn hew kay if this is what the ” ooh look at my new Tesla” social meountaineers aspire to being… They all need a night out in working man’s pub in The North to really put them in their place…

Mike Fraser
Mike Fraser
11 months ago

Is that it then? Is that the storm in a tv tea cup done? Can we now return to things that really matter. Climate Ukraine. American China relationship. Energy resources. Housing. The NHS. Immigration. Inflation. education. unwoking woke etc PLEASE?

Mike Fraser
Mike Fraser
11 months ago

Is that it then? Is that the storm in a tv tea cup done? Can we now return to things that really matter. Climate Ukraine. American China relationship. Energy resources. Housing. The NHS. Immigration. Inflation. education. unwoking woke etc PLEASE?

Phil Richardson
Phil Richardson
11 months ago

But still we read, and then we comment.

Phil Richardson
Phil Richardson
11 months ago

But still we read, and then we comment.

Ray Ward
Ray Ward
11 months ago

I never watched This Morning, had only the vaguest idea what it was (I thought the ;presenters were married to each other, but I was thinking of another programme), and am, like some of the other commentators, utterly baffled by the amount of attention paid to these totally insignificant and uninteresting people. But do note it’s Phillip Schofield, not Philip!

Ray Ward
Ray Ward
11 months ago

I never watched This Morning, had only the vaguest idea what it was (I thought the ;presenters were married to each other, but I was thinking of another programme), and am, like some of the other commentators, utterly baffled by the amount of attention paid to these totally insignificant and uninteresting people. But do note it’s Phillip Schofield, not Philip!

0 0
0 0
11 months ago

Thanks Kristina.
Words of sanity.
I’m reasonably intelligent but I still don’t understand why the PS story has been ramped up so much.’ Man has affair at work’. OK. I suspect if he wasn’t gay it would be viewed rather differently, and this appalls me.
I don’t watch daytime TV and never will after this.
Ukrainians are suffering, migrants in boats and stranded in hell are suffering, Iranians and Afghans are suffering………a long list: just a start.
And HW sits there in white, prissy and self-obsessed, as if this is a major traumatising event. It really isn’t.

0 0
0 0
11 months ago

Thanks Kristina.
Words of sanity.
I’m reasonably intelligent but I still don’t understand why the PS story has been ramped up so much.’ Man has affair at work’. OK. I suspect if he wasn’t gay it would be viewed rather differently, and this appalls me.
I don’t watch daytime TV and never will after this.
Ukrainians are suffering, migrants in boats and stranded in hell are suffering, Iranians and Afghans are suffering………a long list: just a start.
And HW sits there in white, prissy and self-obsessed, as if this is a major traumatising event. It really isn’t.

Dave Merrell
Dave Merrell
11 months ago

Excellent!

Dave Merrell
Dave Merrell
11 months ago

Excellent!