Phooey to prurient tutting

It's hard to account for the unending fuss over one-time New Zealander Phillip Schofield.

- JANE CLIFTON

For decades a popular British television presenter, latterly as one of those confected TV breakfast show "couples", he now stands before numerous firing squads.

For what? His somewhat less cuddly fellow celeb Jeremy Clarkson put it succinctly: "For being what he said he was. Gay." Ridiculous as this sounds, Clarkson is right. A couple of years ago, when Schofield revealed - to his wife's surprise as much as anyone's - that he was gay, everyone cried, "Well done, how brave, we love you!" There was a bit of "poor Mrs Schofield", but generally Phil was hailed as a hero and social exemplar.

However, we can now infer that the unstated but emphatic covenant on that back-slappery was, "Just don't actually do gay, okay?"