Shropshire Star

Mark Andrews: ITV boss braced for a grilling, containing my excitement, and why it is better to refurbish tower blocks than build on the green belt

According to reports, ITV boss Dame Carolyn McCall is about to be 'summoned to appear before MPs' regarding the Phillip Schofield, ahem, affair.

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Phillip Schofield – cheesy

Now Dame Carolyn sounds like a walking, woke, cliche straight from central casting, and I certainly hold no brief for Schofield, who I always thought to be a bit of a smarmy purveyor of nauseating cheese.

Nevertheless, I think if I were in Dame Carolyn's position I would be telling those pompous MPs where to stick their 'summons'.

As a private company, it is purely a matter for ITV's management to decide how to deal with internal disciplinary matters. If shareholders are unhappy, they can remove the board, while advertisers can –and do – vote with their wallets. If any laws have been broken, it is a matter for the police, but there is no suggestion this is the case. As for the MPs, it is frankly none of their business.

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The idea of politicians interrogating ITV bosses might be more palatable if Parliament itself was a bastion of propriety. Figures from April last year showed that 56 out of 650 MPs – that's one in 12 – were being investigated for sexual misconduct. Only this week another one was suspended by his party over alleged sexual shenanigans.

One of the members doing the grilling will be former deputy prime minister Damian Green. You may recall he was forced to resign after pornography was found on his work computer, and he apologised to a journalist for sending her questionable text messages. People who live in glasshouses....

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Three tower blocks overlooking Wolverhampton's West Park are to be refurbished by the council's housing provider.

Much as it goes against the grain to praise local government, Wolverhampton Homes deserves credit for making use of these properties rather than pulling them down.

It is one of the scandals of this century how councils have needlessly demolished perfectly serviceable tower blocks, only to hand the sites over to private developers just to get them off the books. Often, people who have lived in these blocks for decades are given five-figure bungs from the public purse to leave quietly. And the replacement housing only ever accommodates a fraction of the residents displaced.

Then politicians and developers complain about a housing crisis and the need to build on the green belt.

Let's make the most of the housing we have before ruining the countryside.

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One of the most over-used terms of our age is the word "exciting". For example, I've just had an email from my online stockbroker telling me the 'exciting news' that its website is about to be renamed. I will try to contain myself.