Qualified for the role?

I was faffing around on Twitter (as you do) and made a startling discovery. Somebody has seen fit to give Richard Madeley an ‘agony aunt’ column. I won’t shame the paper that thought this a good idea, but the mind boggles. This is a man so gauche that many believe him to be the inspiration behind Alan Partridge. To give him a col-umn designed to help people with real life problems – albeit a vulgar form of its own – feels, on the face of it, like a hiring misstep.

Of course, the more cynically minded of us feel we know better. The paper is not unaware of Madeley’s inglorious track record. It’s hard to believe they really think he is the man to dole out carefully crafted, helpful advice. But Madeley is a man so prone to gaffes that he draws crowds. But the crowds aren’t keen to hear him dispense his wisdom, they wait expectantly for him to say something so exceptionally insensitive and crass you forget he is not a comic creation, but a real man who seems to believe he is hired for his incisive interview technique. And that only makes the whole thing even funnier.

Now, you may wonder what Richard Madeley can possibly have to do with the church. But how many elders and pastors have you met and wondered: ‘Who thought that was a good appointment?’ Now, I’m an independent and believe in the independency of the local church. So, it’s not my place to police who other churches appoint. But as much as it’s not my place to tell a national newspaper who to hire, it doesn’t stop people looking on and thinking: ‘You hired him to do that!’