IN ye olde days, when a public hanging was a day out for the locals, it was generally a serious offence that would land you on the block. Murder, treason...that kind of thing.

Now it seems that queue jumping would be enough for the hangman to tighten his noose.

In the scheme of things - with a war in Europe raging and the cost of living crisis spreading misery in households and businesses across the UK - the plight of smug, highly paid presenters of a cosy daytime TV show rates pretty low.

And when the news first broke that Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby had come under fire over claims they skipped the queue to see the Queen lying in state, I couldn’t really have cared less.

I understood why people would be disgruntled, even angry, at the prospect of these two being allowed some kind of ‘VIP access’, when more than 250,000 people, including pensioners and children, queued for miles for up to 30 hours to enter Westminster Hall.

But, since other public figures, including politicians and broadcasters, had similar accreditation, I assumed “Queuegate” would be a storm in a teacup. Two weeks on, the storm has yet to blow over, with social media gunning for the This Morning co-presenters and an online petition to have them sacked signed by around 75,000 people. “Let’s get them fired!” came a rallying cry.

Er, isn’t this all a bit much? Haven’t people got more important things to be getting on with?

Yes, it looked bad that Schofield and Willoughby attended the lying in state without joining the public queue. The pair have acknowledged the backlash, but stressed that they were filming a segment for their ITV morning show and had followed rules set for the media. And as far as I can tell, that’s acceptable.

Hats off to David Beckham for queuing for 13 hours. And Good Morning Britain presenter Susanna Reid, who queued with her mum for over seven hours. Sharon Osbourne and actress Tilda Swinton were among other celebrities who waited their turn in the long queue.

Maybe Schofield and Willoughby, and their producers, should have considered how it might look if the popular ITV duo simply slipped in, ahead of the hoi polloi. As Graham Norton has said: “What Phil and Holly got wrong was they thought people wouldn’t care”.

Norton, who told Nihal Arthanayake’s BBC Radio 5 Live programme that he had turned down a “queue jump ticket” to see the Queen’s lying in state, said although he felt Schofield and Willoughby “did nothing wrong” it was “foolish of them to not think that people would be annoyed”.

Agreed. But isn’t it time we got over it? The vitriol spat out on social media has been ridiculous and shameful. Speaking at the RTS London Convention this week, ITV chief executive Dame Carolyn McCall said the ITV presenters had been “misrepresented” and added: “It does show you how misinformation just spreads. And it is really horrible for them.”

It is horrible to be in the eye of a storm. I had some online abuse last year and saw firsthand how quickly the nastiness can be whipped up on Twitter. Thankfully, it didn’t last long, but while it was happening I felt like sticking my head in the oven, so I can’t imagine how these two manage to present a TV show every day, when they must be feeling wretched.

The “Let’s get them fired!” mob are the kind of folk who would elbow their way to the front of the crowd to jeer on a public execution. I’m no fan of Phillip Schofield or Holly Willoughby, and I wouldn’t class either as journalists, (unless you’ve sat for five hours on a Wednesday evening covering a district council planning committee you haven’t earned your stripes as a journalist, as far as I’m concerned) but they got press privileges at Westminster Hall because they were filming for a TV show. Let’s move on, people.

When Caroline Flack took her life in 2020, what was trending on social media? #BeKind. How quickly we forget.