Peaches vs. Katie: Whose Side Are You On? (Guest Post)

Katie
Hopkins has done it again. The opinionated former-reality TV star
stirred up yet more controversy in a debate on ITV’s This
Morning,
when she and Bob Geldof’s 24-year-old daughter Peaches met to discuss
the pros and cons of attachment parenting. For anyone who missed it,
this is the idea that parents should form a close relationship with
babies by feeding them on demand and having them share their parents’
bed, in an effort to aid emotional bonding and a sense of
wellbeing. Although many viewers deemed Peaches the winner of
the live TV debate, Katie didn’t lose any time in hitting
back in her column
for The
Sun,
claiming that her opponent only appeared victorious because she
got ‘an easy ride’.

The
two mothers – both clad in flattering blue
dresses
– appeared on This
Morning
on Tuesday 12th November. While Geldof spouted off the virtues of
attachment parenting, Hopkins cast it as ‘new age nonsense’, drawing
particular mention to a photo of Peaches talking on the phone as her
son Astala fell out of his push chair and onto the pavement.

However,
the crucial elements of the debate have been somewhat lost in the
resulting fall-out from the This
Morning
piece. Both celebs have taken to Twitter to defend themselves and
smear each other in equal measure. Peaches immediately
tweeted
‘I think I know who won that one’ and added that Katie had been
‘shaking’ when they left the set: ‘The panto witch finally met her
match!’ she crowed. A few days later, Katie’s column for The
Sun
claimed that Peaches had ‘never worked a hard shift in her life’ and
only agreed to join her on the
This Morning
sofa if Katie toned down her usual aggression, something Katie
branded as the actions of a  ‘spoilt child’. Predictably, this
triggered a fresh wave of tweets from Peaches, furiously
calling Katie’s column ‘pure lies’.    

Parenting
styles will always attract controversy, with each mother and father
bitterly defending their own strategies to the hilt. Whether you
agree with attachment parenting or not, This
Morning‘s TV
debate and the mud-slinging that followed seems to have missed the
point, with the pair conducting the matter rather like children
themselves. Katie Hopkins has wholly embraced the role of public
enemy and it’s no longer a great surprise to hear personal and
intensely rude comments from her on a wide variety of issues, often
around the matter of families and children. What is more surprising
is that people still bother to engage her in debate, whether in
person or online, since these inevitably turn into juvenile catty
competitions.

The
only people to benefit from this uncomfortable clash were gleeful
producers who saw their viewing figures soar. While Peaches might
have given a more convincing argument on set, the following social
media ranting proves her immaturity rather than a victory in a matter
that is actually quite personal to each parent. The verdict? A tap on
the wrist and early bedtime for both.