Because they would spread the venom to destroy you, essentially. Clifford is scum. Scum's scum. Don't forget he tried to rehabilitate the public image of another so called national treasure when he was exposed as an adulterous, drug addicted, alcoholic man who shat all over his wife when he announced he was actually gay and never said sorry dor a man found dead in his swimming pool. Barrymore.

"Tried" is the operative word. He didn't succeed.

Yep. And after his despicable Big Brother performance, he vanished.

TBH, I never got why Barrymore was so revered. His brand of comedy was based on humiliation.

I never liked him.

Shame we're not all blessed with the benefit of 20-20 hindsight such as these omnisicient comms all seem now to possess though, innit?

Terrible shame.

McKenzie was the one who went with Clifford's story about Mellor making love in his Chelsea strip.

I think the term 'feared' is key here.

Over the last few years I have been fascinated with the enthusiasm of procyclist Lance Armstrong's former colleagues in skewering him. The reason is quite simple, I think: Armstrong was a horrible bully. Those who stood up to him were bought down and had their careers ruined. So those who saw it happen were both afraid to speak up, and resentful at not being able to feel like good, decent people. Resentful of being made complicit in his nastiness.

(Not to mention aware that they were complicit, and wanting to avoid responsibility).

So once his power was lost (primarily because he retired and could no longer keep close tabs on people), the hatred and resentment came gushing out.

None of this men had a conscience. If you chose to take them on you had to be quite as ruthless as they were or they'd win.