Eamonn Holmes tells rape victim that she should have taken a taxi

For such an experienced media professional, Eamonn Holmes' foot has been hovering fairly close to his mouth quite a lot this year.

His reaction to the tragic death of 27 year old Amy Winehouse was to tout for business for Sky as I wrote at the time. 

I mean, what excuse is there to tweet this?

Today, on This Morning, he decided to give a rape victim a bit of kindly advice - expressing his hope that she'd take a taxi in future. I literally have no words to describe such utter crassness. Thankfully, though, Philippa Willitts, writing at The F Word, puts him right in no uncertain terms.

This seems as good a moment as ever to remind you of Rape Crisis Scotland's Not Ever campaign which seeks to tackle the victim blaming culture associated with rape.  No other crime victims have sympathy for them suspended while their actions are pored over to ensure that they didn't contribute to the horrendous violation that will cast a shadow over the rest of their lives.

Eamonn Holmes might actually learn something from this list of tips on how to prevent rape. I'd like to see him apologise and refer to some of these tomorrow on the show.

Ed Miliband on This Morning

I haven't watched This Morning in ages, but I randomly switched it on a few minutes ago to see new Leader of the Opposition being interviewed by Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby. This is the politician's equivalent of a cuddle. It's not what you'd call a Paxmanesque grilling.

Even so, every time Phil did have a bit of a go at challenging him, Ed looked like he was like a rabbit caught in the headlights.  If he can't cope with a fairly relaxed affair like this, he's going to find Prime Minister's Questions next week a bit of an ordeal.

From this interview today, we discovered that:

Ed was against the Iraq war, but he didn't doubt the motives of those who decided to carry it out - well, actually, I do. What were they thinking? They seemed more interested in blindly following the ideological Bush strategy than actually working out what was in the interests of this country and its standing in the World.

Ed doesn't like cuts, but he really doesn't think strikes are a good idea. He's giving the impression now of not wanting to be associated with the unions, whose votes handed him victory. He seems to be letting the Daily Mail dictate what he thinks rather than just be himself. This is never a good idea and he doesn't seem comfortable with it.

He thinks Labour made some mistakes on the economy, but David Cameron's a pessimist and it isn't really that bad, honest.

There was a bit of a comedy moment, and I expect a researcher is getting their ear chewed out as I write, when Phil asked Ed if he was going to get married to Jane. He rightly commented that Justine might be a bit annoyed if he did. And the answer was the right one - he isn't going to get married just to satisfy the Daily Mail, but because he loves her.

I was annoyed when Holly Willoughby thought it was legitimate to ask him whether it might be difficult for the Queen and the Pope to trust him because he's said he's an atheist. Frankly, if they do, then it's their problem. Faith, or lack of it, is no barometer of trustworthiness.

So Ed has now completed this rite of passage for a political leader. Holly and Phil then went from interviewing him to Keith Lemon. Their jobs are certainly never dull and predictable.

Watch Nick Clegg on This Morning

On Friday morning, Nick Clegg was interviewed on ITV's This Morning by Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford. He was good - pointing out when challenged on inexperience that we'd called a lot of the current issues of the day correctly, a long time in advance, and showing how the Liberal Democrats have made a difference on issues like the Gurkhas and the Speaker standing down.

You can see the whole thing here.