I never thought I’d defend Philip Green, but...

ONLY an extraordinary series of events and an appalling collection of people could put me in the position of defending Sir philip Green. yet somehow this has happened.

the old rogue has been vilified for dismantling a feminist-themed pop-up shop inside one of his stores. I don’t imagine he went around there and tore the plywood shelving to bits with his own bare hands, foaming at the mouth and roaring like a sea lion as he did so. yet that is the impression Scarlett curtis gives.

Miss curtis is the author whose book Feminists Don’t Wear pink (and Other Lies) was the focus of the pop- up at topshop’s flagship store in London. It is a collection of essays by 52 ‘ incredible women’. all the famous contributors — including helen Fielding, Keira Knightley, Saoirse ronan and Emma Watson — are friends of her parents, the film- maker richard curtis and broadcaster Emma Freud. So that was nice.

Scarlett has survived years of painful scoliosis, followed by post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. So she deserves plaudits for ensuring that the book’s royalties go to the UN charity Girl Up.

yet something went wrong in topshop, when the odd little display was dismantled after two hours. Miss curtis said this was on the personal orders of Green, whom she described as ‘ horrible’ and a briefcase carrying stooge who represents everything wrong with the evil patriarchy.

he said it was a genuine mistake and donated £ 25,000 to her charity. pretty decent of him, I thought. ‘a gesture that is not to be ignored,’ sniffed Miss curtis, who could not quite bring herself to say thank you for the cash.

She also wrote in a national newspaper that Green had ‘spent his career making millions from the likes of me’. hardly fair, considering one could say exactly the same thing about her father. Look, if she loathed Green so much, then she shouldn’t have been such a big hypocrite as to use his shop in the first place, then bleat about not getting an apology from him afterwards.

Meanwhile, the purpose of the book is to make teenage girls understand that the feminist movement might be ‘something worth getting involved with’.

Quite why the 23-year-old imagines they should listen to her is anyone’s guess, as her privileged position in life owes more to nepotism than feminism.

‘I live in a feminist bubble,’ she says. Well, it’s a bubble of some kind, that’s for sure.