Until the end of last year I had never heard of, or maybe had swiftly forgotten, the ‘influencer’ Andrew Tate, writes columnist Rob Barman.

He obviously failed to exert much influence (probably because I’m at least four times the age of his usual target audience).

Now it’s hard to avoid the man, even with Prince Harry’s spectacular efforts to hog the media limelight in recent weeks.

For those also living in a parallel, Tate-free, universe - and with due thanks to Google - he is the former kickboxing champion, Big Brother contestant and ‘self-styled misogynist’ currently detained in Romania as a part of an investigation into sex crimes and human trafficking, which he denies. So you weren’t missing much.

Even if you don’t take the serious criminal allegations into account, the comments attributed to Tate on his various social media channels show this is a man who doesn’t deserve to be taken seriously. Yet he seems to have sparked something of a moral panic, such is his apparent influence on his more receptive target audience of teenage boys.

The BBC even carries online advice on ‘How to talk to your child about Andrew Tate’ and he was the subject of a question in parliament, with Rishi Sunak assuring the house that the proposed Online Safety Bill would help put an end to the influencer’s dastardly deeds.

According to another BBC report, some schools are “putting out guidance on how to talk about Tate, as part of a concerted attempt to tackle his influence.” I can’t help feeling that teenagers will enjoy these well-meaning lessons more than they actually learn from them. and few things will make someone seem exotic and dangerous more than a teacher telling you he must be avoided.

'The best way of dealing with characters like Tate has always been to put the moral outrage to one side and just laugh at them...'

Unless you’re the police, surely the best way of dealing with characters like Tate has always been to put the moral outrage to one side and just laugh at them. It’s what we used to do whenever we were confronted with any ludicrous public figures, from Hitler-lite fascist leader Oswald Mosley to snooker presenter turned loopy prophet David Icke.

There’s certainly plenty ripe for ridicule in Tate’s kimono-wearing, cigar-smoking macho posturing, bizarre conspiracy theories and dark mutterings about ‘The Matrix’. Plus, moral outrage seems to greet pretty much everything these days, so any anger over Tate’s corrupting powers is probably getting lost in the wash, along with his silk dressing gowns.

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