Susanna Reid is all that stands between us and nuclear Armageddon | Jack Bernhardt

As a people we often put too much emphasis on the importance of individuals in history. Churchill wasn’t the only person who stopped the Nazis. Henry VIII wasn’t the only person who turned England into a Protestant nation. Tony Blair wasn’t the only reason people stopped listening to Oasis. It’s very rare for one person, in fact, to be in such a uniquely powerful position, where their actions could change the course of history for ever. However, right now, there is one such person in the country, the last bulwark against tyranny and oppression, the last hope for liberal democracy. It’s not Theresa May, or Jeremy Corbyn, or Tim Farron. It’s Susanna Reid, co-presenter of ITV’s flagshipwreck show, Good Morning Britain. She, and only she, is holding this once-great nation together.

Susanna Reid became a household name in 2013 when she got to the final of Strictly Come Dancing alongside Kevin from Grimsby (last name unknown). That year she was at the height of her power. She was already the darling of BBC Breakfast and now she was the Queen of Jive too. The world was her shiny, glitterball oyster. So if you told her in 2013 that in four years’ time she would be doing much the same job but alongside the Worst Man In Britain, she might have been a little disappointed.

When ITV announced in 2015 it was inflicting Piers Morgan on Reid, I expected her to leave within months. It’s a baffling pairing. It registers at least 7.5 on the Inexplicable TV Double Act Spectrum (henceforth known as the Toksvig-Fielding Scale). She’s a thoughtful, intelligent interviewer; he bullies women on his sofa until they cry. She tweets about feminism and mental health charities; he gets trolled online by bookshops.

It’s clear ITV were trying to create an unlikely friendship, like the kind we often see in the nature section of the Metro, between a duckling and a giant ape. But this is more like a friendship between a duckling and a man who inexplicably hates ducklings. Morgan talks over her. He heckles her. He mocks her beliefs. If BBC Breakfast is like being woken up by friendly distant relatives who have read the papers, Good Morning Britain is like having a Harold Pinter play performed in your living room at 6am. It’s tense. It’s weird. It’s compelling. But at least you can turn off at any time – Reid is there from 6 until 8.30am, to the bitter, bloody end.

All of which begs the question – why does she stay? It’s not for fame – she’s still at that odd level of celebrity where you can’t remember if she’s the one that’s married to Frank Lampard or not (she’s not, that’s Christine Bleakley, I checked). It’s not for popularity – she is savaged regularly on Twitter for enabling Morgan’s offensive opinions. And to an extent, those furious commenters have a point – why is Reid, a proud feminist, working with Piers Morgan, the guy who had a man tantrum (mantrum) when he found out that the Women’s March was a thing?

But there’s the rub. It would be so easy for Susanna Reid to play the smiling, compliant host – grinning inanely as Piers Morgan shouts about gender-neutral skirts or how watching James Bond would be a good cure for suicidal, depressive men. She could just let it wash over her, like a warm bigoted bath. But she doesn’t. She calls him up on it. When he leers over Nicola Sturgeon’s legs, she shuts him down. When he foams at the mouth at the idea that transgender people exist, she shuts him down. And she does it every damn morning, knowing that he’ll never, ever change.

Why? Why would anyone sign up for this Sisyphean nightmare, pushing a rock up a mountain to shove in the mouth of a professional troll?

Reader … she does it for us. She knows what would happen if she were to leave, if she were to stop fighting. Morgan would make Good Morning Britain his American Apprentice, his media-base from which he could grab more power. Without Reid, Piers would demand the title be changed to “Good Morgan Britain”. He would replace every segment with 40-minute rants about how he saw someone in Brixton selling a gender-neutral hijab once. He would find more fans. Fans who become voters. Voters who sweep him into power. From there, it’s a short step to despotism, tyranny and everyone dying in a nuclear apocalypse because Prime Minister Morgan insulted Angela Merkel’s legs. All because Susanna Reid left Good Morning Britain.

Now it might be worth saying here that I have never watched an entire episode of Good Morning Britain. I’m pretty sure no one ever has. But that’s the point. I don’t have to sit through Good Morning Britain, because Susanna Reid is doing it for me. She doesn’t want praise. She doesn’t want pity. But we all need to recognise that sacrifice she has made. Her sanity, her happiness, her Twitter mentions – all destroyed for the Greater Good. She has thrown herself on the human bomb that is Piers Morgan. And for that, she deserves our undying gratitude and respect. Thank you, Susanna. You will always be my 2013 Strictly champion.