THIS country doesn’t agree on many things.

How to rescue our ailing economy... whether SATs are a good thing... if Peter Kay is funny anymore...

But there’s one thing that seems to have penetrated the national consciousness that’s as black and white as: winning the lottery = good/kicking kittens = bad – and that’s the wonder of Cheryl Cole.

I can’t think of anyone else who unites a nation in adoration at the moment as our Cheryl.

I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s the ginormous hair. Maybe it’s the squeaky little Geordie voice that tells everyone: “I think you’re absolutely brilliant” or “You’re gorgeous” (if they happen to look vaguely like Ashley Cole).

But whatever it is, one thing’s for sure: the country is head-over-heels in love with her.

Men fancy the pants off her, which ordinarily is enough to make women hate her. But strangely in Cheryl’s case this hasn’t happened, instead women are equally crazy about her, wishing she was their best friend.

Old people find her charming, and little girls want to be her when they grow up.

Even Simon Cowell, the world’s most powerful man (well, he acts like he is anyway) gazes at her like he’s staring into the eyes of his first-born. He’s mad about her.

Cheryl Cole is literally the best person in the world!

What’s strange about the creation of the national Cheryl appreciation society is how it’s snuck up on us. Not so long back Cheryl was known as “That Geordie girl off Pop Idol: The Rivals”. Then she was known as “That one out of Girls Aloud who punched a toilet attendant”.

But fast forward a few years and Cheryl is up there at the top of our love-list, way above the likes of Coleen Rooney and Abi Clancy, although she is strictly a fellow WAG.

And she’s by far the most famous member of Girls Aloud, no matter how many pictures of Sarah Harding falling out of nightclubs appear in the tabloids. Nadine must be gutted – she definitely thought she was top dog.

I vote Cheryl for Prime Minister. Cheryl for Queen. Cheryl for ruler of the universe. Or am I getting a bit carried away now?