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Drawing parallels with Nazi Germany is generally best avoided as it is often at best clumsy and at worst offensive. However, that is not what pushed his comments from being impartial to breaking the rules and also you can argue that he has a point.
This is quite simply a massive own goal from the BBC and I think he has received a lot more support than it was banking on. It had at least three days to suspend him and put alternative arrangements in place. Instead it reacted to media and government pressure and now there are no presenters or pundits left and some commentators have even pulled out. Clearly there was no plan.
We can all look forward to thousands of highly original and not all predictable tweets telling us ‘how great it was to be able to watch Match of the Day without having to listen to the BBC’s overpaid luvvies’. Many of them have probably already been written.
Do agree with Cork and Marlingford’s comments, everything is so polarised. As I often comment about issues on here, there answer is very rarely black or white and almost always lies somewhere in the middle. But everyone has to fall into neat pigeonholes- take the comments about ‘working people’ on this thread. They are not a homogeneous group that all thinks and acts the same. They, like any other group, have myriad opinions on everything from politics and Gary Lineker to what the best biscuit is.
“It could be argued this is a moral issue not a political one.”
I’d suggest it’s hard to separate the two, Homer, as there are people who consider themselves “moral” right across the political spectrum, yet many define “morality” in conflicting ways and that helps to define them politically.
Some sincerely believe all taxation to be immoral – that people should keep everything they earn and be free to spend it on themselves and, if they choose, their families.
Some believe poverty in any society to be immoral, and advocate heavy taxation of the wealthiest to fund public services for all.
Many lie somewhere in the middle on it yet consider themselves no less moral.
And that’s just tax – you can apply it to anything, including immigration.
Complicated business, political belief and morality!
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"I’m all for people expressing opinions.
I do wonder however the creation of social media and the problems and divisions it has caused between friends, families, even countries, with views right out in the open as it has highlighted polar opposites in people.
No one rarely wants to back down, and because statements and views are recorded in b&w gives sides time to counter challenge. And so it can go on and on, with ante’s being upped to try and win the argument.And in some cases the use and accusations can lead to courts, it’s become a very serious part of life.
Can’t say I watch MOTD anymore, but I might just tune in to take in a programme without the spiel of it’s lead hypocrite.
Football focus is canceled
any excuse as to not talk about Liverpool 7 Manchester United 0Gaelic Warrior Gold Cup Winner 2026
“…the lad, Line Acre”.
What are the different ‘factions’ getting all wound up about, exactly?
Is it the fact that he’s been effectively told to keep his political opinions to himself?
Is it because he’s a famous (and was a top class footballer) footie pundit and should be allowed to also express an opinion like anyone?
Is he breaching BBC impartiality guidelines?
Are all these footie players, ex-footie players, pundits, politicians in agreement with his comments over HMG’s small boats policy?
Seems like an ‘alliance’ of peeps, out there, are in support of the lad, Line Acre, but is it the political support or just the BBC’s take on all of this?
Freedom of speech to say anything (Piers Morgan opinion)
Bash the government (Alistair Campbell)
His mates, just because he’s their pal (Wrighty, Shearer)‘I normally don’t like “Whataboutery,” but while I don’t necessarily dispute Lineker may have infringed his agreement with the BBC, I have to wonder why other past and present people on the BBC payroll – Clarkson, Sugar and Neil immediately spring to mind – weren’t subject to the same contractual constraints.’
I agree whataboutery is rarely constructive but it’s a perfectly legitimate question to ask. If, as seems to be the case, Lineker has an enhanced responsibility due his salary and/or status then Clarkson was easily on that level too. Neil as one of their political heavyweights should surely have been bound by similar constraints. If all of those taking exception to Lineker truly cared about BBC impartiality then surely they would have objected to things those mentioned said during their time at the BBC.
It will I’m sure not be difficult to trawl the social media output of BBC stars and find political statements quite literally left, right and centre.
Still at least we can watch the football highlights without being subjected to Lineker’s opinions on politics. Oh, just like every other week then.
I hate to draw attention to this as she’s one of my favourite tv people at the moment but Deborah Meaden (sp) is incredibly political these days but there’s no talk of her not being allowed to be on Dragons Den.
The witch hunt against Attenborough and Lineker is diverting attention from the fact that the Chairman of the BBC is not impartial, hence the business of him arranging a loan for Boris.
If anyone should be sacked it should be the Chairman himself.
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I crawled on six crooked highwaysDumbo flapping away flew out of the relative safety of the spring atmosphere and up up and away, and was soon experiencing the juiciest of highs, but not to last, as he looked for a tin can whilst being pulled in and consumed by the Big British Broadcasting get your knickers in a twist black hole.
Rope me to an anchor and let Wright and Shearer run premier rings round me.
Through muffled breath and under the 20 stone weight of two ex footballers
” Tie me down before I GO GO “
Actually he hasn’t lost any of his goal mouth agility particularly around that worn area the dangerous mouth.
Lineker is not unlike a human spring he’s like a yo yo
Absolutely Purwell , it’s almost as if hes putting up a Tory like smokescreen ….
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
Under the Dublin agreement we could legally send people back to the first EU country they entered. However, because of brexit we can’t do this. I believe that Macron is pondering on whether this can be changed. Brexit didn’t take back control I’m afraid. And this governments cut backs on everything, border controls staff working on processing* etc hasn’t helped.
*I hate using that word…The two looked like long lost brothers. The cheerfulness may have been staged but it was effusive – what a show; bouncy steps, warm handshakes, smiles and a bag of readies for smashing the boats. The bilateral agreement in the stead of Dublin will not be coming quickly – we left remember and there are a few plotters like Macron who feel the punishment must endure for a while yet. More money might help. There’s a five month window of course to relocate back.
As they say in the song BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO but getting back together can prove even harder.“Under the Dublin agreement we could legally send people back to the first EU country they entered.”
Another way of looking at this Europe/UK issue is
Why arent ALL refugees being ‘processed’ (so to speak), and offered asylum, in their ‘first port of call’?How do they gain access to all the EU countries, then travel across a ‘few’, before ending up in N France and, then, The UK?
Baffling
“Ex” anythings usually love to put the boot in on their successors, but even so I think Greg Dyke had it about right.
Dyke, director general at the BBC 2000-2004, said: “There is a long established precedent in the BBC that if you are an entertainment presenter or a sports presenter then you are not bound by those same rules. The BBC has undermined its own credibility by doing this.”
Dyke added the move could create the impression that the “BBC has bowed to government pressure”.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"
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