Gary Lineker: Asylum policy comments and the BBC

[RyanUK]

Not exactly a surreal article but this has rattled me today:

Gary Lineker says he will 'keep speaking for those with no voice' after asylum row

The Match of the Day host was criticised for tweets he posted about the government's new asylum plan.

www.bbc.co.uk

Gary Linekar’s comments comparing asylum to Germany in the 30’s were not exactly good - but the reaction the BBC have taken to this shows the corporation has some deep problems throughout. I totally get that they have to remain impartial, but also feel they go a step too far to try and control those who have a personal Twitter account to air their views that is not affiliated with the BBC - just like Gary’s. Some BBC staff have a Twitter account where the username starts with @BBC - no doubt they are under stricter guidelines.

Their treatment towards Gary is out of touch, but they do nothing with Jeremy Vine on Radio 2. When he is not on the airwaves, he is forever regularly tweeting about cycling and is friends with a well known cyclist on Twitter who has built a profile to become nothing short of a nuisance on his bike in London, and on social media.

No wonder many have left the corporation to find their voice again - its close to a dictatorship, they are fishing out who they like to reprimand, whilst letting others work for them and getting away with the same behaviour away from their BBC duties.

Keep going Gary, and others.

 

[BarryZola]

That's easily sorted. Just don't renew his next contract and instead employ someone else who will do Match of the Day for a tenth of the price that they throw at him (for some unknown reason). People watch it for the football highlights, not for Gary's persona (he's not exactly fun to watch). He probably says a few hundred words at the most in each show that are just repetitions of what millions of fans have already been saying all day. Totally boring and unimaginative. It's got to be the biggest waste of over a million quid a year I've ever seen (apart from what the government threw away during Covid & HS2).

 

[rob666]

You do know he isn't a BBC employee don't you?
Freelance, not a News employee, can say what he likes.
And they can replace him at a moments notice.
And politicians setting what people in the public eye can say...now that is '30's Germany!
Cycling nuisance on Jeremy Vine... I trust you mean Cycling Mickey?
He is doing a great job for the police.
If people didn't repeatedly break the law on their mobiles or doing illegal right turns, he wouldn't be reporting them.
Not a naughty person, a person standing up to naughty people!

 

[BarryZola]

You do know he isn't a BBC employee don't you?
Freelance, not a News employee, can say what he likes.
And they can replace him at a moments notice.

Is that bit for me? If so, yes, I'm aware that he's freelance. But he'll still have some sort of fixed term contract. So they'll agree that he works on Match of the Day for the next 10 months or whatever it is and the payment will be agreed for his work during that period. When that comes to an end they'll either agree a new period of work or they can not renew his contract (or not agree a new contract, if you had your pedantic hat on) and instead choose someone else to work on the show.

 

[Craig]

I've moved this into an individual topic as the article isn't really surreal and not really in keeping with the Tavern's purpose. Please feel free to continue discussion here

 

[Connor98]

I view this as a bit of a nothing story. He didn’t specifically mention the word “Nazi “ as the Msm are suggesting. He definitely would have been better drawing comparisons to The Weimar Republic but I do understand his frustrations with current governmental policy. I just find it very odd that the so called free speech champions of the country are the first ones to shoot him down when he comes out with something that they don’t agree with?

 

[RicketyCricket]

Why is this headline news and not Hancocks leaked WhatsApp messages?

Great for the Tories that people are talking about Gary Linekar and not the real issues.

 

[Benzin]

I view this as a bit of a nothing story. He didn’t specifically mention the word “Nazi “ as the Msm are suggesting. He definitely would have been better drawing comparisons to The Weimar Republic but I do understand his frustrations with current governmental policy. I just find it very odd that the so called free speech champions of the country are the first ones to shoot him down when he comes out with something that they don’t agree with?

That's the hypocrisy of it all.

Free speech unless I don't agree with it.

And really the current immigration policy being mooted is very akin to some of the ideas that were bought into being in 1930s Germany.

Why is this headline news and not Hancocks leaked WhatsApp messages?

Great for the Tories that this is what people are talking about Gary Linekar and not the real issues.

It's amazing how quickly the Tories bury certain news stories like this. Classic distraction technique to avoid both the Hancock and this immigration bill.

Adding HS2 delays today continues the cycle, as people tend to be only interested in the latest news. Its why many towards the end of Partygate couldn't be bothered with it.

 

[Connor98]

There’s a fantastic piece by the author Michael Rosen that sums up the growing feeling of Facism in this current government…

I sometimes fear that
people think that fascism arrives in fancy dress
worn by grotesques and monsters
as played out in endless re-runs of the Nazis.

“Fascism arrives as your friend.
It will restore your honour,
make you feel proud,
protect your house,
give you a job,
clean up the neighbourhood,
remind you of how great you once were,
clear out the venal and the corrupt,
remove anything you feel is unlike you...

It doesn't walk in saying,
"Our programme means militias, mass imprisonments, transportations, war and persecution."

 

[jon81uk]

Something wrong when a football pundits tweet about the news is a bigger story than the news itself.

 

[Dave]

This feels like the government installed stooges in the BBC trying to stifle free speech.

It’s right that the news employees should not disclose their opinion (if only news papers had to meet the same standard), but there is no reason why the non-news employees should be stripped of their right to speak.

What’s next? Ian Hislop axed from “have I got news for you”?

 

[rob666]

Especially when he isn't an actual employee...
The real story is the Tories incapability to manage immigration for fifteen years.
Blame a commentator for commenting.

 

[RyanUK]

You do know he isn't a BBC employee don't you?
Freelance, not a News employee, can say what he likes.
And they can replace him at a moments notice.
And politicians setting what people in the public eye can say...now that is '30's Germany!
Cycling nuisance on Jeremy Vine... I trust you mean Cycling Mickey?
He is doing a great job for the police.
If people didn't repeatedly break the law on their mobiles or doing illegal right turns, he wouldn't be reporting them.
Not a naughty person, a person standing up to naughty people!

Well I wasn’t aware he was a freelance until all this.

Yes, I was referring to Cycling Mikey. Of course he wouldn’t be reporting people, but this is a bloke with nothing better to do. The Met are sick of him and just laugh at him (they’re a disgrace themselves anyway). I heard his dad was killed by a driver doing something illegal, it rattled him and made him start all this. Someone who I know on Twitter once did a freedom of information request for some of the claimed convictions he had racked up. The results that came back were hilarious. Of who he had claimed would get points or a conviction, only 12% of the cases turned out to be real, thus making his claims of people “he had convicted” false. The bloke is a liar through and through. Didn’t like it when I mentioned where he’s from…Biggin Hill. Oops, did I just repeat that.

I don’t condone violence but he has deserved some of the way people have reacted to him.

As for Jeremy Vine…so tempted to ring Radio 2 and give him a piece of my mind.

I've moved this into an individual topic as the article isn't really surreal and not really in keeping with the Tavern's purpose. Please feel free to continue discussion here

Thanks Craig, good idea to give it its own topic.

 

[John]

What's with this anti-cyclist rhetoric? I've no idea who this guy on twitter is but Vine is famously a regular on two wheels so it's hardly surprising he might sometimes express a desire to not die whilst cycling. To suggest this is somehow a breach of impartiality (or indeed, a political opinion at all) seems absurd.

 

[Tom]

"Stop the Boats", your latest three-word slogan because apparently that's all the brain can comprehend. Difference is, this time it's a message to themselves after 13 years of office.

 

[rob666]

Well I wasn’t aware he was a freelance until all this.

Yes, I was referring to Cycling Mikey. Of course he wouldn’t be reporting people, but this is a bloke with nothing better to do. The Met are sick of him and just laugh at him (they’re a disgrace themselves anyway). I heard his dad was killed by a driver doing something illegal, it rattled him and made him start all this. Someone who I know on Twitter once did a freedom of information request for some of the claimed convictions he had racked up. The results that came back were hilarious. Of who he had claimed would get points or a conviction, only 12% of the cases turned out to be real, thus making his claims of people “he had convicted” false. The bloke is a liar through and through. Didn’t like it when I mentioned where he’s from…Biggin Hill. Oops, did I just repeat that.

I don’t condone violence but he has deserved some of the way people have reacted to him.

As for Jeremy Vine…so tempted to ring Radio 2 and give him a piece of my mind.

Thanks Craig, good idea to give it its own topic.

Cycling Mikey...
The bloke is a liar through and through???
He highlights dangerous driving and people on mobile phones repeatedly...not lies.
He tries to stop people getting injured by incompetent drivers...voluntary community service.
"The Met are sick of him"...do you have the slightest shred of evidence for this...you clearly hate him...I have heard or seen nothing from the Met to support your claim at all.
"I don't condone violence, but he has deserved some of the way people have reacted to him"...sounds like condoning violence to me...sorry.
Hid dad died because of illegal driving...sounds like a genuine and fair reason to campaign to me...but I suppose he should just take it on the chin and let the car drivers keep breaking the law as they feel fit.
I don't care where he comes from, or the relevance of where he lives, but if pointing out his location makes you happy...keep biggin it up.
Keep it up Mikey, you are doing a cracking job.

 

[Rob]

The big fuss over Lineker just sums up so much about what is wrong with this country. The right wing press are using it to push their ongoing agenda against the BBC and Lineker (oh how they'd love to silence him) when most of the time they are crying out about free speech etc. But I guess in their view free speech doesn't count when it goes against their views and opinions. And apparently it was the top story on the BBC News at 10 last night, unbelievable!

Yes he works for the BBC, yes he is highly paid, and yes there are impartiality rules. But it's not as if he is making these comments on Match of the Day! I suspect if any action is taken over Lineker, the BBC will also have to cancel Have I Got News for You!

 

[Jonathan]

It's always strange how the 'free speech' crowd always rush to silence views they disagree with, isn't it?

 

[Connor98]

In other news, Sunak seems up to his head in it.

 

[Slugjc]

The big fuss over Lineker just sums up so much about what is wrong with this country. The right wing press are using it to push their ongoing agenda against the BBC and Lineker (oh how they'd love to silence him) when most of the time they are crying out about free speech etc. But I guess in their view free speech doesn't count when it goes against their views and opinions. And apparently it was the top story on the BBC News at 10 last night, unbelievable!

Yes he works for the BBC, yes he is highly paid, and yes there are impartiality rules. But it's not as if he is making these comments on Match of the Day! I suspect if any action is taken over Lineker, the BBC will also have to cancel Have I Got News for You!

Especially when BBC employee. Alan Sugar, is free to tweet whatever bullshit he likes about unions etc, without any consequence.


James O'Brien yesterday summoned it up best yesterday. There scared of Lineker, because the truth hurts.