It was a tale of two cities. No... A game of two halves. He tweets, he scores… OK, we’ve all had enough of the lame football puns. But this stooshie between Gary Lineker and the BBC has been extraordinary. And it creates a bigger headache for the Conservative Party, who blundered into this and got absolutely humped.
We all know that if Lineker, right, had tweeted how much he liked the Tories, he would have been praised to the rafters, invited into No 10 and probably be offered a peerage against the opening strains of the MOTD theme tune. But he didn’t. Rightly or wrongly, he doesn’t like the Tories. The tricky issue for them right now is that not that many people do. And what are they going to do about it? Who are they going to go after next? Because it’s a really long list.
Forget the tofu-weaving wokerati, even once solid, reliable, “normal” traditional Conservative-minded people who run things across society from farmers to manufacturers to captains of industry are really pissed off. Can angry Tory Red Wall MPs (who, remember, are all massive champions of free speech) mobilise to sack all of them?
Last night a consultation which is trying to clamp down on what charities, including volunteers, can put on social media closed. These people are not as powerful as Lineker and we should all be concerned.
We see that at the BBC. Employees speak (off the record) of a real fear which hangs over them about the editorial line — don’t bash the Government too much. Don’t say Brexit has caused any damage. Be careful what you say about certain Tories.
We saw that with Fiona Bruce, who was an Ambassador for Refuge, a charity which supports the victims of domestic violence. She’s a super-intelligent woman who would have known the importance of language around discussing domestic violence and yet in that split-second on Thursday’s Question Time, you could see her panic over what the BBC internal repercussions would be if she didn’t jump in and qualify that it was just the one time when Stanley Johnson allegedly broke his wife’s nose. It cost her her role with the charity.
I think it’s rather unfair that Bruce has had more sanction over this than any of the Johnsons. You can see the political pressure hanging over the BBC because of the appointments of key people connected to the Conservative Party.
Whatever your politics, you should rage against our national broadcaster being dictated to as if we were China or Russia. It should speak truth to power whoever the ruling party.
And an incoming Labour government would be wise to remember this moment. Starmer (if he wins) will make many political appointments, but he also has a chance to clean up the system. A successful political party doesn’t need to smash up democracy or forbid dissent. Quite the opposite.
Perils of the holiday buffet
I’ve fnally gone on my first proper holiday in more than three years. It was much needed. I convinced myself that my trip had been pretty healthy (because I hit the spa for a massage) until I climbed on the scales this morning and they begged for mercy. Such is the peril of the full-board buffet.
At one point I noticed there were lots of people dining alone — solo travellers, perhaps? Not so. Their life partners had left them for dust as they dashed back for their seventh course (cheese plate, obvs). People lose it at the buffet. I saw all social norms and family structures break down. It was every man, woman and child for themselves, and that was just the dessert station. Like Squid Game, ironically involving some delicious calamari. If buffet Jenga was an Olympic sport, we’d be Usain Bolt. People just eating stuff off the hot plate with their bare hands, like scavengers who hadn’t seen food for… minutes. Thank God they only weigh the luggage on the way back!
