Can the BBC ever recover from their latest humiliation?
The supposedly politically neutral British national broadcaster has taken the humiliating action of offering a grovelling apology to their politically biased football presenter, Gary Lineker. This action is likely to enrage a significant portion of the BBC’s reluctant license payers, many of whom are now likely to reconsider renewing their TV License if they weren’t already.
The BBC charges every household in the UK 159 GBP / 6,600 THB per year for the privilege of listening to the likes of Gary Lineker virtue signalling* at every opportunity. This time he took it upon himself to call out the Conservative Party’s recent announcement on how they will attempt to stop the influx of mostly Albanian economic migrants from illegally crossing the Channel and seeking an easy life somewhere in the UK.
*Virtue signalling is the popular modern habit of indicating that one has virtue merely by expressing disgust or favour for certain political ideas or cultural happenings.
UK Government statistics show that nearly half of the recent arrivals are coming from the peaceful Mediterranean country of Albania:
“From May to September 2022 Albanian nationals alone comprised 42% of small boat crossings, with 11,102 Albanians arriving by small boat in those five months. In contrast, over the whole of 2021, there were a total of 815 Albanian nationals who arrived by this method. In some weeks over the summer, more than half of small boat arrivals claimed to be Albanian.”
Lineker compared this action by the UK Government with that of 1930’s Nazi Germany, causing great offence to the many holocaust survivors and those who suffered under the rule of the Nazis. His comments even left one politician asking, “So, if I support Suella Braverman’s opinion, does that make me a Nazi?”
Bear in mind, the new proposed rules will not impact genuine migrants entering the UK legally, only those that break the law and enter illegally.
So what has been learned from this whole fiasco? Of course, it depends on who you ask, and in a heavily divided UK, those of a left-leaning stance will call it a victory for free speech and a defence against cancel culture. Whilst those centre of right will likely call it yet another example of hypocrisy dished out by the woke left (you’ll never guess which side this author is on).
At least he has the support of disgraced former First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), Nicola Sturgeon and 93,000 of her loyal followers.
Hang on, didn’t Gary Lineker get paid 1.6m GBP / 67 million baht to present the World Cup in Qatar? But what of the near slave-like conditions endured by the construction workers who built the stadiums? Apparently, that doesn’t matter when you’re being paid an obscene amount of money! At least he got to virtue signal a little as the coverage began – his monologue drew attention to the fact that homosexuality is illegal in Qatar and women’s rights are stifled etc. Strong morals.
So will the BBC revoke its license fee and therefore give up its requirement for political impartiality as it brings in millions from advertisers? Highly unlikely. In fact, it’s more likely to go the other way and just change its rules to allow the likes of Lineker to say whatever he wants on social media – so long as it matches with The Left’s narrative (pro-immigration, pro-climate change, pro-lockdown, pro-trans, pro-sex education to 11 year olds).
Somewhere in a parallel universe, the BBC has just appointed Gazza as the main presenter of Match of the Day!
