Some Comparisons

Benito Mussolini and Gary Lineker striking poses

Soccer pundit Gary Lineker dropped himself right in it when he compared the language used to launch the government's new asylum policy with that used in 1930s Germany.

In the same spirit, his balcony pose in a BBC News bulletin reminded me of more graphic analogy from that era.

The BBC said that the sports presenter was taken off their Match of the Day show after a row about the impartiality of Lineker's tweets claiming that he had breached its social media guidelines for tweeting about the government's new migration law.

Not wanting to be left behind, an increasing number of pundits are withdrawing their services in a show of solidarity for Lineker.

I see from his Twitter account that Lineker has 8.8M followers which may account for the outpouring of sympathy for the BBC’s top earner of over £1 million annually. 

By contrast Home Secretary Suella Braverman has a mere 120.9K Twitter followers.

From a Church Times tweet about another BBC casualty: "The BBC Singers is one of the leading advocates of choral music in the world, and their budget probably equals one sport presenter’s salary. The BBC corporate spin on it is beyond belief."

Sympathisers can sign a petition to stop the planned closure of the BBC Singers here.

The BBC previously announced that some of their News channel’s most famous faces, including Jane Hill, Ben Brown and Martine Croxall, were to be axed before the launch of a channel that combines international and domestic news.

For those of us who find the BBC's obsession with soccer completely disproportionate, some trimming of the seemingly endless number or presenters, commentators and reporters is long overdue.

The commentator John Motson  unwittingly summed up the problem in a quote from a tribute following his death. When the BBC apologised for a delay in presenting the News because coverage of a soccer game had overrun, Motson retorted, soccer is the news!

For too many he was right.