Freedom of Speech

[LuckyThatMyBreastsAreSmallAndHumble]

I wholeheartedly applaud Gary and his colleagues and the point they aren making.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CppR5IcshmF/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Feeling "fearful" of asking legit questions is just on a different scale for Women isn't it.

Gary does it and he gets supported by 99% of the country and all of his colleagues.

JKRowling does it and she gets cancelled by most of the kids who have made their names through her films & rape/death threats.

🤔

I am however thoroughly proud of the MOTD team. Well done to them! 👏👏👏

Gary was going along with left-wing fashion.

JK was going against it.

Personally I think Gary should come up with something new rather than just comparing everything to Hitler, but anyway.

The cynic in me feels that a load of blokes who probably have in their time said and supported all sorts of anti immigration comments, are just supporting him because he is a footballer and media star.

Like everything else in the UK at the moment, we no longer think laws apply to people we like, but of course expect them to be harshly imposed on those we dont.

The media has turned politics into a moral morass.

OP, I’ve been having the exact same thoughts about this. Speaking your mind, and taking a stand for your principles, is considered solidarity worthy when it’s not about something that challenges the prevailing sentiments and sensibilities of the ‘establishment’.

JK, Rowling though, however sincere her beliefs and concerns, is widely shunned and treated as a Cassandra (is denigrated as a Karen) and disbelieved.

Twas ever thus but I wish it weren’t 😒

I agree with Gary that Suella Braverman is stirring up hatred against migrants.

I also think that he is an ego-driven prick who has handed her a huge victory (on her terms). It's her fantasy result to be able to give the BBC a kicking and to show her supporters how much she is owing the libs.

owning

Can't stand the virtue signalling ( from anyone really ) from Lineker, i do however believe in free speech, however, where it gets a bit sticky here, i think, is whether his contract with the BBC stipulates that he has to remain politically neutral.
If it does, then he'd be in breech of contract, wouldn't he? ( i'm not a lawyer so just in lay womans understanding? )
If there is no such stipulation, then as much as i can't stand Lineker, he should be allowed to say what he likes in his own time.
Another problem for the BBC i think though, is that afaik, they have sacked/suspended other presenters for ' words ' and they can't hold people to different standards.

As has been pointed out, where is JKR's or KJK's free speech and where is the free speech of all the ordinary women who have something to say about the way things are at the moment, that's who i'm bothered about.

I don't think he's virtue signalling.
I think he's making a very good point!

I just think there's a big difference between the way his very good point is received and the way JK's have been.

BBC impartiality doesn't extend to someone who donated £400k to the Tory party and facilitated a £800k loan to the then prime minister, just before they were made Chair!

But are they broadcasting their every thought publicly, all over twitter every day, or are they getting on with their job in relative silence @LuckyThatMyBreastsAreSmallAndHumble ?

As an aside, i read an interesting thread on twitter earlier today...
The tweeter wasn't a tax expert, or lawyer, so how correct he is, i wouldn't like to say and to be fair to him, he said the same himself, however, as you know, lineker is in dispute with HMRC for over £4million.
The thread went somewhere along the lines of...
Iirc, lineker says he's not employed by the BBC but is a freelancer and therefore not duty bound to uphold their rules and regs out with his contract.
HMRC say different.
In order for lineker to try to prove his case, it is in his favour to make controversial statements in public, on twitter, or otherwise.
Anyhoo, you get the drift.
As i said, i'm by no means even a keen amateur lawyer, or accountant conversant with HMRC rules but it was an interesting thread and posed an interesting question, or two.

If Gary Lineker had come out and said that he supports the Farage approach to dealing with immigration or doesn't support BLM in terms of how it operates (rather than a principle) then I would expect many of those currently supporting him would be supporting the BBC against him.

I don't think this is really about free speech.

I agree. If the people applauding him really cared about free speech, they'd have been supporting JKR too.

And most of them were utterly silent.

Gary lineker is a sanctimonious tax avoiding misogynist prick.

www.theguardian.com/football/2023/feb/27/gary-linekers-lawyers-say-hmrc-tax-probe-looking-in-the-wrong-place

I've no idea why he's such a darling of the left.

Totally agree

I agree with you @nauticant

I don't think they'd be complaining about the political leanings of the bosses, had Jacqui Smith got the DG's job.
Even though allegedly, she agreed with gorgon brown, that those 11/12+ year old victims of the grooming gangs, had made a conscious decision to prostitute themselves and had therefore consented to being abused sexually!
I wonder if people would have raised their voices about that at all?
That's why i can't stand virtue signalling, it cancels the need for morals and principles!

And that's a very good point @EpicChaos. I'm self employed and I have to be able to demonstrate that I'm not an employee. What broadly constitutes being an employee is having a contract where you have to turn up at the same time every week and do the same thing. And you and your employers share an understanding that the role is yours.
What's he's done is demonstrate he is freelance. Instead of telling him to piss off for not coming in, they're trying to negotiate.

That's a genius Machiavellian move.

I'm glad that you are able to confirm a bit of what i posted at least @Clymene . You seem to have gathered my point anyway, which is good.
As i said, i have no clue as to HMRC rules, so it's helpful to have someone here that might be able to explain better if need be. That said, i did think the same as you, that if that was the case, then sly and machiavellien are indeed apt words. Obviously, i can't prove that's the case, so it's all conjecture but you never know do you, like with the film company that several footballers ( iirc ) started, that to my knowledge, has yet to make one single film but is a nice tax wheeze for some, i should think.

www.spiked-online.com/2023/03/11/so-this-is-your-free-speech-martyr-gary-lineker/

'Suddenly, Britain’s metropolitan elites seem to care deeply about freedom of speech. Having spent years calling cancel culture a myth, and calling free speech ‘freeze peach’ for some peculiar reason, they’ve now all rushed to the barricades. What was the turning point? What made the scales fall from their eyes? Was it that autistic boy in Wakefield being sent death threats for committing ‘blasphemy’? Was it the scores of gender-critical women sacked and shamed for believing in biological sex? No, it was the BBC’s decision to temporarily suspend Gary Lineker, alleging he breached impartiality rules when he took to Twitter to compare the Tory government’s Illegal Migration Bill with something out of Nazi Germany.'

I support free speech where the views expressed match with mine. Opposing ones? Not so much.

In case people have missed it, the row with other sports celebs refusing to appear on the BBC to show solidarity with Lineker has been referred to as "I'm Sportacus".

🤣

Good article.