The sheer, breathtaking hypocrisy of the Guardian

[RoyalCorgi]

The Guardian's chief sportswriter, Jonathan Liew, is supporting a boycott of the Afghan cricket team: "We are warned not to punish the richly gifted men’s team for the sins of their government, as if the dignity and humanity of 20 million Afghan women were simply acceptable collateral damage against the wider backdrop of Rashid Khan’s availability for the next T20 World Cup."

Just in case you were wondering, yes, this is the same man who thinks having men play in women's sport is just great, and that women who don't like it are all evil right-wingers and, in his own words, "giving some of society’s most marginalised groups a chance to express their talent doesn’t harm anyone. Because trans women are women. And sport, I’m afraid, is only sport."

They really are trolling us now.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/jan/07/afghanistan-women-cricket-icc-taliban

Perhaps someone could ask Jonathan Liew why he thinks Afghan women don't simply identify as men to resolve their horrendous situation.

Liew is a misogynist (or possibly just an idiot):

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/athletics/caster-semenya-news-gender-martina-navratilova-trans-cas-jonathan-liew-column-a8792861.html

But let’s follow this argument all the way through. Let’s say the floodgates do open. Let’s say transgender athletes pour into women’s sport, and let’s say, despite the flimsy and poorly-understood relationship between testosterone and elite performance, they dominate everything they touch. They sweep up Grand Slam tennis titles and cycling world championships. They monopolise the Olympics. They fill our football and cricket and netball teams. Why would that be bad? Really? Imagine the power of a trans child or teenager seeing a trans athlete on the top step of the Olympic podium. In a way, it would be inspiring.

Wow 😮

Ha love this🤣. If only it would work.

I actually can’t read The Guardian anymore. It was my paper of choice for most of my adult life but in recent years has become so truly ridiculous that I have even wondered if it is secretly controlled by a tory donor to repel readers.
They are obsessed with promoting sexual fetish and cram in trans ideology at any possible opportunity. Rarely a day goes by without at least one photo of somebody with blue hair. It feels like the Daily Mail for posh twats.
It is a sad loss.

What an absolute tosser he is for writing this.

Wow he really is an idiot!

It is very easy to call for something that will never affect him whilst standing up against the behemoth of Owen Jones is much more like hard work.

That actually made me do this face!

Liew is a misogynist (or possibly just an idiot):

Or, more probably, both - one doesn't preclude the other. I think he probably has the usual lefty male contempt for women when their rights might infringe on men's desire to do whatever they want - but virtue-signalling about women's rights in Afghanistan, which doesn't affect him or his wokebro mates one iota, is an easy win. And he's too stupid to see the contradiction.

Well this. He is the sort of weak willed, weak minded individual who just sways with whatever opinion will make his tribe like him most. Consistency and integrity are not important when being liked is at stake.

Yet he can't imagine what that would do to women and girls.

I can't bear to read it. My utter contempt for the Guardian (which I read for over 20 years until Cologne 2015) knows no bounds!

I imagine he doesn’t like all the “misogynist” comments that have come his way after the article referenced above. Bad for his image! Bad for his career! And sees this as a way to look like he cares about women. Do we think he really gives a shiny sh@t about Afghani women? 🤔

No, he doesn't, or he'd see the issue with women's sports.
Misogynistic AND crushingly stupid.

I can barely bring myself to click on links to the Graun these days (having read it regularly through my 20s and into my early 40s). It got a bit stupid around 2000, when it started to wind me up, but now it's like a parody of itself. 90% of the news is so coloured by the opinion of the journalist that you feel you need to go and fact-check the whole bloody thing.

If someone gave me a copy, I'd chuck into the log basket to use to light the fire.

Same as a lot of PP, the guardian has been the ultimate betrayal for me. Read it for best part of 25 years. Nope. No more. They have failed women and thrown us under the bus. And they still think they are the "better" newspaper. Ha. BBC is also coming close for me. I can't bear BBC news now.

The Sun - we want women for sex and cooking.

The Guardian - so do we but obviously we won't word it like that. In fact we'll use language to obfuscate and confuse.

He doesn't sound like he really gives a shit though. It's just a load of burble.

‘The Sun - we want women for sex and cooking.’

TBF to the Sun , they sponsor Briony Frost ( a female jockey) and when she was targeted by bullies inside racing were very vocal in her defence and in condemning the bullies. I was quite surprised when talking to some Sun readers at the races how vociferous they were in condemning the whole horrid saga, and they got their information from the Sun.

I've seen that quote from Liew upthread before. Talk about saying the quiet bit out loud! 😡What an arsehole that bloke is. There's actually plenty to agree with in that piece about other nations' reaction to Afghanistan, but, coming from him! This is a 'sports' writer who sees no value in women's sport, or indeed, in women at all.

Do you think women in the UK are as oppressed by the presence of transwomen in sport as women in Afghanistan are by the presence of the Taliban?

Do you think women in the UK are as oppressed by the presence of transwomen in sport as women in Afghanistan are by the presence of the Taliban?

Do you think transwomen in the UK are as oppressed by exclusion from female sport as women in Afghanistan are by the presence of the Taliban?

am amazed the graun is still going-who the hell buys it? anyone who counts them selves as centre left departed long ago, right wingers have never touched it so who does that leave? Assorted nutters and headbangers, which you might suppose would not be enough to carry it, but twitter shows just how many batshit mentalists are out there.

I think men are the issue in both cases. Both need addressing.

Do you think transwomen in the UK are as oppressed by exclusion from female sport as women in Afghanistan are by the presence of the Taliban?

This!