23 favourite things people are saying about Gary Lineker right now
We wait to see whether Gary Lineker will be shown the red card by the BBC for the sin of expressing entirely valid concerns about the government’s new immigration policy.
Lineker, you’ll remember, said this on Twitter …
Good heavens, this is beyond awful. https://t.co/f0fTgWXBwp
— Gary Lineker 💙💛 (@GaryLineker) March 7, 2023
There is no huge influx. We take far fewer refugees than other major European countries. This is just an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s, and I’m out of order?
— Gary Lineker 💙💛 (@GaryLineker) March 7, 2023
… prompting no end of furious indignation from the usual (and painfully familiar) suspects. Here’s the front page of the Daily Mail on Thursday (that’s not Lineker, it’s the Princess of Wales)
Support came in from unlikely sources.
Bad news @GaryLineker – I’m your defence. 👇👇 https://t.co/1XEniEhFyO
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) March 8, 2023
I’m doooooomed 😂 https://t.co/VFzJbUdvUm
— Gary Lineker 💙💛 (@GaryLineker) March 8, 2023
And Lineker, just as you’d expect, was not for turning.
I have never known such love and support in my life than I’m getting this morning (England World Cup goals aside, possibly). I want to thank each and every one of you. It means a lot. I’ll continue to try and speak up for those poor souls that have no voice. Cheers all. 👊🏻
— Gary Lineker 💙💛 (@GaryLineker) March 8, 2023
The whole thing is prompting no end of comment on Twitter today, and we’ve read them all – well quite a few of them, so you don’t have to, and here are our favourites.
1.
The number one story on the BBC News at Ten is Gary Lineker’s tweet. Not the illegal migration bill, Gary Lineker’s opinion on it. That is totally, totally fucking insane.
— Tom Peck (@tompeck) March 8, 2023
2.
The idea that the likes of @GaryLineker should just sit by and be silenced while bad people enact terrible things is the very way that far worse things begin.
— Otto English (@Otto_English) March 8, 2023
3.
So…
It is not ok for Gary Lineker to be actively anti-government
But it is ok for the BBC Chairman and the BBC Director General to be actively pro-government
Because, as far as I’m aware, our license fees pay the wages of all of these people…
— Marina Purkiss (@MarinaPurkiss) March 8, 2023
4.
Andrew Neil helped front the BBC's political coverage for many years while also regularly sharing his own (very right-wing) views on Twitter. It never once splashed newspaper front pages, or led BBC news bulletins
— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) March 9, 2023
5.
The BBC is no place for people with strong political views. Unless they are the Chairman, Director General or a board member.
— Parody Rishi Sunak (@Parody_PM) March 8, 2023
6.
Important to note how close to complete the Brexit right’s stranglehold on the UK media now is. How else could a *sports broadcaster* with a big Twitter following have them all clutching their pearls & clucking like chickens? It’s not dissent they’re terrified of, it’s the truth.
— James O'Brien (@mrjamesob) March 9, 2023
7.
That we might get a Sir Stanley Johnson instead of a Sir Gary Lineker tells you all you need to know.
— Danny Wallace (@dannywallace) March 8, 2023
8.
The BBC is eating itself; leading its 10pm news on a controversial tweet by its football presenter rather than on the the issue at stake.
— Mark Austin (@markaustintv) March 8, 2023
9.
Dear BBC, a gentle reminder that this is written on the side of your fucking headquarters. If I were you, I’d be sacking the chairman who withheld the truth, NOT the presenter who told it. pic.twitter.com/IFhFwM0fa9
— Count Binface (@CountBinface) March 9, 2023
10.
John Humphrys just said that the BBC made @GaryLineker famous. I know nothing about football but
— jennylandreth (@[email protected]) (@jennylandreth) March 8, 2023
11.
Shame to hear a journalist @matthewsyed not supporting freedom of speech re @GaryLineker. I was brought up to believe it was fundamental that every journalist should believe in that. But it seems freedom of speech for some, not all.
— Jeff Stelling (@JeffStelling) March 8, 2023
12.
https://twitter.com/mrdavemacleod/status/1633740727116001280?s=20
