I like Gary Lineker (“I’m not antisemitic, I’m anti killing children”, TNW #446). As a Spurs fan he’s one of my football greats. I also think he has a right to speak out, and most things I can find common cause with.
However, with such immense popularity and reach comes a level of responsibility, which was clearly lacking with his tweet on Zionism. OK, I can accept that he didn’t see the rat emoji, but did he actually watch “Zionism explained in less than 2 minutes”? Did he wonder what the motives were of the original sender and does he really think that “Zionism” with all its complex meaning and historical context can be explained in two minutes?
Gary Lineker may not be antisemitic, and hopefully we are all anti the killing of children. But he fell into others’ antisemitic rabbit hole and somehow I just don’t think he still sees it.
Mark Nevill
With so many nasty negative characters about, spreading hate and discord, a little bit of hopefulness and the ability to connect with all sorts of people is just what we need. Gary Lineker seems to have that talent.
He is better off out of the BBC. At 64 it is time to go and work somewhere else, and in my experience working for yourself is a very good way to finish a career. You only answer to yourself in the end.
David Rolfe
I have always liked Gary Lineker but he was naive to think that he could work for the licence fee-funded BBC and continue to express strong personal opinions.
Adam Primhak
Suggested Reading
Gary Lineker: ‘I’m not antisemitic. I’m anti the killing of children’
Re: Paul Mason’s (“Corbyn’s new party will put Farage in No 10”, TNW #446). The new party’s plan for nationalised utilities sounds wonderful until you actually look at the figures involved. It would cost the taxpayer billions and we would still have the same polluted water.
The lack of support for Nato would leave Ukraine scuppered. These are not the ideas of anybody who is in contact with the reality of running a country. And I say that as somebody who voted for Corbyn because the alternative was even worse.
Ann Harries
Thanks to Corbyn, we got Brexit and PM Johnson. Now he’s going for the hat-trick with PM Farage.
Paul Shields
The fundamental flaw with Corbyn is that he’s not at all suited for frontbench politics, let alone leading a party. I don’t even mean that in a nasty way – it’s just that he seems incapable of separating his personal view from that of the collective cabinet or the party line. Hence his disastrous handling of Brexit. Being able to compromise is a key requirement of those roles.
Alastair Knight
The Bootle by-election in May 1990 saw the Monster Raving Loony Party beat David Owen’s SDP, thus finally hammering the last nail in their coffin. A similar scenario to the above is very likely re: Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s new outfit. I suppose one way to avoid such a future ignominious loss would be to suggest a merger with the loonies. Then again, the ex-Lord Sutch outfit would probably demur.
Robert Boston,
Kingshill, Kent
Corbyn has always been clear about his goals, with which I vastly agree. The reason that stops me from joining the new party is (allowing the danger of being ageist), his age. He won’t be a leader for long and that will destabilise the movement.
Karolina Hebel
How sad to read Paul Mason’s piece. Your paper has continually and rightly called for a stronger response from Starmer to Reform; something he has failed to deliver.
It is precisely Labour’s failure to stand up for working people and offer a left alternative that has led to Corbyn’s and Sultana’s actions.
Corbyn and his party will offer a sense of hope as opposed to Paul Mason’s sneering factionalism.
Neil Toyn
Like many other long-time Labour members and voters, I was hoping to have a really fresh start for this benighted country of ours, but what do I get? A money scandal about clothes and spectacles, cutting benefits, vacillation over Israel/Hamas, and a chancellor of the exchequer after my hard-earned pension to spend, perhaps on a nuclear powered HS2, sorry, generating station.
Alasdair Lawrance
I am no fan of Jeremy Corbyn, but Paul Mason overlooks the fact that, if they wanted to, Keir Starmer’s Labour government could ensure that Reform never get anywhere near power. It is only because of our antiquated and creaking First Past the Post electoral system, which may have worked moderately well back in the days of what was essentially a Labour/Tory duopoly, but which is utterly unsuited to a five- (or six-party system here in Scotland) that Reform and Farage have a chance.
It is not only to thwart Reform that Labour should bring in proportional representation, in line with other modern European democracies, but because it is the right and principled thing to do.
Nick Wray,
Coldingham, Scottish Borders
“The quiet road to an ugly Britain” (TNW #446) was another great article by Matthew d’Ancona and should send a chill down the spine of anyone who believes that Farage is an aberration whose popularity will inevitably wane, or that Reform is destined to go the way of the SDP.
I do, however, disagree about the issue of Labour and “delivery”. A largely overlooked report published in the Guardian just before the last election found that support for Reform was lower in areas which had benefited from Levelling Up funding in comparison to those which had not. The economy matters, but it is not global indicators which are important, like inflation or GDP, but how people feel.
If they feel neglected and impoverished, then they are likely to blame “others” who appear to be doing better. Labour is on the right lines by trying to deliver, it is just that it is not delivering enough, quickly enough to make a material difference to the lives of ordinary people.
Mark Grahame
While admiring and agreeing with Matthew d’Ancona’s analysis, he still seems to offer solutions all through the prism of the Labour Party. This doesn’t grasp the existential threat that the far right poses to the British way of life.
There are only two outcomes at the next election. Victory for reactionaries which will include Reform and the Conservative Party (not with Kemi as leader) or the victory of a progressive alliance involving the Labour Party the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party (if they don’t succumb to the populism of the left offered by Corbyn) as well – crucially – as liberal Conservatives such as Rory Stewart who are equally disgusted by the extreme right.
Existential threats require thinking outside of the box.
Brian Ronson
BELOW THE LINE
I couldn’t agree more with Sonia Sodha over Sandie Peggie (TNW #446). The spectacle of NHS Fife engaging in irrelevant character assassination in to deflect from their own failings has been stomach-
churning to watch.
HELEN DONALDSON
It would have been better for Sonia Sodha to wait for the tribunal to rule before commenting on the case of Sanie Peggie. In any case, references to “the elite circles in which gender ideology has gained so much traction” are too simplistic to explain what is going on both in this case and the wider politicisation of these issues and seem to feed positions exploited by the likes of Nigel Farage.
ROB ALLEN
I’m just returning from the Proms concert of Arvo Pärt’s music, as mentioned in TNW #446. Very restful and beautiful.
ALEXANDER BLACKBURN
I liked James Brown’s article about Newport County’s new, Spanish civil war-influenced, away shirt (TNW #445). I’d like to point out though, that east London’s Clapton Community FC were trailblazers in this regard.
In 2018, the club introduced a new away top in the colours of the anti-fascist International Brigade, which remains their away shirt to this day.
WILL GOBLE
