Almost exactly a year ago, the England and Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford scored a great victory. It wasn’t on the pitch. It was at Westminster.
Rashford had launched a campaign against child poverty to ensure that every child could have a free school meal if they were hungry. He had been talking about the issue for months, but once he became publicly an anti-poverty campaigner, some of the less politically acute Conservative party MPs were unimpressed.
“Would it be ungenerous to suggest Rashford should have spent more time perfecting his game and less time playing politics,” was the reaction from Natalie Elphicke, the MP for Dover. Her comment was not merely “ungenerous”. It was politically stupid. A top-flight footballer can care about child poverty as well as about scoring goals. Following a public backlash, Ms Elphicke apologised. This was an instructive moment in British politics.
Football is an important part of British national culture. Footballers make an impact on people who ordinarily would not be interested in politics. Rashford’s campaign resulted in free school meals for children from poor homes including those who (in government jargon) had “no recourse to public funds”. The Conservative government extended the campaign to children whose parents’ immigration status prevented them from accessing mainstream benefits. The right to a free meal would be made permanent and to many people, Rashford is a hero.
But the initial negative reaction to Rashford is instructive because another star British ex-footballer and popular BBC TV commentator Gary Lineker is also embroiled in a fight over comments about politics.
Footballers make an impact on people who ordinarily would not be interested in politics
Lineker criticised British government policy announced last week aimed at stopping migrants from crossing the Channel in small boats. Lineker tweeted (accurately) that rhetoric from government ministers about a huge influx of migrants made little sense. The UK takes far fewer migrants than other European countries, and the new supposedly hardline policy is divisive and will be challenged in the courts. Lawyers suggest it is in contravention of the European Convention of Human Rights. Lineker tweeted: “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.”
It’s big news because Lineker presents one of the BBC’s most popular and much loved football programmes, Match of the Day, with viewing figures for Premier League football games in the millions. The BBC was sufficiently alarmed by Lineker’s comments that it claimed he had “stepped back” from his presentational role, though Lineker said he was told he could not present the programme.
Result? Nil-Nil on Match of the Day, nil presenters, nil programmes. Lineker’s co-presenters and others refused to work and the programme was taken off air. More widely, BBC staff were extremely unhappy, but – failing to learn from the example of the hapless Ms Elphicke, some Conservative MPs appeared to gloat at Lineker’s misfortunes. Scott Benton celebrated Mr Lineker "finally" being "shown the red card”. The party’s deputy chairman, Lee Anderson, said Lineker needed time to "reflect", and that he "receives a large amount of money from the great British public – the majority of which do not share his views”.
Well, we shall see. But the resulting row has left the BBC in a very odd position.
In the several decades when I worked (happily) for the BBC, there were frequent rows with governments. Former prime minister Margaret Thatcher loathed the fact that BBC journalists sometimes interviewed supporters of the IRA in Northern Ireland. Tony Blair, another ex-prime minister, argued strongly with the BBC over coverage of the 2003 war in Iraq. Other government ministers and the BBC have historically had many public disagreements. But this one is different.
Most of the previous political rows involved the BBC’s top leadership or journalists being accused of being too critical of controversial government policies. The row over Lineker is exactly the opposite. It made the BBC look as if it was acting as an arm of the government itself. The BBC has now backed down. It reinstated Lineker and said there will be a review of what presenters can or cannot say on social media.
But whatever the review decides, the BBC has a far more significant problem. Its current chairman, Richard Sharp, is a Conservative party donor. He was appointed to the job by former prime minister Boris Johnson in circumstances that are extraordinary. Mr Sharp assisted in Mr Johnson being provided with a loan of £800,000 ($973,000). Mr Johnson then gave Mr Sharp the chairman’s job. Nobody, apparently, did anything wrong here.
Well, we shall see.
There are increasing calls for Mr Sharp to resign, and whatever credibility he once had is much diminished, raising all kinds of questions. What does it say about the BBC’s “impartiality” if a football commentator gets into trouble for speaking out about human rights, while its chairman has donated £400,000 to the governing party? What does “impartiality” mean for the BBC, under such circumstances, if anything? Lineker is back in his job. Mr Sharp is still in his. I’m not sure that situation can continue for long.
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ASHES FIXTURES
1st Test: Brisbane, Nov 23-27
2nd Test: Adelaide, Dec 2-6
3rd Test: Perth, Dec 14-18
4th Test: Melbourne, Dec 26-30
5th Test: Sydney, Jan 4-8
The specs: Lamborghini Aventador SVJ
Price, base: Dh1,731,672
Engine: 6.5-litre V12
Gearbox: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 770hp @ 8,500rpm
Torque: 720Nm @ 6,750rpm
Fuel economy: 19.6L / 100km
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
THE DETAILS
Deadpool 2
Dir: David Leitch
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Justin Dennison, Zazie Beetz
Four stars
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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The years Ramadan fell in May
THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Company profile
Company name: Suraasa
Started: 2018
Founders: Rishabh Khanna, Ankit Khanna and Sahil Makker
Based: India, UAE and the UK
Industry: EdTech
Initial investment: More than $200,000 in seed funding
Tips for job-seekers
- Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
- Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
Results
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Winner: Right Flank, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson.
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Winner: Leading Spirit, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar.
3.45pm: Jebel Ali Mile Group 3 Dh575,000 1,600m
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Winner: Ode To Autumn, Patrick Cosgrave, Satish Seemar.
4.45pm: Shadwell Farm Conditions Dh125,000 1,200m
Winner: Last Surprise, James Doyle, Simon Crisford.
5.15pm: Handicap Dh85,000 1,200m
Winner: Daltrey, Sandro Paiva, Ali Rashid Al Raihi.
Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
