[davidjay]

Alan Shearer's refusing to appear on MotD as well. Footballers are becoming the conscience of the nation.

[Abernathy]

Extending the war on woke to Gary Lineker, Attenborough and Ian Wright is a brave decision, minister. Why not have a dig at Michael Palin, Ken Bruce and Sally Phillips while you’re at it.

To say nothing of Alan Sugar, whose partisan tweets, notably attacking the RMT leader Mick Lynch, pass with nary a word. Rank, rank, rank hypocrisy.

[Youngian]

Someone from Talksport will have to fill in

[Rosvanian]

Sitting here, in Gateshead, supping a glass of Timothy Taylor's Landlord and having just finished cooking tea whilst listening to a quite brilliant 5 Live Drive on the BBC, I've never hated the Tories and their wicked media enforcers more than I do at this moment in time. We truly are in a battle of good v evil.

[satnav]

How does Tory Peer Karren Brady get away with combining her appearances on the Apprentice with churning out right wing anti-immigration articles in 'The Sun'.

[The Weeping Angel]

Yeah nice one auntie. Honestly talk about a bunch of cowards.

[Oboogie]

Fucking cowards.

Yes, but they are winning.

[The Weeping Angel]

Fucking cowards.

Yes, but they are winning.

How is the BBC winning?

[The Weeping Angel]

[Youngian]

Sky’s chief sports commentator not sitting on the fence.

[Youngian]

Fucking cowards.

Yes, but they are winning.

How is the BBC winning?

Sounds like a disaster for the BBC. Can’t recall a presenter strike in support of a colleague on this scale before. Didn’t happen for Frank Bough.

[Andy McDandy]

Aside from the likes of James Whale (a guy who personifies zero effort and zero interest in what he's doing) banging on about "reading out the football scores", I'm pretty sure Lineker has more of a fan club than Braverman.

Also, Streisand effect, folks.

[Bones McCoy]

Maybe BBC will get Rachel Johnson to present.

[kreuzberger]

What Armsteen and I have been banging on about, in splendid isolation, for - four. fucking. years.

Get it now?

(OK, we didn't have the Boy Line-Acre as the boiling spoonful of crack which would be the wake-up call, but anyway. )

[Oboogie]

Fucking cowards.

Yes, but they are winning.

How is the BBC winning?

They're not, the BBC are finished because the great British public have been played by the Tories yet again.

[Oboogie]

It's Brexit all over again. If the public side with the Tories against the BBC, it doesn't bode well for state education or the NHS. Always remember who's pulling the strings.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Going to be quite the audience boycott tmrw if the show goes ahead.

Doubtless some “virtue signalling” by elements of the crowds too.

[Oboogie]

And that'll be the evidence the government needs, 'the BBC aren't in tune with the public because it's too 'woke', which is why it must be sold to Murdoch immediately'.

[Tubby Isaacs]

It's Brexit all over again. If the public side with the Tories against the BBC, it doesn't bode well for state education or the NHS. Always remember who's pulling the strings.

He’s a busted flush in the UK. The Mail is miles ahead of The Sun, and The Times has paywalled itself to irrelevance unless it breaks something that the others pick up. Lots of its stuff lately has been corruption stuff the Guardian ran with. (Though not to overlook the awful drip of trans bashing).

He looks like an old man keeping up the newspapers so he can show his kids/ grandkids around them and bore them with stories about the old days.

[Abernathy]

It seems to me that the BBC’s reliance on its impartiality guidelines to justify its suspension of Gary Lineker and its suppression of the important views of Sir David Attenborough in the final programme of his new television series is flimsier than a cheap suit.

It is the concrete manifestation of something that those of us who cherish the BBC as the finest state broadcaster on the planet have long dreaded under the governance of the Conservative Party for the last 13 years : the corruption and manipulation of the corporation blatantly to suit the purposes of the government, viz, to crush and suppress all criticism of this government’s political agenda, and the exposure of the damage that these 13 years have wrought on the UK, in so many ways.

In Lineker’s case, it is transparently obvious that the problem is *not* that Lineker, a sports presenter, has breached impartiality guidelines. It is that he has expressed a critical *personal* view of an aspect of the government’s policy agenda that is not merely critical, but tellingly, accurate. The proposed “Illegal Immigration Bill” *is* insufferably cruel in intent, and *will* impact some of the most vulnerable people in the world. The language and rhetoric deployed by the hamster-faced fascist (thanks, Kreuzberger) that is the UK Home Secretary *is* reminiscent of the type of language that was deployed in Germany in the 1930s.

BBC impartiality guidelines are nothing more than a front for an attempt to silence otherwise legitimate criticism. And that is a disgrace. Over 13 years in government, Tories have in effect hamstrung the national broadcaster in the name of the propagation of their own warped political ideology. The Director General of the BBC, one Tim Davie, appointed by the government, is a member of the Conservative Party and former Conservative councillor and donor. The BBC’s new Chairman, Richard Sharp, was appointed to his post shortly after facilitating a loan of £800,000 to Boris Johnson. Coincidence? Aye, right.

Those of us who value and cherish the BBC should be deeply concerned, and very angry, at the outrages being perpetrated by this government on the national broadcaster by proxy.