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Why the Lineker Saga Will Accelerate the BBC’s Demise

by Nick Dixon
12 March 2023 4:00 PM

Patrick O’Flynn has an interesting take on the ongoing Lineker saga in the Spectator, suggesting it could accelerate the demise of the BBC. Here’s an excerpt:

I never expected staff at an entire department of the BBC to put their shoulders to the wheel of the campaign to bring about an early demise for the television licence fee. Yet that is what those working for BBC Sport have done with their rock-solid sympathy strike on behalf of Gary Lineker.

Of course, most of them probably don’t realise what they are doing. With many of the big names of BBC Sport being former professional footballers themselves, one should not expect a particularly exalted level of intellectual reasoning.

But if they help Lineker win the right to continue engaging in hyperbolic left-wing tweeting while being the BBC figure paid most loot by TV licence fee-payers, they will surely hasten the end of the compulsory fee.

BBC director general Tim Davie – effectively its editor-in-chief – has previously reminded Lineker about his responsibility not to compromise the corporation’s impartiality via his social media utterances. Lineker, by contrast, has expressed zero remorse for his latest infraction and has even pledged to carry on in the same vein. So it looks like a fight to the finish.

Let’s be clear: in his outburst over the Government’s Illegal Migration Bill, the Match of the Day presenter did not merely say he was against the legislation and thought we should do better by new arrivals in the country.

He invoked bad faith and extremism on the part of those advancing or supporting the measures, branding them “beyond awful” and “immeasurably cruel” before even getting on to his ludicrous comparisons with 1930s Germany. This is, to use a footballing analogy (the only one this article will contain, I promise) tantamount to going in on an opponent two-footed and with studs showing.

Early polling from YouGov on Friday found that half of people support the core policy in the Bill – that anyone arriving illegally should be removed from the U.K. and not allowed to return, compared to 36% opposing it and 14% expressing no opinion.

So Lineker has branded at least half of those who fund his BBC wages via the licence fee as morally bankrupt and akin to Germans who went along with Hitler’s persecution of minorities.

There is no way that a compulsory universal licence fee can support that level of factionalism among its prime beneficiaries.

O’Flynn goes on to argue that a universal broadcaster is an obsolete notion in an era of such radical division.

We live in an increasingly polarised era when it comes to politics. Ideas that once commanded near-universal support, such as heightened compatriot obligation being the very basis of a nation state, are now actively and fiercely contested. In the case of the new legislation, that ferocity is even directed against the principle of it being reasonable for a nation to fend off illegal breaches of its borders.

We also have intensifying geographic and demographic-based concentrations of opinion on either side of this basic values divide. Anyone who had the pleasure of wandering round various London TV studios on June 24th, 2016 (the day after the EU referendum result) as I did, would have been in no doubt about the overwhelming preponderance of distraught Remain voters to be found within the broadcast media in general.

So the defenders of Lineker’s right to be politically partial, hyperbolic and abusive are in effect arguing for those of a conservative mindset to be forced to pay the wages of someone who insults them. If Lineker gets to win his face-off with Davie then by extension this will apply to many other left-leaning BBC household names too.

Can they not see that this simply isn’t a credible way forward for a broadcaster that is supposed, in the words of its recent promo, to belong to “all of us”? 

Worth reading in full.

Stop Press: Saturday’s Match of the Day sans Gary Lineker saw its audience increase 23.4% compared to last week. Guido Fawkes has more:

Match of the Day was watched by 2.58 million TV viewers on BBC One. Up nearly half a million on last Saturday’s figure of 2.09 million according to the BARB overnights. This was the show’s biggest audience this year.

Worth reading in ful.

Tags: BBCFree SpeechGary LinekerImpartiality GuidelinesLicence FeeTwitter

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31 Comments
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Prole
Prole
2 years ago

In short, no. This storm in a tea cup will not speed up the the demise of the BBC. The establishment know how powerful the BBC can be at spreading half truths and Propaganda to help their causes. The BBC coupled with Ofcom are their most effective tools.

Last edited 2 years ago by Prole
110
-5
GroundhogDayAgain
GroundhogDayAgain
2 years ago
Reply to  Prole

I’m all for scrapping this. I hate the arrogance of the license fee. It’s explicitly for funding the Beeb, but the stipulation that watching any incoming live channel makes you subject to this charge is laughable.

If we stop finding it, I’m sure gates et al would step in. They like owning media companies. Yet at least the money trail would be overt and so would their bias.

52
-2
GroundhogDayAgain
GroundhogDayAgain
2 years ago
Reply to  GroundhogDayAgain

funding…
damn autocorrect

12
-1
Boomer Bloke
Boomer Bloke
2 years ago
Reply to  Prole

Yes, I thought that the conservatives were a bit wobbly on the BBC fir a while there, but their role in the covid scam seems to have cemented their position at least fir a while.

31
0
Prole
Prole
2 years ago
Reply to  Boomer Bloke

I’m afraid that the TV Tax will never disappear. It may transform into being taxed at source, but I can’t conceive of a time when the BBC will ever go subscription. This isnt just about covid lies or propaganda. It covers wide ranging issues, from Net Zero propaganda to breaking down National pride to so called ‘anti-racisim’ (or as it should be known anti white racisim) etc etc. This is not a battle that the spineless tory government are willing to fight, nor have they got the power to take on the civil service, which seems to have more power than any government, or that we give them credit for. The BBC is here for good unfortunately, whether we like it or not.

Last edited 2 years ago by Prole
34
-5
Smudger
Smudger
2 years ago
Reply to  Prole

My TV tax has disappeared – I simply don’t pay it.

5
0
JXB
JXB
2 years ago
Reply to  Prole

Correct.

BBC Ltd was originally a private company owned by a consortium of radio and TV receiver manufacturers. They paid for the service by incorporating a fee in the selling price, but they just were not selling enough sets fast enough to cover increasing costs.

Radio transmission are a public good (in the economics sense) therefore the licence fee was, at first, the only way to provide enough funding for BBC Ltd. It is in fact a receiver licence not a fee per se to watch the BBC, but a licence to receive ALL broadcast radio transmissions. At the time of course there was only the BBC.

War came and the consortium saw BBC Ltd as non-money making, so were happy to hand it over to Government.

However, post-war, it became clear that using sponsorship and commercial advertising (as in the USA, and later ITV in the UK) resolved the public good issue.

The justification to keep the licence fee, and opposition to commercial ITV at the time) was the Government and the clever folk, would lose control of what the population might see and hear – particularly important in times of national emergency.

No Government will willingly give up control of the BBC. It could be achieved easily by introducing encryption and subscription fee, then privatising it. It should have been done by Thatcher in the 1980s along with other State owned loss-makers, and the NHS, but…

Last edited 2 years ago by JXB
6
0
Boomer Bloke
Boomer Bloke
2 years ago

The Prime Minister and his government, who I don’t trust, have announced this immigration policy. It won’t work because the civil service whose job it is to make it work, and the judiciary whose job it is to adjudicate legal challenges to the policy, and the Border Force whose job it is to execute the policy are largely made up of left leaning overpaid metropolitan social justice warriors like Lineker who think it is ok for them not to do their job if they disagree with the policy that their job requires. So it’s doomed to failure. I’m just hoping that the BBC and Lineker self immoliate (figuritively speaking) in the process.

92
-4
GroundhogDayAgain
GroundhogDayAgain
2 years ago
Reply to  Boomer Bloke

Or even literally…? That picture from Vietnam times was powerful. Imagine Lineker going for that ..

11
-2
Boomer Bloke
Boomer Bloke
2 years ago
Reply to  GroundhogDayAgain

I’m not that keen on the smell of napalm in the morning…it reminds me of Victory Vs.

18
0
Boomer Bloke
Boomer Bloke
2 years ago
Reply to  Boomer Bloke

It looks like the downvoters don’t know what figuratively means.

12
-2
Freddy Boy
Freddy Boy
2 years ago

Listen …. The F – – king Boats won’t stop until we stop them by overthrowing ALL of the Double Eyed political Barstewards around the world who continue to hold our feet to the fire 🔥!!!!!…

62
-1
Monro
Monro
2 years ago

‘According to the latest estimates by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), net migration from overseas to the UK in the year ending March 2020 totalled 313,000 – the highest in four years and approaching the all-time record of 331,000 in the year to March 2015.’

Net migration into Britain has averaged about 250k per year since 1998.

Blair’s Britain has been propped up by 4 ‘O’ level nincompoops like Gary Winston Lineker who clearly has no idea of the generosity this country has shown since 1997 and is still showing to real refugees:

“….bespoke humanitarian schemes” for Ukrainians and Hong Kong British National Overseas (BNO) accounted for 45% of the increase in visas granted to non-EU citizens between 2019 and the year ending June 2022.’

‘The new data show immigration of 1.1 million in the year to June 2022, with emigration of 560,000, leading to net migration of 504,000.’ Nov 2022

https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/press/net-migration-rises-due-to-ukraine-and-bno-schemes-as-well-as-post-covid-rebound-in-international-students/

Well done ‘Winston’. By your efforts, the whole country now sees what Blair/Brown did to us, which the hopeless conservatives have failed to undo.

Oh….and well done also for adding half a million viewers to match of the day in your absence.

Rumbled……

Last edited 2 years ago by Monro
66
-1
For a fist full of roubles
For a fist full of roubles
2 years ago
Reply to  Monro

Britain is like a septic tank, all the thick nasty stuff coming in stays in an unpleasant layer at the bottom whilst the cleaner, brighter stuff flows off down-stream and thence overseas.

25
-1
varmint
varmint
2 years ago
Reply to  Monro

Ok then so lets just allow all the boats and we can build a ring road around the Orkneys. How many people do the social justice twerps think can comfortably live in this country? 80 million? 100 million? 120 Million? And ofcourse there will be no room for cars by then and we will all be offered a bicycle if we hand in our vehicle.

5
0
DomH75
DomH75
2 years ago

I don’t think this will end the BBC, but I can foresee a switch to subscription sooner rather than later. There’s no way ‘neutrality’ can work there. The entire mindset is left wing on every level. Conservatives and libertarians don’t want to work there.

As it stands, if everyone’s licence fee is switched to subscription, most people will continue to use the BBC. When it comes to the end of the licence year, most people will pay up the same as usual and type in their former licence – now subscription – number when they access the BBC on their TV.

People who currently refuse to pay the licence fee won’t subscribe, so no change there. People who are using the BBC without a licence will stop receiving it, so there’s no legal issue. Capita will no longer need to be employed to send goons around to people’s houses and the courts won’t have to waste time chasing up people who don’t pay the licence, so that’s money saved.

The BBC will remain under the auspices of the WEF-aligned Ofcom and can carry on its campaign of lies to undermine British culture, but at least if you don’t like it, you won’t have to pay for it. Maybe it would be a good moment for GB News to have a chat with Daily Wire in the USA and other organisations about creating a subscription network for those who want a different source of media.

35
-3
For a fist full of roubles
For a fist full of roubles
2 years ago

I was pleased to see there was no solidarity from the oval ball commentary team at today’s 6 Nations match. I have always thought Rugby Union was altogether more classy than soccer.

32
-1
Boomer Bloke
Boomer Bloke
2 years ago
Reply to  For a fist full of roubles

Yes they were and then they weren’t. They were pretty quick to take the knee. Vomit inducing really for an ex school and club player. And then of course there is this…

0F86ED33-6390-4073-AAB7-00B94067D9B4.jpeg
Last edited 2 years ago by Boomer Bloke
21
0
Nearhorburian
Nearhorburian
2 years ago
Reply to  For a fist full of roubles

I once entertained some clients at a Rugby League match. Northampton v London Irish, I think.

It was as if time had stopped.

10
0
Nearhorburian
Nearhorburian
2 years ago
Reply to  Nearhorburian

I mean Union, don’t I?

Last edited 2 years ago by Nearhorburian
9
0
For a fist full of roubles
For a fist full of roubles
2 years ago
Reply to  Nearhorburian

You do, indeed

6
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
2 years ago

“Why the Lineker Saga Will Accelerate the BBC’s Demise”

Well it would be nice to think that some good might come from this sorry little soap opera, filled as it is with thicko,
woke touting, grotesquely overpaid inconsequential has beens.

38
0
Nearhorburian
Nearhorburian
2 years ago

Imagine if the first few barbarian invader dinghys had been sunk.

The problem would have gone away.

But we live in corrupt and decadent times.

31
0
Nearhorburian
Nearhorburian
2 years ago

Christ, I’ve just googled him and he’s only 6 weeks older than me.

He looks like a little old man who smells of stale urine.

25
0
JohnK
JohnK
2 years ago

If the beeb sold advertising, they’d be happy with the BARB figures.

6
0
zebedee
zebedee
2 years ago

You only need a TV licence if you watch live broadcast TV (air, satellite, internet) or use iPlayer. So if you watch ITV on catch-up, stream Netflix, etc. you don’t need a licence.

Rather than whinge about the BBC partiality I cancelled my licence years ago.

28
0
Trev the Geek
Trev the Geek
2 years ago

The comments at the linked Guido Fawkes are very funny. 🤣

721C097B-021A-41E9-9E4B-C318EEE95DE9.jpeg
6
0
DevonBlueBoy
DevonBlueBoy
2 years ago

The Telegraph’s headline this morning talked about the BBC giving in to the crisp salesman. They should take account of the 25% ish increase in viewers on Saturday night in the absence of the smug thicko and think again

15
0
varmint
varmint
2 years ago

If Lineker is re-instated then that means he and all other BBC employees must now be able to say whatever they like on other platforms. Toby Young has even said he thinks Lineker should be able to speak freely. ——–So, if that is the case then all BBC employees and presenters should be able to speak freely on all manner of topics. But imagine if Lineker were to say “Global warming is a load of rubbish” or “Vaccines don’t work and Lockdowns were a joke”. ————-The BBC does not allow any questions to be asked about the climate issue. They have simply decided that everything about it is all true, and they have really just become climate change activists, so what would be the reaction of the BBC if Lineker or any other presenter were to be saying things like that? This is the problem that the BBC has created for itself. It wants to try and claim it is “impartial” but it is NOT. It has a world view all to the progressive left. So then when something like this happens with Lineker they don’t know which way to turn. Because they realise that the government and all the license fee payers who do not subscribe to the world view of the BBC and Lineker think that as the state broadcaster it should not be blatantly spouting this social justice stuff. Oh what a pickle. —-The lesson then is that you either let people speak freely or you don’t. But they must also be allowed to speak freely on issues such as climate and covid, which BBC currently won’t allow. SKY do something similar but people are not forced to pay for SKY.

8
0
Epi
Epi
2 years ago

To paraphrase a famous late PM the trouble is the BBC (like the NHS) is a State within a State.

Time to withdraw funds if you haven’t already done so?

7
0
Smudger
Smudger
2 years ago

Will sufficient people find a teeny weeny bit of backbone and stop paying their licence fee to fulfil the phenomena of companies going broke by going woke?

Last edited 2 years ago by Smudger
1
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