For years, the toxic right have pulled the national debate in their own direction. The mass BBC rebellion showed how we can pull it back
The BBC’s humiliating climbdown over its attempted silencing of Gary Lineker is a milestone. For years, emboldened rightwingers have succeeded in driving the national political conversation ever further in their direction. They’ve achieved this in two ways: first, by treating progressive political opinions as illegitimate; and second, by simultaneously claiming that it’s rightwingers who are really being silenced, a truly shameless spectacle of crybullying.
It continues to this very day. Witness Richard Littlejohn’s column in the Daily Mail. “Endless strikes, the small boats crisis and now the Lineker fiasco are proof that anti-Tory groupthink has taken control in Britain”. Risible. And predictable.