O/T:-Gary Lineker

[jackal2]

The fact that the thread title and news articles are all talking about Lineker and not the proposed change in law shows that what Gary has done isn’t highlight the issue, but rather distract from it.

I honestly don’t care whether a sports presenter thinks the government are nazis and posts it on twitter.

I do care about how we deal with the real problems of the world. Stick to the topic Gary if you are going to comment, don’t become the story with hyperbole, correct or not.

For better or worse, Gary Lineker's objective is to feed his own ego, celebrity and bank balance. Every few weeks he'll express a possibly insincere and often hypocritical view on a news story knowing full well that the Twittersphere and then the wider media will 'bite' and start debating it, thereby maintaining his celebrity profile and enabling him to get/keep lucrative contracts, for example from companies who want a 'progressive' face to sell unhealthy products that contribute to childhood and adult obesity, or presenting football programmes from Qatar (with a heavy heart etc.)

To be fair to Gary Lineker, he's a smart cookie who plays this cynical game very well, and he's just one of many/most celebrities who do the same from whichever broad political position they choose to adopt. In some cases they may genuinely hold the views they espouse, but in other cases their private views may differ greatly from their public narrative. The views they express and the subjects they choose to speak about are just a vehicle for their true objective, which is to increase or maintain their celebrity status and effectively place themselves as products. As the (very good) singer Jessie J once said: "Thanks for all the likes, and the dislikes - we like both", because they all mean you're being talked about and that equals sales and money.

I'm not saying this is wrong - it's just business. It's the way the world has become, especially since the advent of social media platforms that allow celebrities to provoke and pontificate through their own channels rather than having to abide by the restrictions of someone else's, like the BBC.

In that sense I think Gary Lineker's entitled to say whatever he likes on his own Twitter feed and people can respond in kind. I don't really see why the BBC should be held accountable for their 'celebrities' expressing political views, unless they do it on a BBC programme. In fact, I can think of many un-impartial political views being expressed on BBC programming and going largely unchallenged, but probably because they came from people less successful at promoting themselves than Gary Lineker!

You've got to hand it to him really. With one Tweet, he's stayed at the top of the Notts MAD message board for three days and yet he's never played for Notts and many of our fans aren't really that bothered about the Premier League or Match of the Day.