O/T:-Gary Lineker

[OchPie]

Meanwhile back in the "realer" world, the Government's "don't assess refugees, just keep them locked up forever at whatever it costs" bill passed its reading in the HoC last night.

The UK will effectively no longer take in refugees (outside a very narrow set of people following a very difficult process) if this finally passes.

[drillerpie]

I might have said this before but I'm really past caring about whether people are right or left or whatever. I just want them to be competent in their jobs.

Lineker is an average at best sports presenter, as are most of the pundits. I would imagine all of them can be replaced by better and cheaper people. The whole immigration issue is a complicated one which gets reduced to partisan cheering instead of receiving the in depth analysis it deserves. Having said that it seems there is a clear precedent for BBC contributors outside of the News department giving political opinions, with no disciplinary consequences.

The director of the BBC seems to not be very good at his job at all. It's clear that Lineker is a bogey man for his 'side' in the same way someone like Clarkson is for the other 'side', and the DG couldn't wait to get an 'easy win' and throw a bit of red meat to the people who got him the job. The fact that he couldn't think even one step ahead as to how this might play out, and make the necessary comparisons to past precedents is a huge worry for someone in his position.

That this farce has taken up so much of the national attention span is baffling to me. But the fact it has, and the way it has, is more evidence of a worrying decline in competence masked by mindless partisan cheering. That is how banana republics are made.