11th March 2023
Gary Lineker – gagged by the BBC for speaking out on the Illegal Migration Bill
To suggest that state broadcaster the BBC have scored an own goal by suspending Match of the Day (MOTD) presenter, Gary Lineker, would be a worthy tabloid headline if the Tory supporting tabloids were not lined up to criticise Lineker rather than the BBC.
For tweeting that the language used by Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, in describing the proposed policy to return asylum seeking migrants to their country of origin, whatever the consequences, as being akin to the language used in 1930’s Nazi Germany, Lineker has been asked to ‘step back’ from MOTD until an agreement is reached. In plain terms the BBC is being asked to gag Lineker from making any comments the government find controversial.
What the BBC could not have foreseen is that key pundits, including Ian Wright and Alan Shearer, have refused to appear on MOTD in solidarity with Lineker, or that match commentators will refuse to work on MOTD today. By kowtowing to the fulminating Tory right wingers, who are holding Rishi Sunak and his Cabinet as political hostages, the BBC has embroiled itself in an even bigger mess.
BBC Director General, Tim Davie, claims that the position on Lineker is in defence of the BBC’s supposed impartiality. However, there has been no impartiality in the reporting of the so called migrant crisis. The government line that the country is being overrun by illegal immigrants appears to be generally accepted, in spite of the evidence to the contrary. The real crisis is that people are forced to be migrants at all, very often as a consequence of military interventions in which Britain has colluded, such as Afghanistan, Libya and Iraq, from where people have been forced to flee for fear of their lives.
The fact that the government’s proposals, contained on the Illegal Migration Bill, have been questioned, with several legal commentators expressing reservations over whether or not the law is compatible with Britain’s commitments under international treaties, including the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), should be the real story. The fact that a sports commentator has an opinion about the proposals is simply diverting attention form the real issue.
With the Home Office facing a backlog of more than 160,000 immigration cases and only a small number of countries available to which the government can send failed asylum seekers, many have branded the bill “unworkable”.
In other vital but less headline grabbing news, the Local Government Information Unit (LGIU) has this week published a report which finds that more than half of local councils plan to raise Council tax by the maximum permissible 5%, while at the same time reducing the services they have on offer.
In order to balance budgets 93% of councils plan to increase charges in areas such as parking and waste collection, while over two thirds plan to utilise reserves or sell off land and assets to balance the books. The LGIU suggest that at least 12 councils are on the edge of “effective bankruptcy” as they struggle to meet the core statutory services, such as social care, which they are obliged to deliver. As the LGIU report states,
“This is an unsustainable situation. Eventually, there will be no more cuts that councils can make without endangering their essential services. Our evidence suggests that for just under 10% of councils, this is the situation they find themselves in now.”
Those services which are non-statutory and which councils are not obliged to deliver, have taken a hammering over the years. Cultural activity such as arts centres, theatres and museums have seen massive reductions. Swimming pools have either been closed or farmed out to the private sector but are in any case struggling to meet rising energy costs.
Over a decade of Tory inflicted austerity, followed by the profit crisis for capitalism, which is forcing living costs up for working class people, is pushing many councils to the brink of financial ruin. In order to try and mask their responsibility for this growing crisis the Tories have created a series of regional Elected Mayors, handing them control over budgets which run to billions of pounds over a 30-year period. The proposed North East Mayoral Combined Authority (NEMCA) is the latest creation to emerge, with an Elected Mayor likely to be in place by May 2024.
However, as ever with any Tory scheme which is supposed to devolve power and contribute to ‘levelling up’, it is merely smoke and mirrors. The money taken out of local government over decades is not compensated for by the regional Mayoral deals. The fanfare and publicity over the deals grabs the headlines but there is often little analysis of how much real impact they can have and how little they will redress the damage done to local communities.
There is no indication from Labour that they are likely to end this masquerade and put real power back into the hands and local communities and local councils, properly funded and resourced to meet local needs.
One of the areas under pressure due to the attacks upon local government is support for the homeless, including refuges and migrants, clearly not a concern for a government whose main policy drive is to “stop the boats”, as it attempts to ramp up its jingoistic pre-General Election rhetoric.
The very use of the slogan “stop the boats” in itself is an echo of the approach taken in 1930’s Germany to Jews. Described as ‘vermin’ by the Nazis, the dehumanisation of a people laid the groundwork for tolerance of their persecution. In the same way, “stop the boats” is a step down the same path and echoes more recent repatriation policies advocated by Tory racist Enoch Powell and the National Front in the 1970’s.
While the BBC will fill its news coverage with scenes from Ukraine, in line with government support for the right wing nationalist government there, it avoids facts about the reality of life for many in Tory Britain and the consequences of government policy for working class communities. This is not impartiality, it is partisanship of the highest order.
News reporting is by its nature a selective process, but what a broadcaster chooses to select tells a story in itself. The BBC can try to cover up its failure to report objectively on the Illegal Migration Bill by suspending Gary Lineker. It can fail to report on the realities of day to day life for working class communities under the Tories. It cannot make these choices and at the same time claim to be impartial. The BBC is and always has been, the voice of the British state. The BBC’s claim to impartiality is an illusion. Whatever it may claim, the BBC’s actions always speak louder than its words.
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