As a darling of the progressive commentariat, Gary Lineker is not usually one to let injustice pass unremarked. The former BBC star has become a tireless outrider for the Palestinian cause, devoting generous acreage on social media and in interviews to Gaza. On that subject, dear Gary has told us that ‘when I see some images on social media, I cry all the time’ and warned that ‘if you’re silent on these issues, you’re almost complicit’.
Nor should one expect the podcast entrepreneur to fall silent on immigration. While raking in more than £1.3 million a year to host Match of the Day, in 2023 Lineker found time to train his moral artillery on Suella Braverman. Responding to a video in which the then home secretary vowed to crack down on small boat crossings, he proclaimed: ‘Good heavens, this is beyond awful.’ He later likened the language around Britain’s asylum policy to that used by ‘Germany in the 30s’.
With such a finely tuned moral antenna, one might reasonably have expected Lineker to come out, studs up, after two Jewish men were stabbed in an aantisemitic attack in London yesterday. But almost 24 hours on: crickets.
Lineker has, of course, found time to repost Instagram stories about modern slavery among children in Congo. Naturally, the morning after the Golder Green attack, he also shared an Al Jazeera clip of a bereaved father in Lebanon. Steerpike can only assume the poor chap simply lacked the spare moment to offer a thought on violence against Jews in his own country. A pity…
The same mysterious time pressures may also have afflicted Lineker’s friend and The Rest Is Politics host Alastair Campbell. Never knowingly under-opinionated when lamenting the evils of Nigel Farage, the outspoken Labour grandee has, since the Golders Green attack, found time to share a ‘tree of the day’ image for his lucky followers on X. He has also managed to rant about a £5 million donation from a Thai-based crypto tycoon to the Reform leader.
Anything to say about the antisemitic attacks? Anything at all?
No? How curious.
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