A Quick Note On Lineker's Wankitude.

Quick recap: during the coverage of Olympic swimming last Saturday evening, the BBC anchorman suddenly broke into one of his little faces and wittily informed us that "if that console you, Germany is still also waiting for its first (gold?) medal". Now some people have argued that it didn't much mean much in the great scheme of things -Here is why I disagree.

1) Lineker's sudden aside was uncalled for, petty, pathetic, irrelevant, snidey, and playing on the stinking anti-germanic vibe that affects so many people in the UK. Talk about bringing the tone down! (see later on that subject). Quite what "Germany" in its entirety has to do with a British athlete being bested in the swimming pool is a puzzling question.

2) Mr. Lineker is a national media broadcaster. He is not your man down the pub -who is totally free to express any rank old bollix (and usually does so at every opportunity). Mr. Lineker therefore has a duty of self-restraint and decency.

3) More importantly, he is a BBC employee, which means he somehow represents the nation. The nation, as well as the licence payers who contribute to his enviable lifestyle.

4) More importantly still: why his little faux-pas (oops, sorry, foreign expression!) is particularly saddening. His attack of gracelessness came, what, not even 24 hours after the admittedly generous, open-hearted, and uplifting ceremony devised by Danny Boyle that aimed to show the world how welcoming, thrilling and forward-looking the UK can be. ...Head desktop repeated interface.

What Gary Lineker actually reminded us of is that he is first and foremost a football man. A football man at his most unplesasant ridicule.

Sure, some will retort (see above) that Lineker's remark is no big deal in the long run. That would be correct: it's just a would-be witty but in fact cretinous soundbite. But if you go down that road, well... you can always find worse. Always. Does that mean we shouldn't keep our standards up? Does that mean we should let everything pass and just consume what is fed us passively, irresponsibly? That's a tough one alright.

I would argue that one should aspire to better; one should not benevolently condone a race to the bottom, tiny steps by tiny steps. Sure, I certainly agree: Lineker hasn't explicitly insulted anyone. ...He's just stirred up some people's dormant feelings against an entire foreign nation, that's all.

Now please compare and contrast. The parents of British medallists Lizzie Armitstead and Rebecca Adlington were being interviewed on BBC1 this Monday morning. "We felt a little bit sorry for the French girl, with the reaction to Becky," said Adlington’s dad of the 400m freestyle yesterday in which his daughter won bronze and France’s Camille Muffat gold. Now THAT is what the Olympics are about, Mr. Lineker.
Rebecca's dad, we salute you -and congratulate your daughter on her lifelong terrific efforts.