Gary Lineker, BBC in crisis, and small boats 

The BBC has lost all credibility ..

Well done Alastair for putting that pathetic interviewer on the BBC who thought mentioning your connection with Lineker in his introduction of you was in order in his place. I hope the BBC take your advice and point out how dodgy they are regarding impartiality before every interview and program.

The British government is in the top 5 countries for giving foreign financial aid, least we forget that too and I am pleased we do.

The main reason migrants want to come to the UK is end of empire migrant communities ( Tories laud up the Empire ) and the deregulated Gig Economy, legalised and foisted on us by Tories. They don't have the latter in France. France also requires much more training and qualifications for work.

TRIP MOTD could work. AC: ‘What do you make of that Rory?’ RS:*shrugs apologetically*

Love the opening 😂

Germany v England, 1938, Tory PM Chamberlain insisted England football team do a . / after the German naaaazie national anthem. What another carry on, they also try and make us forget.

Bateaux Petite, while Macron looks on going Pardon? puzzled.

Better from Rory Stewart today. Alistair asked about the refugee crisis, switches to Boris corruption?

Association Football is in reality the number one religion in the UK it’s like banning the pope from Italian media. Garry Lineker FC - 2 BBC / Government X1 -0 both own goals

it is a invasion lol and we know the torah party will do nothing about it🤣

Lineker was right. The language is reminiscent of 1930's Germany, as the nationalism and racism took hold there. Nazi Germany also tore up International agreements and suffered high inflation and depression. The camps came later, but even there, the government are going to be putting refugees into what are basically camps. Barracks surrounded by tall fences. Every 70 to 80 years, the human race forgets most of it's lessons hard learnt and go on to repeat them. We are getting there.

BBC will not broadcast Attenborough episode over fear of ‘rightwing backlash , BBC apologises for failure to scrutinise Nadine Dorries’ claims about Sue Gray , and Alan Sugar vote Johnson

Any chance of the government being asked to "back away" from their jobs, and Gary, Alastair and Rory to fill in on a semi-permanent basis? 🤔👍

MOTD crisis is one thing how on earth are they going to broadcast Have I Got News For You under the current regime?

The BBC have handled this so badly and it shows what they have become. They ignore all the opinions voiced repeatedly that are pro Tory ( e.g. "Vote Conservative") or anti Labour or Corbyn, such as by Alan Sugar. Then one prominent Tweet is anti conservative policy, quite understandably and the proponent is suspended. This is because the BBC Chair is a major Tory donor and facilitated a large loan to Johnson, while failing t declare that at the time of appointment. The BBC Director in charge of Bias is also a top Tory, which is unbelievable.

The BBC is becoming a mouthpiece for this government. Look at Laura K and all the very pertinent questions she doesn’t ask ministers on her show. And Fiona Bruce who shouts down people on the QT panels who are critical of the government. They seem to do it in the name of impartiality. It is why I get my news from Channel Four these days.

Government offended by accusations of similarities with 1930s Germany responds by trying to silence voices of dissent. Oh the irony

Great show I dont like Tories, I like what I have heard balanced debate that is fair I have subscribed.

The directors of the BBC seem to have been active supporters of the Conservative party at one stage - it's not as though they were only ordinary citizens who happened to vote for a Conservative MP in the past.

People want to come to the UK for many reasons, as you suggest, but I do think one that wasn't mentioned was the language. It is a global language, it was a language heard more often my Iraqis and Afghans rather than French. The other part is, many DO stay in France. Some do some to Britain, but it isn't like every single refugee in France comes to Britain

OK so on the ID cards, I'm a centrist voter and would quite happily vote for any party lead by either of you. However. You should recognise that the ID card scheme proposed by Blunkett was very heavily predicated on the existence of a central, government-run database. There are a couple of things wrong with this: 1. Such a database would be a massive IT development project. The UK Government has a SPECTACULARLY bad track record of developing systems like this. On time? On budget? On spec? Choose one or possibly zero. 2. For such an ID card to work in the way the Blunkett was suggesting would require that every time an ID card was used, and at the time he was suggesting that this would be used more or less for every financial / social interaction, it would have to check in with the central, Government-run database. That is a) incredibly intrusive, and b) if the database isn't working then you can't do the thing you're trying to do. 3. Who has access to the central database? Under the Blunkett proposal it ended up with potentially millions of national and local government employees. For us to trust the privacy of the information bundled in that card we have to be able to trust that all of those millions of employees are honest, competent, trained and cognisant of the rules. Which I hope you'll agree is a bit of a stretch. Anyway, sorry for the tangent. Love your content. Look after yourselves.

It's the asymmetry of political discourse that pisses me off. As if the 11th commandment goes something along the lines of: "Thou shalt not compare the Torries to Hitler but if thoust wish to call the Labour leader an al-Qaeda sympathiser or a Stalin cosplayer then fill thine fucking boots!" It's a clunky commandment, I think God was having a slight off day, the language isn't very biblical but it certainly holds true.

And I am so old I still have my Identity card issued in my infancy! And I have some contemporaries who do not drive and do not have a current passport when everything is done online, requiring ID so many times. And I am as knowledgeable about footie as Rory. And now I hear about the BBC singers to go! What - Sadler’s Wells, BBC singers, what next? London Sinfonietta, now BBC World service being cut AGAIN. What a disgrace. Who else is speaking up?

What about not showing Attenborough latest first wpisode

BBC staff outside news and current affairs should not be expected to censure their opinions in social media to demonstrate that the corporation is impartial on its political reporting. Irrespective of your views on immigration, the BBC should not seek to censure it’s staff in sports and entertainment for their political opinions in social media in this manner. The perception that they have been unduly influence by the standing government and it’s recent appointees is damaging to the reputation of the BBC. Auntie needs to clarify it’s guidelines and get MOTD back on and Rory should be in charge of our immigration polices! Pod is terrific.

Lineker is a national treasure, as are Campbell and Stewart, people we need more than ever in the UK now.

Only 104 comments! Why would anyone listen to anything else? The go to place for facts, info, stats, comments, views, discussions, new ideas and all in a civil tongue. Well done again.

41:29 Glad you agree about the BBC Singers. Terrible, short-sighted decision - and seems spiteful to axe a 99-year-old group looking forward to its centenary. If people are so minded they can sign the petition: "Stop the planned closure of the BBC Singers" (>92k so far..)

How is it possible that an educated person like Rory Stewart is so ignorant about France ? It is so childish to ask ‘why don’t all those people stay in France? Inform yourself, man!

Attenborough censored too aged 96......madness.

Glad to hear what you say about ID-cards. As a mainland European it is strange to see the discussion going on: on the one hand it’s said that requiring voter ID is a way to block young (and immigrant?) voters like in the US, which I can somewhat see, but this is completely fixed if you just provide everyone with a cheap, official ID like most of us have had our entire life, in a society that is less Orwellian than some others I could mention.

It's not our BBC any more. It belongs to the Tories.

Blimey, that was quick!!

I'm sorry to say this because I do like Rory but he seems to be having real problems with this podcast. He is interrupting more than usual in it seems an attempt to make Alastair's argument seem disjointed and thus to weaken it. He seems to me to be a lot more on the side of the BBC "managers" than on the right side. It may be that I am just sensitive to this because of how strongly I feel about how weak the BBC are being. It may also be guided by my surprise that Rory said in a recent interview that he would seriously consider rejoining the Tory party. Amazing to hear. So sorry if I am wrong but maybe play it back and see what you think. It seems you can take the boy out of the Tories but you cannot take the Tory out of the boy.

The only issue here is refusing to resource the processing of claims and the refusal to provide claim centers offshore. In that situation, when you have to make it to foreign soil to put in a claim under international law, what the hell are they going to do but try to get across in boats? Criminals play on the weak - that can be those folk being trafficked or it can be the UK as a whole. We have become WEAK particularly since leaving the EU and losing so much cross-border integration capability. This is what criminals do: they look for soft targets, and that's us. We're not soft because we can't 'stop the boats', we're weak because our systems and public services have collapsed. The criminal gangs know we aren't interested in catching them, our politicians would far rather use the ongoing crisis as a distraction - this is why tories keep proposing laws that can't work, it's because they don't WANT them to work - this is what, fifth go around now? If they wanted this sorted it be sorted. The people traffickers know we as a nation are SO shattered and broken after the last 13 years that if they can get people here they'll just disappear, they know if they are arrested we can't process them. Let's not blame the albanian men themselves - surely they are economic migrants not genuine asylum seekers but why do you think they are being shipped in such high numbers? It's not like they can claim benefits if they're here illegally they'll be going to work in the shadow economy, possibly as slaves, which is a scourge we are allowing to spread in our country three hundred years after we sailed the world filled with shame and guilt trying to stop it. We are WEAK in all the ways that matter. They know it. That's why we're being hit. The danger is that people have a tendency to think being STRONG involves being horrible. cf New Labour and how they treated immigrants and asylum seekers with their language and laws in the 90s.

One way of thinking about impartiality in journalism would be to compare it to the proper role of an expert witness in Court. Each party to the case has an advocate; the law has an advocate (in the judge); the people have an advocate (in the jury). An expert witness is the advocate for the data. The proper role of an expert witness is to ensure that the facts and data relevant to the case come into court, neither more, nor less, nor other than they are, and that the facts and data remain in spite of the efforts of the other parties to distort them. In journalism, the reality is that this takes a great deal of work, far beyond simply getting quotes from two public figures and then asking a panel to discuss. One example on the Internet is the investigative journalist newsletter Popular Information, which has a very small staff, yet by focusing on facts and data has broken many stories which large news outlets then quote.

But what is the solution? People are at risk undertaking the crossings, the gangs are making money and already stretched social services are brought to breaking point. AC and RS didn’t offer any realistic options.

End piece about BBC singers going and radio in Chinese going... What ever happened to soft power... End of the Empire? Or are the lights going out all over the BBC and they may not come back on in our lifetime.

Albania needs a Marshall type plan. The ponzy schemes broke the country. The people of Albania need work.

The football will be shown with background music - Wagner. 😁 . /

Not to mention that the detention centres mentioned at 37:52 will not deal with refugees/migrants on the French coast. The French gov are not allowed to detain them because they cannot be provided safe return back to the country they fled! This is due to the fact that it’s not safe to return them, there is a time limit in Europe on detainment because these people have not committed any crime, and they have no documentation. So 500 million fed into the French detention state will achieve nothing.

I am so emotional about this I may have to take a knee.

I've been pretty vehemently nasty to Tories lately, calling them ar*eholes. But Rory, I don't mean you. I do mean it for all those Tories who I can kick out in 2024.

"Bribing Türkiye"? What about bribing France yesterday?

As soon as I hear the BBC is back to being completely independent from the government, that's when I will pay my TV licence again.

fantastic emergency pod cast 👏 perfect Sunday brunch accompaniment :) one point about the BBC and David Attenborough, the BBC, pandering to pressure from the right, has refused to air the final episode of his latest nature ok thr British Isles series due to it's focus on ecosystem decline and climate change, which is completely shocking. it's worth discussing that briefly during your next podcast

I voted Conservative for 20 years but not this century. These days, I agree with almost everything that Alastair Campbell says. These Tories have transformed me into a leftie.

With Campbell and Stuart doing MoTD I wonder if we'll get Lineker and Wright doing next weeks "The Rest is Politics."

Good context and analysis re the issue at hand. In order to remain impartial do you think you should reference Gary owing £5m of IR35 tax……

Refugees? Or economic migrants? Women and children?? Or military-aged able-bodied men?

Hi can you talk to Torsten Bell ?? And invite him to your show ☺️ just finished podcast with him it was called the we Society👀

Why is no one talking about the junior doctors strike next week? The NHS is going to grind to a halt with the vast majority of Drs not working for three days & night

Shocked by campbells response to th4 blunkett comments. They were disgusting comments…

the way these poor refugees have to rough it in 3 and 4 star country hotels in a outrage , they should be given a free london townhouse as a minimum , im sure gary will be happy to bring his offshore money back to the UK in order to finance it

Interview Sleaford Mods

Very good pod cast but would like to point out another reason refugees whist to go to Britain is that they have a grasp of English

Why dont they mention the real reason Gary got suspended he criticized Israel 🤣🤣🤣

If you don't feel the weakness within yourself, you will always completely miss the point.

Who will be the scabs?

GARY LINEKER OWNS THIS PODCAST COMPANY , ALISTAIR CAMPBELL IS PAID BY GARY LINEKER.

The bbc received a letter titled lawyers of Israel

oh so farage was right again🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Gibb should go back to the BeeGees.

I support Lineker and this podcast totally

The last time I remember everybody talking about football was a long time ago. Colombian goalkeeper Rene Higuita executed his famous "scorpion kick" against England.

Paying £5k to be smuggled across the Chanel from France (much better weather) to find out that the cost of rent food and fuel means you need to find a £35k job on little English , can’t see it’s a good life ahead? Better spend the £5k on something with a good outcome.?

Taking in refugees and mass immigration in general is highly unpopular - especially among the people it actually affects That's just the way it is and always has been, yet we ignore this feeling among the majority of people in the country Why?

Thank god for Putin

I think that it’s worth remembering, that football players are among the few members of society, who can actually take advantage of this mythical meritocracy, they are paid well because of their skills, and many, who attain greatness, come from the most humble of beginnings, and many are acutely aware that society isn’t fair, and they have just been “lucky”, and as could be seen with the case of Marcus Rashford, they are prepared to take the flack and do something about it. Also, Gary Lineker was Captain of the England squad for 2 years, it’s a position of incredible responsibility, in which the captain has to lead by example, displaying true leadership skills, in which he has to command the respect of his team, and the whole country in general, which he seems to be doing, and people have always admired him for it. He is also an older brother, he’s a born leader, and his TV presenting skills will always find a home, so I can’t see this ending well for the BBC, or the Government either.

True, whataboutism - re:Sugar, etc But what about Lineker tweet "bin corbyn"?

I like you both very much. Thanks. Saludos desde España.

A sensible conversation about this "Salt and Vinegar" issue. Well done boys 👍

30:25. So, Alasdair; David Blunket did exactly the same a Sue-Ellen Braverman?

The difference is, that Vincent Company came by rubber boat to the UK, part of his daily routine fittness exercise

Talcum x

All this reminds me of the 1936 Olympics.

Tim Davie was a Tory party councillor candidate and member.

Labour is Out of date of the real world on the stuff he's gone as old in a comparison

And labour are doing what about the vulnerable boat people ,!!

👏👏👏 Brilliant eye opener analysis for those who were blind or severely vision impaired, and highly reassuring for those of us who were wondering whether they might have been out of focus or in some incredible thick fog. You two could not have better cleared the political landscape in exposing the boat people/refugees/migrants crisis for what it is: a diversion that has replaced Brexit in enlisting xenophobia/racism in support of the current Conservative party and its disastrous handling of every aspect of the management of the United Kingdom. All of that mud raking being served with a sharp point of expertise and humour is an incredible bonus of course! 👏👏👏

I thought the tories hated cancel culture?

BBC is now renamed to BCBC British Conservative Broadcasting Company

Remember that although the UK may be 18th in taking refugees, it is also second in population density

43:20. Just as an a non political question; how much of the cultural cuts, such as the BBC singers, could be avoided if Gary Linacre’s millions in freelancer fees, and similar farcical “talent” costs, was diverted towards those areas and the World Service?

A Campbell rant on political lines as per. All that matters is what is in Linekar's contract. Good grief, all this fuss about a big eared football presenters `woke' political views. If he has been suspended incorrectly he should sue, if not he will get punished by his employers.

Lineker is just a football pundit, ship him out and get another one on 10% of Lineker's salary. It's a no-brainer.

Sick of hearing about ‘safe and legal routes’ - This means open borders and unlimited immigration. The result of this is labour loses and another 5 years of tory government.