Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Josquius]

The "free speech" fanatics must be twisting themselves in knots figuring out their response here.

Not too surprised on Clarkson tbh. From all I've heard he's quite a rage filled dick but his politics are pretty sensible and not at all in line with the character he plays.

[Sheilbh]

Alex Scott, Micah Richards and Mark Chapman have now all confirmed they won't be on Match of the Day.

There is a solution for the BBC if they're brave enough to take it

Joe Lycett
@joelycett
I have informed the BBC that I am very much available for tomorrow's #MOTD

[garbon]

Alex Scott, Micah Richards and Mark Chapman have now all confirmed they won't be on Match of the Day.

There is a solution for the BBC if they're brave enough to take it

Joe Lycett
@joelycett
I have informed the BBC that I am very much available for tomorrow's #MOTD

[Sheilbh]

Tell you what - can't wait for the David Squires cartoon on this.

Edit: Looks like the BBC's accidentally lost all their hosts and pundits for Match of the Day

[Tamas]

 

Well I am happy that the increasingly apparent right-wing takeover of the BBC is being resisted early.

[Sheilbh]

This is really getting bad for them - the latest is that commentators may also boycott:

Matt Lawton
@Lawton_Times
Understand Match of the Day commentators may also boycott tomorrow's show. Talks taking place with union reps. More to follow @thetimes shortly.

And now reports that players won't fulfil their BBC interview duties after matches (and the PFA will cover their fines).

Purely politically - can't imagine you'd want to be the government that fucked up Match of the Day. I don't know why, after flirting with booing players taking the knee and getting trounced, and deciding to fight Marcus Rashford (repeatedly) over free school meals and getting trounced, the Tories thought it would be a good idea to yet again pitch their brand in a fight against *checks notes* football.

[Josquius]

I await the inevitable totally honest and truthy articles in the Sunday papers about how MOTD is better that way actually and we could use the money saved on starving veteran kittens or something.

[Sheilbh]

I await the inevitable totally honest and truthy articles in the Sunday papers about how MOTD is better that way actually and we could use the money saved on starving veteran kittens or something.

In fairness I would take silently watching highlights over Danny Murphy.

[Sheilbh]

And the commentator boycott is on

[Josquius]

Today I learned world feed commentary is a thing.
Interesting, and makes a lot of sense.
I hope they can find a way to boycott 

[garbon]

I see the situation continues to devolve for BBC with multiple sports shows now be cancelled today as their presenters have stepped back.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah it is spreading to the rest of the BBC's sports broadcasting. They've had to cancel Footbal Focus at the last minute because Alex Scott and the pundits (Glenn Murray and Anita Asante) wouldn't do it. It got replaced at the last minute by Bargain Hunt (presumably they thought about Homes Under the Hammer but Dion Dublin is currently boycotting too ).

Final Score might not be on as Jason Mohammad has told the BBC that he won't do it.

Radio 5 Live sports shows are also being impact - Fighting Talk sports quiz is off air and was replaced by broadcasting a pre-recorded podcast from BBC Sounds Here's Colin Murray (always rated him):

colin murray
@ColinMurray
No @FightingTalk316 today, for obvious reasons.
In the interest of transparency, this was a decision taken by the entire FT team and myself.
Bob Mills was still up for it, to be fair

Mark Chapman has incormed the BBC he won't be presenting 5 Live sport broadcasting this afternoon. I think the BBC have just announced they're pulling his shows (which is a lot).

There's loads of BBC football content over the weekend and it might all be gone. It looks like the manager interviews will be club by club, but it sounds like a fair few will boycott. So many players were willing to boycott that the BBC are just not doing any interviews - PFA statement:


Wouldn't be surprised to see fans at games chanting about it too.

[HVC]

Damn liberal malcontents!



So, who at the BBC is gonna get fired over this and how much money did they donate to the Tories?

[Sheilbh]

So, who at the BBC is gonna get fired over this and how much money did they donate to the Tories?

I'm not sure. But yeah heads will roll - I have also seen a few people wonder if this was a case of managing upwards (gone spectacularly). BBC bosses will be able to turn around and say "this is what happens when we do what you say you want - do you really want that?"

I think it could be the Chair - who loaned Boris Johnson (personally) £800,000. Not least because that had been a story but hadn't really broken through (again very dodgy role by Simon Case in that too).

Since the Lineker thing - which is the number one news story across the BBC (so we're getting lots of "the BBC has approached the BBC for comment, but was told no-one was available" bits ) - it is being raised by every single interviewee. So it's gone from a political story of interest only to the weird sickos who follow political news, to part of the story about why the BBC is in a fight with some of its most popular broadcasters and having to pull some of its most popular shows.

Or possibly Tim Davie, the Director General, who isn't a Tory donor but was a Tory activist and wannabe councillor in the early 90s.

[HVC]

Haha I love that the BBC won't won't return the BBCs call. I can imagine someone yelling across the office. "Hey Percy, what's going on, do you want to comment?" And being replied either with silence, or "shut the hell up Nigel, that's how it's going"