Yeah the whole thing hinges on he’s not an employee and the Beeb clearly hasn’t anything in his supply-of-services contract that he’s contravened.
Plus it was on his own Twitter account and he does provide services to other entities as well as the BBC, so the BBC can’t fall back on saying anything he says on his own channels of conmunication is necessarily associated with them…
Really the Beeb just needs to apologise. I hope they don’t try this again they have made themselves look ridiculous
Number three only applies to those in news and current affairs Karen, not to “mere” sports personalities, as James would classify Lineker. Plus even when those actually in news and current affairs make biased statments, once they have a pro Tory bias it’s not a problem e.g. that paragon of balance, Andrew Neil.
Meanwhile back in the real World…
and as much as those who try to defend them 
He did not suggest this. His comment was that the wording used by the current UK government was similar to that used by 1930 German government.
The Nazis later went on to do many vile things but these were not mentioned simply the language that was used in 1930s.
This shows yet again that perhaps some people aren’t even certain what they’re getting outraged about. They know what they think the issue is, perhaps what they’re being told the issue is from the press or social media, but whether that’s actually the issue is a very different matter. We’ve seen this over and over over the last 5 years or so, the ‘Chinese whispers’ effect goes wildly OTT and what comes out in no way reflects what went in.
Might also be a good motto for the Beeb…
It would have been awful if he’d said that, luckily for him that he didn’t. Do you even know what you’re getting angry about?
It’s always unwise to say mean things about somebody’s level of education without doing a quick check for typos, spelling and grammar mistakes.
@JamesC the hole you’re digging for yourself seems to be getting deeper 
No, not really.
What is disturbing though is watching someone scratching around like the proverbial demented headless chicken trying to justify the unjustifiable and worsening the situation with each keypress.
Very sad.
Oy. A good friend of mine writes for the Morning Star and has done for many years. Mind you, he did write for the Guardian for many years as well. Damn … hoisted by my own petard 
NY Times is far better than either - greater depth of analysis ,fewer simplistic op-ed commentators and even the football analysis is far more detailed and thoughtful.
I’ve been reading the Guardian for over fifty years, but despite the quality of its investigative journalism, I think it’s gone downhill through there being too many middle-aged metropolitan contributors writing op-ed pieces about some banal aspect of their lives. I don’t care about that and don’t want to know about it!
Haha, A good friend of mine used to write for the Times, so we all have a cross to bear. 
Plus the subscription is only €8 per month.
Indeed. When Adrian Chiles has us all on the edge of our seats discussing how he got an HB pencil stuck in his nose last week or how his dog and him have somehow managed to synchronise their farts, there really is no need for all the rest of the Timmmothay Cuthbert-Smythes and Arabella Coren-Dimbleby-Alsopp-Rothschilds to blather on article after article about how little Minty-Grace went to a birthday party last week and another child said they thought people who shopped in Waitrose should pay reparations or some other middle class drivel. Dump ‘em all and just give me more Chilesey pondering how much he’d like a urinal in his lounge so he doesn’t have to walk to the bathroom and miss the West Brom match…,
And Tim Dowling! I love his ‘tales from the shed’ and tune in weekly to make sure his tortoise is OK.
It’s interesting to note that during WW2 Churchill said he wished all the newspapers reported as truthfully and accurately as the Guardian.
Of course it was The Manchester Guardian then, so much more likely to be trustworthy and accurate. 
I haven’t seen British tv for years.
By the sound of it, I’m not missing much.
I obviously sensed something in the water as today we have some Chiles gold, apparently a former social worker calked Mike is creating “content” on OnlyFans as an Adrian Chiles lookalike…
“Someone paid me £500 to read out Chiles’ column in the Guardian while performing a sex act on myself. I thought at the time: ‘This is weird.’”
Weird, Mike? Do you really think so?
“It’s mostly men but there’s a woman who pays me £200 a week to eat crumpets naked and dribble butter down my front all while spouting inane drivel in a West Midlands accent. Takes all sorts, I suppose,” adds Mike wisely.
What a time to be alive…
Thanks for filtering all this for us, saves us having to think further about it. Now back to the football…
