MATCH of the Day presenter Gary Lineker says he won’t stop sharing his political views online, despite objections from BBC bosses.
Referring to the Beeb’s director-general Tim Davie, Lineker said: “I don’t think he’ll stop me talking about politics”, though claimed he is “careful”.
Last month, Davie called the former England captain’s tweets a “work in progress”. Lineker joked Davie is a “work in progress” too.
This month, Lineker was found to have broken impartiality guidelines with one of his tweets, and in August, he was criticised for them by a journalist.
Lineker, who earned £1.35m from the BBC last year, also owns a podcasting company that makes The Rest Is Politics, presented by Alastair Campbell and ex-MP Rory Stewart. Lineker told the New Statesman the BBC would be “too scared” to make the show, which is critical of the Government.
Prue Leith: diners should pay more
BAKE Off matriarch Prue Leith has a plan to save British restaurants, but it’s not an easy fix. “I think restaurateurs should be braver, should charge more, should pay more. And the customer will pay more”, she tells the New Yorker. The trade is less attractive post-pandemic, Leith says, so “we need to force the wages up”, even though punters already say it’s too expensive. Her idea may fall on deaf ears: cost-of-living crisis, anyone?
Toff bible off the mark?
Is it the end of the Sloane ranger? That’s what Tatler thinks. The magazine’s latest Little Black Book of society’s ‘most eligible’ men and women, once once full of aristocrats, is different this year. The top spots this time are filled by Chelsea footballer Mason Mount and Love Island’s Gemma Owen, daughter of former England striker Michael.
But Peter York who wrote The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook in the Eighties, says society is as unequal as ever. “It’s a sweet sentiment that Tatler seems to be expressing, but it doesn’t line up with the facts,” he told us today. “We’re not an equal society”. One thing that’s changed is posh people don’t want to be seen as “Tim Nice-but-Dim” any more. “They’re furiously avoiding the dress and speech codes. But they remanifest it when they go to see granny.”
Last night in town
It was a busy night for the West End, as actor Omari Douglas, singer Self Esteem and TV doctor Ranj Singh went to a press showing of My Son’s A Queer But What Can You Do? at the Garrick last night. At the Guildhall, actors Isabella Pappas and Rhiannon Skerritt went to the UK Theatre Awards. Meanwhile, Guardians of the Galaxy star Will Poulter got temporarily “inked” by tattooist Dan Gold in aid of men’s mental and physical health charity Movember at Outernet London in the West End.
