Nobody was prepared to put their name to Scab of the Day, and all that was left was the parody of an institution.
If you ever needed evidence that language matters, and we live in a time when intelligent people are being silenced so two-bob politicians won't be offended, Saturday night without Gary Lineker was the proof. Match of the Day was reduced to the equivalent of a 20-minute silent movie – except the silence was replaced by crowd noise.
No opening titles, the call to arms for around four million viewers every week. No presenter – Lineker had anchored MOTD since 1999 until pigeon-hearted BBC management caved in to confected Tory outrage about his Twitter remarks that boat people were being demonised and ordered him to “step back” from the role.
