Nesrine Malik rightly places the Gary Lineker affair in the context of a wider attack on human rights in the UK (The Gary Lineker affair was a warning: the culture war will come for us all in the end, 20 March). Her fears seem wholly justified to me. There has been significant undermining of the right to speak out, and the obsession with immigration is stirring up hatred and fear. However, is it possible that her diagnosis of “listlessness among progressives” should be refined? The disease appears to afflict mainly those on the left seeking political office rather than the wider group of progressive people across society.
This is frightening and depressing in itself. But I am concerned that Malik risks undermining rather than invigorating a movement against the rise of racist, toxic populism. It is my belief that we need to emphasise the difference between progressives on the street and, for example, those Labour politicians who made shameful efforts to disagree with Lineker’s words while defending his right to say them.
