Good morning. After the mass walkout of on-air talent that followed Gary Lineker’s suspension, the BBC’s football coverage has become the televisual equivalent of “eat turnips”: a farcical symbol of things not working properly which some on the right are doggedly trying to repurpose as bloody great news for Britain.
Shorn of theme tune, commentary, analysis, interviews or context, Saturday’s Match of the Day and last night’s Match of the Day 2 made you feel a bit like you were watching an Adam Curtis documentary on mute, or maybe this 107-minute Sam Taylor-Wood video of David Beckham sleeping: mesmerising, certainly, but totally incomprehensible, and definitely not something you’d be up for weekly. As Jack Seale’s one star review makes clear, this was totally obvious to anyone who likes football.
Nonetheless, various conservative politicians and commentators insisted that they’d had an absolute whale of a time, like the MP Scott Benton, who sounded a little how-do-you-do-fellow-kids when he claimed it was the “Best #MatchOfTheDay episode in years”. Cannier members of his tribe, like Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt, appear to have recognised that this is not the hill they wish to die on, and are backing away from the culture war part of this by reiterating their belief in BBC independence as gently as possible.
Not that that makes life any easier for the corporation’s senior leadership, who will continue talks with Lineker today in the hope of getting him back on the air by next week. After a ludicrous couple of days in the UK’s media-political landscape, today’s newsletter runs you through the fallout. Don’t worry, there’s plenty of punditry throughout.
Five big stories
Technology | The UK government is scrambling to secure an emergency deal to protect Britain’s tech and life sciences sectors from major losses after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). Alex Hern’s analysis explains why the bank was so important in the UK.
Oscars | Everything Everywhere All at Once has dominated this year’s Oscars, winning seven awards including best picture in a major night for Asian and Asian American representation. There’s a panel with more of the Guardian’s coverage below – and for all the news, gossip and analysis from Oscars night, sign up to Film Weekly to receive our Oscars special later this morning.
China | Rishi Sunak has warned that China’s plans to “reshape the world order” represent an era-defining challenge for Britain, but dismissed calls for Beijing to be categorised as a threat. Sunak was speaking as he travelled to San Diego for a summit with Joe Biden and Australian PM Anthony Albanese aimed at countering Chinese strength.
Ukraine | President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine to a soldier whose execution by machine gun fire was filmed by Russian forces. Zelenskiy said Oleksandr Matsievskyi, whose death last week has led to a war crimes investigation, was “a man who will be remembered forever”.
Rishi Sunak | The prime minister’s new private heated swimming pool uses so much energy that the local electricity network had to be upgraded to meet its power demands, the Guardian has been told. Sunak will personally pick up the cost of the work – estimated at tens of thousands of pounds.
In depth: How the BBC ate itself (and everyone else)
It is quite hard to remember, as you consider the latest Linekerology, that this story began with criticism of the rhetoric surrounding the government’s plans to stop asylum seekers crossing the Channel in small boats – and if you’re reading this thinking that a very rich man’s future employment matters much less than the plight of those refugees, you’re right, and we’ll be returning to that subject soon. At the same time, this story’s astonishing metastasis from fringe social media culture war to the BBC’s biggest crisis in years means that, for now, it demands our attention – as demonstrated by the remarkable range of actors who have found themselves bobbing in Lineker’s formidable wake.
Here’s how that’s going. I was planning “winners and losers”, but there weren’t enough of the former, so it’s just:
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Losers
Richard Sharp | The BBC chairman, and former Conservative party donor, was already facing difficult questions over what role he played in securing an £800,000 loan for Boris Johnson, and why he didn’t tell MPs about it; but he may not have predicted that the thing which would prompt everyone from predecessor Chris Patten to former chancellor George Osborne to Carol Vorderman to question his position was a row over a football presenter’s tweets. Sharp’s conduct is of course vastly more consequential – but as a technical matter, the two are unrelated: the chairman is not involved in operational matters at the BBC, and his position is a matter for the government, not director general Tim Davie.
Still, if the glaring accountability gap between the cases leads to a board revolt or there is any perception of divided loyalties, it may be hard for him to survive. “Ultimately the chairman of the BBC should be there come thick or thin to defend the BBC against the government,” Osborne said yesterday. “Richard’s got to show in the next couple of days that he can do that.”
Tim Davie | Never a good weekend for a boss when they are forced to insist that they will not resign in an interview with one of their own staff (pictured above). Davie did have one fair and somewhat overlooked point in Nomia Iqbal’s excellent interrogation that the rules for Lineker are different to those facing other BBC presenters, because there is a distinction for those “seen as pan-BBC figures who work on big BBC events”. (Here’s an explainer on the BBC’s social media policy.)
But technical distinctions count for little in the face of what fundamentally feel like double standards – and by repeatedly saying that he was “listening hard” and ready to do a “bit of thinking” about the rules, he seemed to hint at a climbdown that would surely make the flaws in his initial decision all the more apparent. And while he insisted that this was not about left or right, there was a glaring absence of an answer to the question of what would have happened to Lineker if he had tweeted in support of the government.
Gary Lineker | Well, look, he’s not a loser in any conventional sense: he’s extremely well paid, he’s cemented his status as a folk hero to the FBPE middle, he now appears likely to be vindicated and triumphantly restored, and even if he does have to leave, his paycheque elsewhere is only going up. Even so, you do feel that he’d much rather have avoided the press pack on his doorstep and got on with presenting the football. And media attention to his tax affairs is surely only going to intensify.
Alan Sugar | If he wants to hang on to the Apprentice (above), he’s probably going to have to keep his views about Mick Lynch to himself in the future. Personally, I’m hoping for a late night tweet storm. If he does stay quiet, woe betide whichever unfortunate rightwing BBC star is the next to post something ill-advised on social media. (For a striking runthrough of other presenters not subject to the Lineker treatment, see James Tapper’s piece from the Observer.)
GB News | If you thought the BBC’s highlights without commentary were crap, wait till you see GB News’s too-clever-by-half counterprogramming: commentary without highlights! Remarkable, really: football for people who hate football, the BBC, Gary Lineker, small boats, functioning on-screen graphics, and having a nice time on a Saturday night.
Keir Starmer | This is almost a win for Labour and its leader: a chance to draw a dividing line over the small boats crisis which doesn’t put the party in a difficult position over the pesky question of whether it should defend the fundamental human rights of refugees. On the other hand, the contrast with Lineker’s clarity may not do much good for Starmer’s hopes of dispelling the impression that he is an obsessively triangulating political weathervane. As one very wise writer argued on Saturday: “Most people are now clearer on where a television presenter stands on the small boats crisis than where the Labour party, which has largely confined its critique to a managerialist argument about Home Office asylum application backlogs, does.”
The government | There are those who will tell you that any culture war blow-up is good news for the Conservatives’ chances of regaining a bit of lost ground in the fabled red wall. But it’s not obvious that this is true if it comes at the cost of infuriating every football fan in the country and adding to the general sense that everything is a bit crap under the Tories.
The polling suggests that while the public broadly supports the government over small boats, comfortable majorities think Lineker has been mistreated, and that most people like him. Hence Jeremy Hunt and Rishi Sunak emphasising that his future is a matter for the BBC: a cynic might tell you that they’d like the corporation to be pliable, but they don’t want to be seen to be responsible for it.
The BBC | There’s a great BBC ad that sets out the case for its importance as a universal public broadcaster: “The BBC is something that belongs to all of us,” it rousingly concludes. “Every one of us,” adds David Attenborough (who, incidentally, got five stars for Wild Isles last night). The agony of the current row is that in an alleged attempt to demonstrate commitment to that principle, the BBC’s leadership has instead shown that i) it has very senior presenters who really dislike the government, and ii) that the Conservatives have successfully insinuated their own representatives into its senior leadership.
Whatever you think of the Lineker row, this is surely the worst of all possible worlds for the BBC; and whatever happens next, the only winners of this episode are those who would rather it didn’t exist. (And football commentators and pundits everywhere, who have never seemed more important or more powerful as a bargaining unit.)
Read more on the Oscars
The winners | While Everything Everywhere All at Once cleaned up with seven awards – best picture, best actress (Michelle Yeoh, above), best director, best supporting actor, best supporting actress, best editing and best original screenplay – there were some other notable victories. Brendan Fraser won best actor, All Quiet on the Western Front won best international feature film, and Ruth E Carter became the first Black woman to win two Oscars, taking best costume design for her work on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The full list is here.
The fashion | Matt Fidler, Chloe Mac Donnell and Morwenna Ferrier have the red carpet looks in pictures. Lots more photos from the awards themselves are here.
The ceremony | “If anyone in this theater commits an act of violence at any point in the show, you will be awarded the Oscar for Best Actor and permitted to give a 19-minute-long speech,” Jimmy Kimmel said in his introductory monologue. Hugh Grant compared himself to a scrotum, David Byrne wore hotdog fingers, and Malala met Cocaine Bear: all the memes are here. Everyone thanked their mums. And here’s a compilation of the best quotes of the evening.
What else we’ve been reading
This piece by First Edition’s own Nimo Omer about British children being detained in brutal Somali “re-education” centres without anyone seeming to notice is a really excellent, and shocking, bit of reporting. Nimo will be bringing you more on this later in the week. Archie
It became clear, after damning court revelations, that Fox News does not have an endless well of support for Donald Trump. But the relationship shows no sign of disintegrating, David Smith writes, as each relies on the other for their own bottom line. Nimo
If you’re exhausted by the Lineker business, immerse yourself in a more timeless vision of sport’s importance in this fantastic Saturday magazine compilation of 50 great sporting photographs, ranging from Jesse Owens’ defiance of Hitler to a breastfeeding ultramarathoner. Archie
It’s easy to get lost in the sheer volume of data that is often thrown at us in the daily news cycle, so Oliver Johnson has written a helpful guide on how to read the news like a mathematician in order to make better sense of the information that we are presented with. Nimo
Simon Hattenstone’s interview with Vlad Beliavsky (above), a Ukrainian pacifist author now fighting on the frontline, is a memorable portrait of the contradictions the war has forced on his country. He quotes Nietzsche: “If you look at the darkness too long, the darkness also starts looking at you.” Archie
Sport
Rugby | A dominant 22-7 victory over Scotland kept Ireland on course for the grand slam and a Six Nations championship, with just one match remaining against a disappointing England side. “Ireland are the best team in the world – and rarely have they looked it more,” wrote Michael Aylwin.
Premier league | A 79th-minute goal from Miguel Almiron secured a 2-1 victory for Newcastle against Wolves, taking them into fifth spot. Meanwhile, Arsenal cantered to a 3-0 victory away to Fulham and restored their five-point lead at the top of the table, while Manchester United could only draw 0-0 against Southampton after Casemiro’s first-half red card.
WSL | Samantha Kerr’s goal was the difference between Chelsea and Manchester United, taking the London side past their rivals to the top of the table. “This had been billed as United’s moment,” wrote Suzanne Wrack. “Instead it showed how far they still have to go to catch Chelsea.”
The front pages
“BBC bosses in race to end Lineker standoff and avoid staff rebellion” – that’s the Guardian print splash today. “Lineker muzzled for now,” says the Metro front page, which feels a little off the pace. “Back of the net?” – the Daily Mirror says, adding that a “peace deal” should see the “star return to TV” and, to the paper’s apparent delight, “infuriate Tories”. “Gary Lineker expected back at work after BBC crisis talks” says the i, while the Times has “BBC bosses seek truce to get Lineker back onside”.
Papers that are not known for liking the BBC, or liberal viewpoints, have had to tread quite carefully on this one, considering the support Lineker has received. “Lineker set to return as BBC bosses back down” – the Telegraph goes on to make it about Auntie’s impartiality and the licence fee. The Daily Mail asks: “Will BBC do Lineker deal today to end TV stand-off?” “Lineker back on box,” says the Sun, adding it “will anger Tory MPs”. And there’s an interesting juxtaposition in the Daily Express, which gives the Lineker “peace offering” only a small picture on the front (the story’s inside) and has as its splash “Suella orders ‘woke’ police: protect free speech”.
Finally, the BBC’s football coverage might have collapsed but the banking system could as well, as the Financial Times reminds us: “Hunt races to gather cash lifeline for tech companies hit by SVB collapse”.
Today in Focus
Who blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines?
Months after the covert sabotage mission that has been likened to a spy thriller, the net could be closing in on the perpetrators at the centre of the mystery
Cartoon of the day | Edith Pritchett
Sign up for Inside Saturday to see more of Edith Pritchett’s cartoons, the best Saturday magazine content and an exclusive look behind the scenes
The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
After a nine-month investigation by the Guardian, the German weekly Die Zeit and SourceMaterial found widespread problems with the system used to calculate carbon credits, which companies use to offset their carbon footprints, the world’s leading carbon credit certifier has said it will phase out and replace its rainforest offsets programme by mid-2025. Verra, the main guarantee of credibility for the rapidly growing $2bn (£1.6bn) voluntary offsets market used by Disney, Shell, Gucci and other big corporations, has committed to scrapping its rainforest protection programme by July 2025 and introducing new rules.
Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday
Bored at work?
And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day – with plenty more on the Guardian’s Puzzles app for iOS and Android. Until tomorrow.
