Gary Neville has picked the wrong kind of free speech. His ‘deluded’ rant and ‘most dangerous lapse into self-parody’ has prompted a Sky Sports sack call.
The MailOnline really does need to be careful about calling this a ”racist’ outburst, by the way. That ground seems wafer thin.
Never say Neville
Gary Neville’s comments lamenting “the division that’s being created…mainly by angry, middle-aged white men who know exactly what they’re doing,” does appear to have infuriated a great deal of angry, middle-aged white men who do indeed know exactly what they’re doing.
It is definitely easy to see how Neville calling for togetherness and unity, denouncing “hate speech in any form and abuse in any form” and wanting “to get back to a country of love, of peace, of harmony” has incensed and enraged so many people. He must have expected such incendiary, unpleasant words to evoke such a reaction.
And after the single-person BOYCOTT, non-existent sack threat and really quite inflammatory quote marks around ”racist’ outburst’ when no-one described it as such because it wasn’t even close to being applicable, Tuesday brings a full-scale attempt to bring down the nefarious Neville.
The charge is depressingly predictably led by angry, middle-aged white man Oliver Brown of the Daily Telegraph, who lays into ‘a degree of solipsism remarkable even by his own standards’ from Neville – a reminder that his great crime here is wanting people to come together and not hate and kill each other – before landing on that money-making quote:
‘”We need to check ourselves, start to bring ourselves back to a neutral point,” he says, playing the great healer,’ Brown writes.
‘After all, nothing says neutrality quite like blaming the toxicity exclusively on “angry middle-aged white men”.’
And nothing says grift quite like knowing someone said “the division that’s being created…mainly by angry, middle-aged white men who know exactly what they’re doing,” but actually hearing them say those angry middle-aged white men are ‘exclusively’ the problem.
‘How strange that Neville should disdain these people – the type who work on his building sites, who seek an escape from the daily grind by paying the Sky Sports subscriptions that support his seven-figure salary – as some unspeakable sub-group of society.’
The people Neville ‘disdains’ are those who spread and incite prejudice and hatred based solely on nationality and the colour of someone’s skin. It is only ‘strange’ that we are supposed to pretend he is being unreasonable in that stance.
It is also bizarre that a supposedly reputable journalist can write freely that Neville’s video ‘has provoked less applause than derision and contempt, with increasing threats from viewers to stop paying for Sky in protest,’ without any actual evidence of such. Are those ‘increasing threats’ in the room with us now, Oliver?
‘Neville acts as if his position as the country’s most prominent football analyst also confers the right to be its conscience,’ Brown adds. Think he’s just acting as if he has an opinion and a platform, to be honest. So do you, and yet this is how you choose to use it.
But of course, the ‘deluded’ Neville, much like Gary Lineker, ‘has strayed so far out of his lane that he is practically in the ditch’.
If you want to just write ‘Keep Politics Out Of Football’ you can. No-one is stopping you, pal.
This, by the way, is perhaps Neville’s ‘most dangerous lapse into self-parody yet’.
Ah yes, that ‘dangerous’ rhetoric about wanting people to like each other and not be weaponised or led by hate speech. It’s some ‘self-parody’ from… Neville. When Mediawatch has an update on whether Brown has discovered the concept of irony we will let you know.
Flag bearer
Of course the Daily Mail have secured an anonymous interview with one of the builders on the development site Neville ordered a Union Jack flag to be removed from.
Of course they accused Neville ‘of being unpatriotic and suppressing free speech’ while using his right to free speech.
Of course he points to there being two other flags on the site which Neville did not demand were taken down, while adding that ‘the Union Flag was clearly visible from the street while the two others were more hidden inside of the site’, and not seeing the potential issue.
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Be Keir now
The MailOnline believe this furore to be enough to publish a lengthy feature on the man ‘who can’t stop injecting politics into football,’ as if he is on a hot goalscoring streak.
They have at least downscaled that BOYCOTT to the rather less severe: ‘The broadcaster is now facing threats from some commenters online to cancel their subscriptions in response to Neville’s latest remarks.’
And this article, most certainly framed as a criticism and hoping to paint Neville in a negative light, includes such paragraphs as:
‘Neville has often shared his opinions on political issues, such as saying people should ‘detest’ the working conditions for migrant workers in Qatar and condemning Boris Johnson for ‘fuelling’ racism during his time as Prime Minister.’
‘Neville criticised poor working conditions and deaths of migrant employees building the competition infrastructure and the Middle East state’s human rights record.’
‘The millionaire Labour party member gets on well with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, having shared interview platforms with him several times – and previously criticised Tory ex-PMs Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, while also campaigning against Brexit.’
‘His criticism of previous Conservative governments include the time in Downing Street spent by Boris Johnson, with Neville having used ITV coverage of England’s Euro 2020 semi-final victory over Denmark to say: ‘The standards of leaders in this country in the last couple of years has been poor.”’
Suggesting people probably shouldn’t have been exploited, abused and even died while building infrastructure for a major football tournament? Saying Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak and Brexit were not great in terms of dividing the country? Sharing interview platforms with Keir Starmer?! All together now: What. A. Prick.
GB blues
It does appear that Neville has carelessly picked the wrong kind of free speech again. For confirmation we must regretfully head to the last bastion of such virtues:
GB News: ‘An angry white man knows exactly what he’s doing with our flag. His name is Gary Neville – Kelvin MacKenzie’
Daily Express website: ‘Jeremy Kyle reacts to Gary Neville’s furious rant against ‘angry middle-aged white men”
SportBible: ‘Simon Jordan Brands Gary Neville a ‘Coward’ in Furious Rant Over Union Jack Flag’
Nothing says you are on the right side of an argument nearly as powerfully as being told you are wrong by Kelvin MacKenzie, Jeremy Kyle and Simon Jordan.
Sack it off
‘Gary Neville will NOT be punished by Sky Sports after £1.1m-a-year pundit’s ‘racist’ outburst against ‘angry middle-aged white men’ who are ‘creating division’ following synagogue attack’ – MailOnline.
‘Gary Neville escapes Sky Sports punishment despite risking breaching guidelines with ‘angry white men’ outburst’ – The Sun website.
‘Gary Neville escapes Sky Sports punishment after Union Flag controversy’ – Daily Telegraph.
Man who did nothing wrong faces no punishment.
And yep, there go the Mail again with quote marks surrounding the word ‘racist’ in the headline despite it not being used at any point whatsoever in the story body. It seems like someone wants to get litigious.
Weird question of the day
‘What’s wrong with ‘angry, middle-aged white men’, Gary Neville?’ – The Spectator.
Ask yourself why they’re angry and it might suddenly dawn on you.
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