Taking the knee, sky,and Premier league

Richard Littlejohn article, long read but worth the effort!
Tuesday 8th December 2020


Forget football for a moment. Here’s a for instance. You decide to settle down in front of Sky Atlantic’s latest HBO blockbuster The Undoing.


After the opening credits, the camera pans across the Manhattan skyline and comes to rest in the drawing room of a fancy apartment on Fifth Avenue. But before the drama gets under way, you are forced to watch Hugh Grant, Nicole Kidman and Donald Sutherland waving ‘Trump Won’ placards protesting the result of the 2020 election.

They’re all wearing Make America Great Again baseball caps. An identical slogan is plastered across the top of the screen. Every couple of minutes the programme is interrupted by a flash card reading: Build That Wall.

How would you react? My guess is that you’d either switch off immediately or chuck the nearest heavy object through your flatscreen TV before cancelling your subscription.

Of course, this is purely hypothetical. Sky wouldn’t dream of subjecting viewers of Sky Atlantic or Sky Cinema to such crass political grandstanding.

Sky Sports News is unwatchable. These days it’s like tuning into a Guardian editorial conference on Zoom. All you want to know is the latest team news. Instead you’re bombarded with fatuous agitprop tailored to appeasing BLM

So why the hell do they think it’s perfectly acceptable to keep badgering Sky Sports customers with Black Lives Matter propaganda? Every live event features the BLM logo alongside the scorecard. Every action replay is heralded by an anti-racism bumper — even though subliminal advertising on television has been banned since 1958.

‘Hate will not stop us.’ What the hell is that supposed to mean? ‘We Hear. We See. We Commit.’ Oh, do grow up.

Ad breaks are book-ended by film of American gridiron players kneeling and giving the black power clenched fist salute.

This week they even added a ridiculous ‘Rainbow Laces’ logo. I turned on for the pre-match show from The Hawthorns on Sunday to find poor old Graeme Souness wearing a rainbow lapel badge and discussing homophobia and transphobia, rather than addressing West Brom’s inability to find the back of the net this season.

Watching Sky Sports News voluntarily is to behave like that bloke who used to sing Mule Train on TV while smashing himself over the head with a tin tea tray every few seconds.

During the summer, worn down by Covid and lockdown, half the country went slightly bonkers. But that doesn't excuse the way in which Sky and the Premier League have fastened on to BLM to burnish their own dubious compassionate credentials


During the summer, worn down by Covid and lockdown, half the country went slightly bonkers. But that doesn’t excuse the way in which Sky and the Premier League have fastened on to BLM to burnish their own dubious compassionate credentials

Of course, Sky is only following the cynical lead set by the English Premier League, which has embraced BLM like a long-lost lover and encourages players to take the knee before every game.

No surprise there. The EPL is merely acting in character, like every bully who wallows in self-righteous sentimentality.

Just as the Kray twins used to distribute toys to children’s hospitals at Christmas to convince people they weren’t really monsters, so the Premier League clambers aboard every passing bandwagon to prove how much it cares. The Black Lives Matter overkill is merely the latest manifestation.

Now then, this shouldn’t really be necessary, but let’s get the caveats out of the way before the usual brain-dead suspects start screaming RAY-CIST (not that it’ll stop them). Like most decent people, like most decent football supporters, I abhor racism.

More than 20 years ago, I was presenting TV and radio shows promoting the nascent Kick It Out movement alongside founder member Paul Elliott, the black former Chelsea defender.

I supported Trevor Phillips, then the head of the Equalities Commission, when he proposed football adopted the American ‘Rooney Rule’, which would have ensured that every shortlist for a manager, coach or administrator vacancy included at least one ethnic minority candidate — an initiative that the ‘anti-racist’ football authorities rejected out of hand.

I turned on for the pre-match show from The Hawthorns on Sunday to find poor old Graeme Souness wearing a rainbow lapel badge and discussing homophobia and transphobia, rather than addressing West Brom's inability to find the back of the net this season

As recently as this summer, I suggested that rather than tearing down statues of dead white males, it would be more constructive to erect a statue of the pioneering black professional footballer and World War I hero Walter Tull outside the new Spurs stadium. We’re still waiting.

Instead, before every single game we have to put up with players taking the knee, a puerile gesture imported from the U.S., following the horrible death of George Floyd.

This ghastly incident was seized upon by the far-Left BLM UK to foment trouble in Britain. Thousands of people genuinely worried about racism were suckered into supporting BLM from the best of motives.

Who elected them to be the guardians of our national moral conscience? These are two of the most rapacious corporations out there, afloat on a tsunami of money from foreign betting companies.

Only yesterday, it was reported that ministers are considering forcing clubs to remove betting firm logos from shirts.

There are estimated to be 430,000 problem gamblers in Britain. Last year, gamblers lost a combined £14.4 billion.

How much of that filthy lucre found its way into the coffers of Sky and the Premier League?

We See. We Hear. We Couldn’t Give A Monkey’s.

Look, I don’t doubt the sincerity of the players taking the knee, even though some of them may have been intimidated into complying.

Which of them would dare to refuse? They’d face the same kind of opprobrium as any foolhardy member of the Soviet Communist Party who was first to stop clapping after one of Stalin’s speeches.

When this nonsense started back in the summer, I predicted it wouldn’t survive the return of fans. So it proved at The Den on Saturday, when Millwall fans booed players taking the knee. I’m not going to condone the booing, nor am I going to condemn it. Millwall supporters have every right to make their feelings heard.

Allegiance runs deep, passed down through families and communities. Fans resent their clubs being hijacked by the opportunist, Johnny-Come-Lately forces of wokery.

To accuse anyone who objects to players taking the knee of being a dyed-in-the-wool racist is disgraceful. Those throwing around such slurs should be ashamed of themselves.

Does their vile, wokier-than-thou abuse also extend to QPR’s director of football Les Ferdinand, among our most distinguished black former footballers, one of millions who think this crass gesture has served its purpose and should be abandoned?

Or the black Tory minister James Cleverly, who has fought racism all his life and said yesterday he would never take the knee?

For my part, I’ve often said I hate everything about football, except the football. (Mind you, after the second half on Sunday I’m not even sure about the football any more, despite Spurs beating the Arsenal 2-0.)

Regardless, I won’t be renewing my season ticket at Tottenham while the club continues to support a Marxist front organisation which wants to defund the police and smash the nuclear family.

The final straw came on Remembrance Sunday when, after observing a minute’s silence for our glorious war dead, the players then knelt in subjugation to a sometimes violent, politically motivated mob which attacked Churchill’s statue and desecrated the Cenotaph.

Perhaps when Spurs chairman Daniel Levy demonstrates his sincerity by standing down in favour of a black community leader from the neighbouring Broadwater Farm Estate, I might reconsider.

Until then, enough already. Get off your knees.

I say well done for speaking out , he's right in what he's saying ,

That's a great read and good to know there are others out there who are fed up with being told what we're supposed to believe.

This is the person who seems to guide your moral compass. A fine role model for many posters on this forum. I know i will be slated by the usual suspects but hey, i tell it like it is. I cannot tell you how being white feels because i'm not white. You can't tell me the consequences of being a black person if you are white because you don't know. Most Black people don't support BLM but the do cry out for equality. Anyhow back to the shining example that is Richard Littlejohn.

Death of Lucy Meadows
In December 2012, Littlejohn wrote an article criticising the decision of Accrington teacher Lucy Meadows to return to the same school after undergoing Gender Reassignment Surgery. Littlejohn repeatedly misgendered Meadows and stated: "he's not only trapped in the wrong body, he's in the wrong job".[19]

In March 2013, Meadows was found dead with police reporting no suspicious circumstance, suggesting suicide.[20] Littlejohn's article was later removed from the Daily Mail's website following Meadows' death.[19] Trans Media Watch, a charity for transgender people, said: "We are deeply saddened that this inquest should ever have been needed."[21] A petition drive was launched demanding Littlejohn be sacked.[19][22][23][24][25] Two petitions signed by over 240,000 people were handed over to the Daily Mail offices.[26]

At the inquest into her death on 28 May 2013, it was reported Meadows had contacted the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) over press harassment citing Littlejohn.[27] Blackburn and Hyndburn Coroner Michael Singleton stated that press coverage of her gender reassignment was "ill informed bigotry" and that Littlejohn in his article had "carried out what can only be described as a character assassination, having sought to ridicule and humiliate Lucy Meadows and bring into question her right to pursue her career as a teacher".[28]

Asian hopscotch lessons
In February 2011, Littlejohn wrote in his Daily Mail column that Haringey Council was using taxpayer funds for hopscotch lessons for Asian women. This was an urban myth first propagated in 1995 by the former Conservative Party chairman Brian Mawhinney, who took the name of the Hopscotch Asian Women's Centre literally. The centre offers "support services for Asian women and their families on a wide range of issues including domestic violence, benefits, housing, education, immigration and health matters [and provided] advocacy and support to people with learning disabilities".[3]

Jack Monroe
Littlejohn was accused[4] of taking insufficient care to check the facts before publishing an article critical of cookery writer and poverty campaigner Jack Monroe. Littlejohn suggested that Monroe, who prefers the singular they pronoun, chose to give up their job. Monroe's young son was unsettled with a range of different carers. As Monroe had grown up in a home with foster children, they are aware of the potential for harming him. Monroe tried unsuccessfully to negotiate flexible hours so they could work and look after their baby, but gave up their job so they could look after the child better.[29] Littlejohn incorrectly suggested that Monroe was an unemployed welfare claimant.[30][31]

Attitude toward homosexuality
In 2004, the Diary column of The Guardian newspaper documented the results of a "Littlejohn audit"[32]—a count of the number of references Littlejohn makes to homosexuality in his columns. Marina Hyde of The Guardian noted in 2004:
In the past year's Sun columns, Richard has referred 42 times to gays, 16 times to lesbians, 15 to homosexuals, eight to bisexuals, twice to 'homophobia' and six to being "homophobic" (note his inverted commas), five times to cottaging, four to "gay sex in public toilets", three to poofs, twice to lesbianism, and once each to buggery, dykery, and poovery. This amounts to 104 references in 90-odd columns – an impressive increase on his 2003 total of 82 mentions.[32]

Disabled protester
In December 2010, Littlejohn satirised[33] an incident in which a 20-year-old man with cerebral palsy, Jody McIntyre, complained of mistreatment by police at a protest. Littlejohn argued that the young man involved should not have attended the protest, and compared him to Andy Pipkin from Little Britain.[33][34] This prompted 500 complaints to the Press Complaints Commission.[34]

Ethnic minority jobs
In December 2012, the Daily Mail published an apology following a piece written by Littlejohn which suggested that ethnic minority staff had got their jobs through discrimination and had threatened to sue the Equality and Human Rights Commissions. The Daily Mail agreed with the Press Complaints Council to publish an apology and clarification.[35]

Tom Daley
On 15 February 2018, Littlejohn, writing for his Daily Mail column, focused on the news that Tom Daley and his husband Dustin Lance Black were expecting their first child. Littlejohn stated that while he supported fostered children being brought up by loving, gay partners, as opposed to living in state institutions, he nonetheless adhered to his belief that children "benefit most from being raised by a man and a woman". He also criticised that in many cases of male gay relationships, Daley and Black included, women were being seen as "mere breeding machines" (their baby's surrogate mother not having been identified) and that offspring were shown off like "commodities".

Littlejohn came under widespread criticism for his comments, with many[who?] accusing him of homophobia. As a result, Center Parcs announced its decision to cease publication of its advertisements in the Daily Mail, with a number of other businesses also reviewing their decision to advertise in the newspaper.[5][36]

Bye Bye again

Roger,
A good read thanks


Ive totally had enough of it week in week out and for me BLM are the ones racist.

Millwall and Colchester fans both booed the knee last Saturday and are now being labelled racist, totally totally unfair.

I know a number of players who have had enough of it and a manager, but the media are virtually forcing them to take the knee.

We need a few to actually refuse.

It was done at the beginning out of respect, now for me its gone way to far.

mm3260 Nobody is saying that there is no racism all around, but there needs to be a lot more done than taking the knee, which to me is a gimmick that sky and the premier league are promoting for their own greedy benefit.
When many very prominent black people are saying the same, and taking the knee should be stopped, surely that shows it up for what it is!

Always a great read, to the point and truthful.

It’s his honest opinion and I agree with him.

Just slightly off this theme great to see the government stopping 16yr olds doing the lottery and putting it back to 18. Another reason they should keep 18 for voting.

Maybe the country is reverting back to the common sense approach!!!!!!! I won’t hold my breath.

mm3260 Nobody is saying that there is no racism all around, but there needs to be a lot more done than taking the knee, which to me is a gimmick that sky and the premier league are promoting for their own greedy benefit.
When many very prominent black people are saying the same, and taking the knee should be stopped, surely that shows it up for what it is!

I’m not sure why they appear to have abandoned the KIO lot? Be better if they put more effort into something already existing rather than a new thing that’s got more flaws than hmmm I’d better not say.........

I didn't renew my season ticket at the city this year because of the same reason and got called racist and got slaughtered on here. I think more and more supporters are starting to feel the same. Well done Millwall, you have the right to boo if they have the right to promote a political organisation such as BLM.

Still find it strange that the prem and EFL adopted the BLM campaign when they already had the kick it out campaign going for years. From what I can recall, KIO had gained a fair bit of media attention and you'd see quite a lot of coverage of the work they were doing in local communities. At a time when KIO could have really hammered home their message, they were completely forgotten about and replaced with BLM.

If this is true then brilliant common sense prevails and No more dividing Society and football fans

QPR stopped along time ago and Millwall had until the media put pressure on them.

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

Still find it strange that the prem and EFL adopted the BLM campaign when they already had the kick it out campaign going for years. From what I can recall, KIO had gained a fair bit of media attention and you'd see quite a lot of coverage of the work they were doing in local communities. At a time when KIO could have really hammered home their message, they were completely forgotten about and replaced with BLM.

same here, i dont recall anyone booing kick it out... but there again they didnt go around burning flags, attacking the police and defacing monuments

Millwall / QPR been on talk sport. They are just going to link arms

It should all be left out of sport.

Every club has every type of political persuasion supporting. Its the club that brings then all together where we all become united by supporting our team. Perhaps its this united time that stops us going to war against each other.

All this BLM stuff has done is dived the community we have created in the clubs around the country.

It should all be left out of sport.

Every club has every type of political persuasion supporting. Its the club that brings then all together where we all become united by supporting our team. Perhaps its this united time that stops us going to war against each other.

All this BLM stuff has done is dived the community we have created in the clubs around the country.

Spot on Ian

Perhaps its good to raise important issues. This poor person was bullied for dressing like this in ARSENAL game.
Educatio,education.

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

This is the person who seems to guide your moral compass. A fine role model for many posters on this forum. I know i will be slated by the usual suspects but hey, i tell it like it is. I cannot tell you how being white feels because i'm not white. You can't tell me the consequences of being a black person if you are white because you don't know. Most Black people don't support BLM but the do cry out for equality. Anyhow back to the shining example that is Richard Littlejohn.

Death of Lucy Meadows
In December 2012, Littlejohn wrote an article criticising the decision of Accrington teacher Lucy Meadows to return to the same school after undergoing Gender Reassignment Surgery. Littlejohn repeatedly misgendered Meadows and stated: "he's not only trapped in the wrong body, he's in the wrong job".[19]

In March 2013, Meadows was found dead with police reporting no suspicious circumstance, suggesting suicide.[20] Littlejohn's article was later removed from the Daily Mail's website following Meadows' death.[19] Trans Media Watch, a charity for transgender people, said: "We are deeply saddened that this inquest should ever have been needed."[21] A petition drive was launched demanding Littlejohn be sacked.[19][22][23][24][25] Two petitions signed by over 240,000 people were handed over to the Daily Mail offices.[26]

At the inquest into her death on 28 May 2013, it was reported Meadows had contacted the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) over press harassment citing Littlejohn.[27] Blackburn and Hyndburn Coroner Michael Singleton stated that press coverage of her gender reassignment was "ill informed bigotry" and that Littlejohn in his article had "carried out what can only be described as a character assassination, having sought to ridicule and humiliate Lucy Meadows and bring into question her right to pursue her career as a teacher".[28]

Asian hopscotch lessons
In February 2011, Littlejohn wrote in his Daily Mail column that Haringey Council was using taxpayer funds for hopscotch lessons for Asian women. This was an urban myth first propagated in 1995 by the former Conservative Party chairman Brian Mawhinney, who took the name of the Hopscotch Asian Women's Centre literally. The centre offers "support services for Asian women and their families on a wide range of issues including domestic violence, benefits, housing, education, immigration and health matters [and provided] advocacy and support to people with learning disabilities".[3]

Jack Monroe
Littlejohn was accused[4] of taking insufficient care to check the facts before publishing an article critical of cookery writer and poverty campaigner Jack Monroe. Littlejohn suggested that Monroe, who prefers the singular they pronoun, chose to give up their job. Monroe's young son was unsettled with a range of different carers. As Monroe had grown up in a home with foster children, they are aware of the potential for harming him. Monroe tried unsuccessfully to negotiate flexible hours so they could work and look after their baby, but gave up their job so they could look after the child better.[29] Littlejohn incorrectly suggested that Monroe was an unemployed welfare claimant.[30][31]

Attitude toward homosexuality
In 2004, the Diary column of The Guardian newspaper documented the results of a "Littlejohn audit"[32]—a count of the number of references Littlejohn makes to homosexuality in his columns. Marina Hyde of The Guardian noted in 2004:
In the past year's Sun columns, Richard has referred 42 times to gays, 16 times to lesbians, 15 to homosexuals, eight to bisexuals, twice to 'homophobia' and six to being "homophobic" (note his inverted commas), five times to cottaging, four to "gay sex in public toilets", three to poofs, twice to lesbianism, and once each to buggery, dykery, and poovery. This amounts to 104 references in 90-odd columns – an impressive increase on his 2003 total of 82 mentions.[32]

Disabled protester
In December 2010, Littlejohn satirised[33] an incident in which a 20-year-old man with cerebral palsy, Jody McIntyre, complained of mistreatment by police at a protest. Littlejohn argued that the young man involved should not have attended the protest, and compared him to Andy Pipkin from Little Britain.[33][34] This prompted 500 complaints to the Press Complaints Commission.[34]

Ethnic minority jobs
In December 2012, the Daily Mail published an apology following a piece written by Littlejohn which suggested that ethnic minority staff had got their jobs through discrimination and had threatened to sue the Equality and Human Rights Commissions. The Daily Mail agreed with the Press Complaints Council to publish an apology and clarification.[35]

Tom Daley
On 15 February 2018, Littlejohn, writing for his Daily Mail column, focused on the news that Tom Daley and his husband Dustin Lance Black were expecting their first child. Littlejohn stated that while he supported fostered children being brought up by loving, gay partners, as opposed to living in state institutions, he nonetheless adhered to his belief that children "benefit most from being raised by a man and a woman". He also criticised that in many cases of male gay relationships, Daley and Black included, women were being seen as "mere breeding machines" (their baby's surrogate mother not having been identified) and that offspring were shown off like "commodities".

Littlejohn came under widespread criticism for his comments, with many[who?] accusing him of homophobia. As a result, Center Parcs announced its decision to cease publication of its advertisements in the Daily Mail, with a number of other businesses also reviewing their decision to advertise in the newspaper.[5][36]

Bye Bye again

Well written, well said. If people hang on the words of media idiots like Richard Littlejohn then they must have a very blinkered and unhealthy view of the world.

Perhaps its good to raise important issues. This poor person was bullied for dressing like this in ARSENAL game.
Educatio,education.

Don’t blame them, that shirt is appalling.

Perhaps its good to raise important issues. This poor person was bullied for dressing like this in ARSENAL game.
Educatio,education.

What does educatio, education mean?

Millwall players did not take the knee tonight / but some QPR players did

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

If players do or don’t want to take the knee that’s fine by me they should not be pilloried over it. It’s the black power salute I disagree with an organisation that said “more violent action was needed” to counteract white supremacy. They wanted to ban the poppy on the shirt a couple of years ago because it was a political statement if that salute isn’t a political statement I don’t know what is, Kick it out.

Taking the knee is starting to have the opposite effect of what was intended. The public are being irritated by it and hardening against it and the BLM subject...stop now.

I cannot tell you how being white feels because i'm not white. You can't tell me the consequences of being a black person if you are white because you don't know.

This line of thinking just saddens me so much, because it only leads to one place and that is a dark place from our past that we have long ago moved on from, yet we are embracing a divisive and poisonous ideology that is taking us back there.

We've already seen segregation returning in the States in the guise of woke safe spaces.

Harvard holding a Black only graduation ceremony https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 30686.html

White students being asked to leave black only spaces https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-51506733

and it was only a matter of time before white only spaces occurred in response https://www.foxnews.com/us/university-u ... hite-awake

and in Califonia the motion to repeal race segregation laws in place was put forward https://www.manhattan-institute.org/cal ... s-prop-209

All in the name of equality. All in line with the premise that I as a white man cannot understand you as a black man, and you as a black man cannot understand me as a white man. The road to hell truly is paved with good intentions.

To paraphrase Morgan Freeman, I’m going to stop calling you a black man. And I’m going to ask you to stop calling me a white man. I'll know you as a man, you know me as a man, with shared experiences of being human.

Watch the following video, where 1,000 people who had never met before took part at a special event at the Tower of David in Jerusalem, to sing one song, in three languages and in three-part vocal harmony, which took them less than an hour to learn.

Then tell me that the human race is better divided, focused on our differences instead of coming together and focusing on the much bigger commonalities we all share as part of this fragile, yet strangely wonderful, inventive and beautiful thing we call the human race.

I'm so tired of all the division. It's not what we're supposed to be.

I cannot tell you how being white feels because i'm not white. You can't tell me the consequences of being a black person if you are white because you don't know.

This line of thinking just saddens me so much, because it only leads to one place and that is a dark place from our past that we have long ago moved on from, yet we are embracing a divisive and poisonous ideology that is taking us back there.

We've already seen segregation returning in the States in the guise of woke safe spaces.

Harvard holding a Black only graduation ceremony https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 30686.html

White students being asked to leave black only spaces https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-51506733

and it was only a matter of time before white only spaces occurred in response https://www.foxnews.com/us/university-u ... hite-awake

and in Califonia the motion to repeal race segregation laws in place was put forward https://www.manhattan-institute.org/cal ... s-prop-209

All in the name of equality. All in line with the premise that I as a white man cannot understand you as a black man, and you as a black man cannot understand me as a white man. The road to hell truly is paved with good intentions.

To paraphrase Morgan Freeman, I’m going to stop calling you a black man. And I’m going to ask you to stop calling me a white man. I'll know you as a man, you know me as a man, with shared experiences of being human.

Watch the following video, where 1,000 people who had never met before took part at a special event at the Tower of David in Jerusalem, to sing one song, in three languages and in three-part vocal harmony, which took them less than an hour to learn.

Then tell me that the human race is better divided, focused on our differences instead of coming together and focusing on the much bigger commonalities we all share as part of this fragile, yet strangely wonderful, inventive and beautiful thing we call the human race.

I'm so tired of all the division. It's not what we're supposed to be.

Wow.....what a moving video and song, not quite as good as SLF - At the Edge, but a pretty close second.

To anybody who cares to look, it's not the people who divide us, it's the media. I'll drink with any man, woman or other....as long as they stand their round.

Still find it strange that the prem and EFL adopted the BLM campaign when they already had the kick it out campaign going for years. From what I can recall, KIO had gained a fair bit of media attention and you'd see quite a lot of coverage of the work they were doing in local communities. At a time when KIO could have really hammered home their message, they were completely forgotten about and replaced with BLM.

same here, i dont recall anyone booing kick it out... but there again they didnt go around burning flags, attacking the police and defacing monuments

Spot on. BLM is a violent far left political regime. I will never support them and I don't want them anywhere near my football club.

Kick it out have my full support and have done alot of great work in football.

Millwall players did not take the knee tonight / but some QPR players did

Annis, now just wait for the fall out of this. Some players/clubs doing it, some not. This will only cause divides.

Still find it strange that the prem and EFL adopted the BLM campaign when they already had the kick it out campaign going for years. From what I can recall, KIO had gained a fair bit of media attention and you'd see quite a lot of coverage of the work they were doing in local communities. At a time when KIO could have really hammered home their message, they were completely forgotten about and replaced with BLM.

same here, i dont recall anyone booing kick it out... but there again they didnt go around burning flags, attacking the police and defacing monuments

Spot on. BLM is a violent far left political regime. I will never support them and I don't want them anywhere near my football club.

Kick it out have my full support and have done alot of great work in football.

i dont get the dog with a bone mentality mate...BLM has been a disaster... which has achieved far more division than there was prior to it rearing its head....and those defending BLM seem to be doing it far more from their political view point than anything to do with genuine concerns about racism...

Millwall players did not take the knee tonight / but some QPR players did

Annis QPR were disgusting when they scored two players went over to the Millwall fans and went down on one knee then gave the Racist Black powered fist pump. That was done to antagonise the Millwall fans into a response. Will these players be punished ? Will they f**k.
The original post was a very good read and rivals our very own Ealing Ayatollah lol

This is the person who seems to guide your moral compass. A fine role model for many posters on this forum. I know i will be slated by the usual suspects but hey, i tell it like it is. I cannot tell you how being white feels because i'm not white. You can't tell me the consequences of being a black person if you are white because you don't know. Most Black people don't support BLM but the do cry out for equality. Anyhow back to the shining example that is Richard Littlejohn.

Death of Lucy Meadows
In December 2012, Littlejohn wrote an article criticising the decision of Accrington teacher Lucy Meadows to return to the same school after undergoing Gender Reassignment Surgery. Littlejohn repeatedly misgendered Meadows and stated: "he's not only trapped in the wrong body, he's in the wrong job".[19]

In March 2013, Meadows was found dead with police reporting no suspicious circumstance, suggesting suicide.[20] Littlejohn's article was later removed from the Daily Mail's website following Meadows' death.[19] Trans Media Watch, a charity for transgender people, said: "We are deeply saddened that this inquest should ever have been needed."[21] A petition drive was launched demanding Littlejohn be sacked.[19][22][23][24][25] Two petitions signed by over 240,000 people were handed over to the Daily Mail offices.[26]

At the inquest into her death on 28 May 2013, it was reported Meadows had contacted the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) over press harassment citing Littlejohn.[27] Blackburn and Hyndburn Coroner Michael Singleton stated that press coverage of her gender reassignment was "ill informed bigotry" and that Littlejohn in his article had "carried out what can only be described as a character assassination, having sought to ridicule and humiliate Lucy Meadows and bring into question her right to pursue her career as a teacher".[28]

Asian hopscotch lessons
In February 2011, Littlejohn wrote in his Daily Mail column that Haringey Council was using taxpayer funds for hopscotch lessons for Asian women. This was an urban myth first propagated in 1995 by the former Conservative Party chairman Brian Mawhinney, who took the name of the Hopscotch Asian Women's Centre literally. The centre offers "support services for Asian women and their families on a wide range of issues including domestic violence, benefits, housing, education, immigration and health matters [and provided] advocacy and support to people with learning disabilities".[3]

Jack Monroe
Littlejohn was accused[4] of taking insufficient care to check the facts before publishing an article critical of cookery writer and poverty campaigner Jack Monroe. Littlejohn suggested that Monroe, who prefers the singular they pronoun, chose to give up their job. Monroe's young son was unsettled with a range of different carers. As Monroe had grown up in a home with foster children, they are aware of the potential for harming him. Monroe tried unsuccessfully to negotiate flexible hours so they could work and look after their baby, but gave up their job so they could look after the child better.[29] Littlejohn incorrectly suggested that Monroe was an unemployed welfare claimant.[30][31]

Attitude toward homosexuality
In 2004, the Diary column of The Guardian newspaper documented the results of a "Littlejohn audit"[32]—a count of the number of references Littlejohn makes to homosexuality in his columns. Marina Hyde of The Guardian noted in 2004:
In the past year's Sun columns, Richard has referred 42 times to gays, 16 times to lesbians, 15 to homosexuals, eight to bisexuals, twice to 'homophobia' and six to being "homophobic" (note his inverted commas), five times to cottaging, four to "gay sex in public toilets", three to poofs, twice to lesbianism, and once each to buggery, dykery, and poovery. This amounts to 104 references in 90-odd columns – an impressive increase on his 2003 total of 82 mentions.[32]

Disabled protester
In December 2010, Littlejohn satirised[33] an incident in which a 20-year-old man with cerebral palsy, Jody McIntyre, complained of mistreatment by police at a protest. Littlejohn argued that the young man involved should not have attended the protest, and compared him to Andy Pipkin from Little Britain.[33][34] This prompted 500 complaints to the Press Complaints Commission.[34]

Ethnic minority jobs
In December 2012, the Daily Mail published an apology following a piece written by Littlejohn which suggested that ethnic minority staff had got their jobs through discrimination and had threatened to sue the Equality and Human Rights Commissions. The Daily Mail agreed with the Press Complaints Council to publish an apology and clarification.[35]

Tom Daley
On 15 February 2018, Littlejohn, writing for his Daily Mail column, focused on the news that Tom Daley and his husband Dustin Lance Black were expecting their first child. Littlejohn stated that while he supported fostered children being brought up by loving, gay partners, as opposed to living in state institutions, he nonetheless adhered to his belief that children "benefit most from being raised by a man and a woman". He also criticised that in many cases of male gay relationships, Daley and Black included, women were being seen as "mere breeding machines" (their baby's surrogate mother not having been identified) and that offspring were shown off like "commodities".

Littlejohn came under widespread criticism for his comments, with many[who?] accusing him of homophobia. As a result, Center Parcs announced its decision to cease publication of its advertisements in the Daily Mail, with a number of other businesses also reviewing their decision to advertise in the newspaper.[5][36]

Bye Bye again

Well written, well said. If people hang on the words of media idiots like Richard Littlejohn then they must have a very blinkered and unhealthy view of the world.

No more slanted than those who believe Guardian editorials.

This is the person who seems to guide your moral compass. A fine role model for many posters on this forum. I know i will be slated by the usual suspects but hey, i tell it like it is. I cannot tell you how being white feels because i'm not white. You can't tell me the consequences of being a black person if you are white because you don't know. Most Black people don't support BLM but the do cry out for equality. Anyhow back to the shining example that is Richard Littlejohn.

Death of Lucy Meadows
In December 2012, Littlejohn wrote an article criticising the decision of Accrington teacher Lucy Meadows to return to the same school after undergoing Gender Reassignment Surgery. Littlejohn repeatedly misgendered Meadows and stated: "he's not only trapped in the wrong body, he's in the wrong job".[19]

In March 2013, Meadows was found dead with police reporting no suspicious circumstance, suggesting suicide.[20] Littlejohn's article was later removed from the Daily Mail's website following Meadows' death.[19] Trans Media Watch, a charity for transgender people, said: "We are deeply saddened that this inquest should ever have been needed."[21] A petition drive was launched demanding Littlejohn be sacked.[19][22][23][24][25] Two petitions signed by over 240,000 people were handed over to the Daily Mail offices.[26]

At the inquest into her death on 28 May 2013, it was reported Meadows had contacted the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) over press harassment citing Littlejohn.[27] Blackburn and Hyndburn Coroner Michael Singleton stated that press coverage of her gender reassignment was "ill informed bigotry" and that Littlejohn in his article had "carried out what can only be described as a character assassination, having sought to ridicule and humiliate Lucy Meadows and bring into question her right to pursue her career as a teacher".[28]

Asian hopscotch lessons
In February 2011, Littlejohn wrote in his Daily Mail column that Haringey Council was using taxpayer funds for hopscotch lessons for Asian women. This was an urban myth first propagated in 1995 by the former Conservative Party chairman Brian Mawhinney, who took the name of the Hopscotch Asian Women's Centre literally. The centre offers "support services for Asian women and their families on a wide range of issues including domestic violence, benefits, housing, education, immigration and health matters [and provided] advocacy and support to people with learning disabilities".[3]

Jack Monroe
Littlejohn was accused[4] of taking insufficient care to check the facts before publishing an article critical of cookery writer and poverty campaigner Jack Monroe. Littlejohn suggested that Monroe, who prefers the singular they pronoun, chose to give up their job. Monroe's young son was unsettled with a range of different carers. As Monroe had grown up in a home with foster children, they are aware of the potential for harming him. Monroe tried unsuccessfully to negotiate flexible hours so they could work and look after their baby, but gave up their job so they could look after the child better.[29] Littlejohn incorrectly suggested that Monroe was an unemployed welfare claimant.[30][31]

Attitude toward homosexuality
In 2004, the Diary column of The Guardian newspaper documented the results of a "Littlejohn audit"[32]—a count of the number of references Littlejohn makes to homosexuality in his columns. Marina Hyde of The Guardian noted in 2004:
In the past year's Sun columns, Richard has referred 42 times to gays, 16 times to lesbians, 15 to homosexuals, eight to bisexuals, twice to 'homophobia' and six to being "homophobic" (note his inverted commas), five times to cottaging, four to "gay sex in public toilets", three to poofs, twice to lesbianism, and once each to buggery, dykery, and poovery. This amounts to 104 references in 90-odd columns – an impressive increase on his 2003 total of 82 mentions.[32]

Disabled protester
In December 2010, Littlejohn satirised[33] an incident in which a 20-year-old man with cerebral palsy, Jody McIntyre, complained of mistreatment by police at a protest. Littlejohn argued that the young man involved should not have attended the protest, and compared him to Andy Pipkin from Little Britain.[33][34] This prompted 500 complaints to the Press Complaints Commission.[34]

Ethnic minority jobs
In December 2012, the Daily Mail published an apology following a piece written by Littlejohn which suggested that ethnic minority staff had got their jobs through discrimination and had threatened to sue the Equality and Human Rights Commissions. The Daily Mail agreed with the Press Complaints Council to publish an apology and clarification.[35]

Tom Daley
On 15 February 2018, Littlejohn, writing for his Daily Mail column, focused on the news that Tom Daley and his husband Dustin Lance Black were expecting their first child. Littlejohn stated that while he supported fostered children being brought up by loving, gay partners, as opposed to living in state institutions, he nonetheless adhered to his belief that children "benefit most from being raised by a man and a woman". He also criticised that in many cases of male gay relationships, Daley and Black included, women were being seen as "mere breeding machines" (their baby's surrogate mother not having been identified) and that offspring were shown off like "commodities".

Littlejohn came under widespread criticism for his comments, with many[who?] accusing him of homophobia. As a result, Center Parcs announced its decision to cease publication of its advertisements in the Daily Mail, with a number of other businesses also reviewing their decision to advertise in the newspaper.[5][36]

Bye Bye again

Well written, well said. If people hang on the words of media idiots like Richard Littlejohn then they must have a very blinkered and unhealthy view of the world.

No more slanted than those who believe Guardian editorials.

Technically Bobby, I'm not sure you can congratulate someone on their writing skills when the post is 90% copied and pasted from Wikipedia either.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Littlejohn