I agree with all that, Rain Dog. Had Gary given one or two examples of the words used ("invasion" "illegals," etc.,) it would have been far harder for the Mail (and possibly others) to misrepresent his tweet, but that's Twitter (and the Mail) for you. As for being careful as to what we say and what words we use, it's my impression that there are far more attack-dogs ready to demonise people who are on the left for even the slightest ambiguity or carelessness of expression. Jeremy Corbyn gave Starmer the pretext to throw him out of the PLP by making what I thought was an anodyne and fairly inoffensive riposte to a report that had basically condemned him comprehensively. Should he have said it? Did he have the right to say it? Now ask the same questions about the Alan Sugar remarks I posted. If there's an element involved in the right to free speech that constrains some, but not others, not to speak up, I'd call that a slippery slope.

I actually think that a far bigger issue that Gary Lineker and Match Of The Day has been thrown up here. We've had a number of Tory threats to democracy since Johnson took power (Theresa May wasn't exactly innocent either), and I think we are definitely seeing another one here. The problem is that we have an opposition who are likely to be in power soon but who can't see through the stinking ideology behind the Tory outrages.