ONLY THING LINEKER IS GUILTY OF IS A BAD JOKE

GARY LINEKER never tweets impulsively. Before he presses send, he reads the message through for potential misunderstandings, and he’s always sober. He must have been rather surprised, then, that a harmless little aside on Wednesday turned so swiftly against him. When Manchester City scored, Lineker joked that he had a tenner on Black Lives Matter for the first goal. The slogan was written on the back of every shirt. See? Lineker (below) pretended he thought that was the name of the player. Such fun. And, no, it wasn’t his best work. Not because it was racist, but because it was rather an obvious line. Still, there were a fair few out there just as predictably calling for him to be sacked, or cancelled, for casual racism. Few, however, appeared to be

black. One imagines black people are more understanding of the difference between actual racism and a joke. That’s why they were not out on the streets protesting

repeats of Fawlty Towers or The Mighty Boosh.

Black Lives Matter was not intended as a grand cultural reckoning, led by the humourless. It was a push back, an angry howl against authoritarian violence, against structural disadvantage, against the absence of opportunity and social mobility. These are higher motives. Yet when it now meets resistance — as it may, inevitably, because this nation intrinsically distrusts attacks on laughter — it is the black community whose issues will have been cheapened. Black Lives Matter; bad puns don’t.