The breaking news this evening is that Gary Lineker has been asked to temporarily step down from presenting Match of the Day due to the row over his tweets. Needless to say, I am appalled. Surely Lineker has just as much a right to share his thoughts and opinions as anyone els. The fact that he presents sports programs for the Beeb shouldn’t matter – working for any company, mainstream media or otherwise, surely shouldn’t mean you have to tie your personal opinions to that company, or censor what you say unless it goes against it’s regulations. I don’t think I’m pissed off about this simply because I agree with Lineker: this is clearly a matter of freedom of speech, and writing tweets shouldn’t put anyone’s job at stake. Having said that, his tweets obviously ruffled a few feathers in the tory party; they hit a raw nerve, and were getting a lot of publicity, which is probably why, explicitly or not, the government forced the Beeb to do something. However, if you ask me, that’s all the more reason why we should demand Lineker be reinstated immediately.