hypochondriac

That isn't what I said at all you've misunderstood. I mostly want the BBC to produce shows of value that would be difficult to produce elsewhere due to commercial pressure. Something like strictly come dancing is very entertaining to some people but it's incredibly similar to existing shows on commercial channels and there's no reason to spend license fee money on it when it can easily be produced elsewhere. The BBC should not be sticking reality TV on to compete with the likes of pop idol on itv or whatever they are showing. Similarly with the football. I happen to enjoy Match of the day but I fail to see how they can justify its existence on the BBC considering the cost. Comedy used to be a jewel in the Crown of the BBC on television but as I said, most classic BBC comedies are now decades old and that's just one example. There's loads of things on the BBC I wouldn't be interested in but I can absolutely see their value on a national broadcaster. There's also loads of stuff that shouldn't be on there. That all changes however if they move to a subscription model then they can do whatever they want really.

Who are you talking about when you say posters?

I'd give him an extended run too. Hopefully we are safe in the next five games and then we can play him regularly until the end of the season.

Where have I ever said that alternative broadcasters haven't produced poor programming? I have never said that. The difference is I'm not forced to pay a license fee to other broadcasters. I'm sure that certain factions think it's worthwhile to produce a show about exploring whiteness but I vehemently disagree and I resent the fact that I have even a small part to play in funding things like that. The sooner stuff like this is stopped the better.

It's good of the BBC to commission a shown based on "exploring whiteness." That's definitely a vital public service paid for by all of us.

But the number is absolutely tiny even if it has increased. As already mentioned, it's publicised in the news so much at the moment that there's probably more of an awareness of it and an acknowledgement that it needs to be reported. The miniscule number of 152 does not suggest a systemic problem in UK football even if that's an increase on previous years.

So whilst previously you had no evidence, now you're using the example of one bbc pundit on the radio and a piece in the guardian that deals with reporting across the leagues. Assuming it's talking about the football league, 150 reported incidents is roughly two racist incidents per season. Obviously you wouldn't want any at all but it's hardly signs of an epidemic or some problem that is disproportionately larger in football than in other sections of society. There's no doubt that racism exists and any racism should be dealt with swiftly and harshly but there simply is no evidence to suggest that its a vastly larger problem certainly in top flight football in the UK than in other areas of society. It does however suit the agenda of certain individuals to portray it as a larger problem or to associate it with racist trouble in Italy or Eastern Europe. No one anywhere has suggested that racism is not a thing, they are simply suggesting that there have been huge improvements even in the past decade or two which is undeniably the case. Surely the best and most effective way to tackle a problem like racism is to be realistic about the scale of the problem in the UK? Edit: just seen its across both England and Wales and could also include non league so there will be clubs that will have reported no racist incidents for the entire season. According to Google there is 736 teams in this year's fa Cup. That means that in England alone there were 0.2 racist incidents that were reported per club last season. Thousands of matches, hundreds of thousands of fans and football being under the microscope it is and only 0.2 racist incidents worth reporting per club per season? I'd be willing to bet you'd get a comparable level of reportable racism from a random sample. Let's be really generous and assume that 152 applies only to the Premier league teams. That means you'd have 7.6 reportable instances of racism per team per season or again 0.2 instances per game. If you were a season ticket holder then chances would be pretty good that you would not encounter any racist incidents at all at the vast majority of matches you attend. As already stated though, it appears that this figure of 152 is for all the leagues so it really is miniscule.

That's a long winded way of saying you're using intuition rather than any actual evidence. Historical crowds and crowds in Europe are of little relevance to UK crowds in 2020 and I didn't mention crufts.

Where is your evidence- given the amount of people that attend football on a regular basis- that there are a much higher percentage of racists in a crowd than any other random sample of the UK population?

What an odd response. I'm not sure anyone has ever suggested we have solved the problem of racism (actually that's an impossibility) but there's absolutely no doubt that things are markedly different from where they were a couple of decades ago.

Oh I'm sure there would be a handful of idiots shouting stuff but that's true of the wider population and in the same way you'd get some thugs shouting racist stuff. Generally these people are identified and banned though so I doubt it would last long. Like. I said though, I imagine some gay footballers judt want to be left alone and the media in particular should respect that.

The minister for allotments and ill-fitting jumpers.

Worth noting that we don't actually know the reasons why people aren't more open about it. Maybe they would prefer sexuality to be a private thing, maybe the thought of the silly, fuss the media would make is off putting and some would prefer a quieter life just playing football. If I were a gay professional footballer there's no way I'd want to out myself considering the microscope you would be put under.

The key word being was. It WAS quality that's the problem. I quite agree with you by the way, it is good to have the BBC as a choice just as long as I can choose not to pay a fee for it if I don't want it.

When you say this, which posters are you talking about specifically?

Ever heard of Netflix? Literally thousands of shows for children. I'd recommend masha and the bear. YouTube kids is also available.

The point is that all these comedies are decades old. I loved the BBC but its a shadow of its former self. When you get bbc execs openly boasting that they wouldn't greenlight the likes of monty python today you know it's past its sell by date.

Would it? I'm not so sure that's true. When a Premier league player does finally come out, the next game will be guards of honour, rainbow laces, pride flags and multi-coloured mohawks. I reckon anyone shouting abuse at the player in that scenario is looking at very heavy punishment.

If that's the case then why distinguish what they do with a separate term at all? Imo coming out implies some sort of public expression. Abolish the phrase coming out entirely and I reckon that would be a positive thing. I'm happy when people can just exist as either gay or straight without feeling the need to make a big show of it because it proves we are a more tolerant society than we used to be.

If you're just doing what every other couple does then it's not really coming out is it, otherwise you could say that heterosexual couples are coming out simply by going on a date.

What's the common factor about every comedy you just listed in your first list.

Here's the corrected graph with the US and China added in.

I do wonder what would have happened if someone like Philip Schofield had been refused an interview on this morning and literally no one talked about it because it wasn't news how Philip would have really felt about that. I don't think he'd admit it but I reckon he'd have been really disappointed that the fact he is gay wasn't front page news. I think for most gay people they just want to blend in and be who they are but we all know there is an element that think they are special and want to metaphorically scream their identity at everyone.

It's hard to criticise as it's obviously a different time, but I can imagine that clough wouldn't have handled somethibg like that particularly well. It's a shame he wasn't born a few decades later, a top footballer coming out as gay now would make millions.

That's good to know. It seems that some people want to continue to make a big song and dance out of it sadly. As you say, hopefully with the next generation we won't have these sort of attitudes.