Is Gary Lineker likening government to Nazis over migrant crisis an own goal?

Is the BBC star right to speak his mind? Have your say.

Readers have both tackled and come to the defence of Gary Lineker after he likened the government’s new immigration policies to Nazi Germany.

Those who have criticised the football pundit say that his analogy downplays the horrors of the 1930s, while others have praised him for speaking out.

Also, contributors have dismissed a report saying that decline in mental health during the pandemic was limited by pointing to examples from their own lives.

Read on to see what other stories have got people talking…

■ Gary Lineker has remained defiant after being condemned by ministers for comparing the government crackdown on migrants to Nazi Germany (Metro, Thu).

The Match Of The Day presenter criticised home secretary Suella Braverman’s Illegal Migration Bill, aimed at deterring the thousands of asylum seekers who cross the Channel in small boats. It would deny them asylum and potentially send them to Rwanda.

Lineker, 62, described the bill as ‘an immeasurably cruel policy directed at 
the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s’.

I suggest he watches The World At War regarding what Nazi Germany did in the 30s. The systematic destroying of everything Jewish and the military land-grab bears no resemblance to the government’s efforts over immigration.

When he has seen it, perhaps he can then apologise for his inappropriate analogy and, better, offer a workable solution. That is, of course, if he accepts the immigration rates are unsustainable. John, Canvey Island

■ If Gary Lineker wants to offer up his political views on social media, fine, but he should not be being paid as a presenter by the licence-fee-funded BBC.

Whether you agree or disagree with Mr Lineker, he has brought the BBC into disrepute, harming its reputation. M Metcalf, London

■ I agree 100 per cent with Gary Lineker. This government is an absolute disgrace, pandering to far-right bigotry. God help those poor people fleeing persecution and poverty and having to put their lives at risk crossing the Channel in small boats.

What a wicked, evil lot the Tory front bench are. The sooner we have a general election and get shot of the lot of them, the better. Joe Fitzgerald,­ Liverpool

■ Well done, Gary. It must be clear to even those with the meanest intelligence that what Suella Braverman is proposing is principally aimed at trying to improve the Tories’ dire poll ratings. Andrew McLuskey, Ashford, Middlesex

■ Multi-millionaire Gary Lineker sees himself as a spokesperson for ‘those poor souls that have no voice’, he says. Funny that, he is so far removed from reality of life in Britain for the poor here, he wouldn’t have the first clue about competing for a job and getting a place to live and money to put the heating on or pay bills.

Go back to your naive and pampered world, Lineker. Barbara, by email

■ Braverman is clearly ill-informed, uncaring – or both. Lineker’s criticism of her bill is both courageous, given his position, and inspiring. Mel, Gateshead

■ Lineker is picking up millions for his mediocre sports presenting. There are so many other able sports presenters who are available. Why he has the prime-time slot on Saturday night on Match Of The Day, only the BBC can explain. John, Dorking

■ ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore’. Now where did I read that? The prime minister and his home secretary might wish to visit the Statue of Liberty. Graeme, Glasgow

‘We’re still having to cope with the Covid mental health fallout’

■ Just read about the piece (Metro, Thu) on the Canadian study that found the Covid pandemic has taken only a relatively limited toll on the mental health of the majority of people around the world.

I know many people whose mental health has been affected by Covid. Myself, my partner, my friend whose husband was in hospital and was unable to see him – he sadly passed away.

Then there’s my cousin’s mental health, losing her dad due to Covid in a care home where she was unable to visit him. The people I serve at work who are miserable because of the effects of Covid. Customers have had to register deaths of loved ones who have taken their own lives because of their mental health, all starting with Covid, lockdown and the consequences we are still dealing with. Michele, London

■ A global study of post-Covid mental health is meaningless. Every continent, country and locality had an individual response to Covid and lockdowns.

One needs only to look at evidential cases of adolescent mental health in the UK, and the state of care in this sector, to know that teens and young adults here have been heavily impacted, and that services are underskilled and ill-resourced. We have a YA mental health pandemic in the UK and it’s being neglected and denied. Dave, Hove

■ How could the study separate damage to mental health directly from Covid and the damage to mental health caused by abysmal mishandling of the situation by Johnson, Sunak, Hancock et al? P Jack, Shropshire

‘Ulez is just one huge cash cow’

■ As regards the letters in MetroTalk about the expansion of London’s Ulez scheme, my 2004, 125cc four-stroke scooter is not Ulez compliant and I must travel into the Ulez zone to the test centre, paying the £12.50 charge along with the test fee of £175. Meanwhile, I walk past private schools where some parents sit in their SUVs, engines running, polluting the atmosphere. The Ulez expansion is just a money-grabbing farce. Chris, London

And another thing…

■ I don’t know how we managed as children in the 60s, reading all these terrible books, eating plain food and having no social media! Speak to anyone over 60 and you’ll find that we’re all fairly untraumatised. Unlike the youth of today, who play games involving killing people and shame each other on social media. I am very tech savvy, play games and use social media, but I know the difference between fact and fantasy. Instead of looking at the past, look at the present and the harm that’s being done to our younger generation. Jacq, Essex

■ Regarding the discussion about rewriting fairy tales, Lizzie from Liverpool (MetroTalk, Thu) wonders whether we’re ‘going to get a woke version of Gone With The Wind anytime soon’. Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn. Paul Johnson, Whitstable

■ Sara in Cheltenham (MetroTalk, Wed) says finding a Metro crossword where an ink pen, not a pencil, has been used to fill in the clues is worse than finding one half-completed. Two weeks ago I managed to find a Metro left on the seat on my bus. Whoopee! Having been out for most of the day, I looked forward to arriving home and, with a much-needed cuppa, couldn’t wait to view my daily challenge. However, I found to my utter dismay that the crossword page had been completely ripped out. Carol, Wallasey

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