Kate Forbes and Gary Lineker may inhabit different worlds but they have something in common.
The SNP leadership hopeful and the BBC Match of the Day presenter have both been testing the limits of tolerance of their opponents.
Lineker has now been restored to duty after the decision to suspend him for his social media comments on immigration.
Having agreed to abide by current BBC guidelines he’ll ca’ canny on Twitter until Director General Tim Davie instigates a review of directions which are a bigger mess than football’s handball law.
I once unsuccessfully tried to use Gary Lineker in my defence when I too fell foul of the BBC guidelines on impartiality.
During the independence referendum, on a couple of occasions I expressed support for the Yes side, while Lineker had been calling on Scots to stay in the Union.
My boss at BBC Scotland phoned to gently chide me and inform me that I was breaching the Beeb’s impartiality rules, and could I please cease forthwith.
When I said that Lineker was banging the drum for the No team he pointed out that I was bumping my gums on a BBC Twitter account, whereas he was doing so on his own account.
Free speech was behind my BBC departure
He was drawing the distinction between me as a staff employee and him as a freelance contractor.
I doubted anyone was being converted to independence by someone like me who usually reported on dodgy offside decisions and chalked off goals. But I had a choice to accept the rules or face the consequences.
I was small beer compared to Gary Lineker. And I didn’t have the cushion of a £1.3 million salary and a few million more in the bank to fall back on. So I accepted the edict from on high.
Indeed one of the reasons I made the financially daft decision to leave BBC early was that I wanted to be able to freely express my views on a host of matters, which I couldn’t do as an employee.
Critics of the Lineker decision argue BBC didn’t apply the same rules to Sir Alan Sugar who is also employed hosting The Apprentice, and who has previously tweeted criticism of Union leader Mick Lynch.
Hello Mick Lynch are you happy with yourself bringing the country and ordinary people down on their knees over Xmas. You don't fool me waiting for the employers to come to table. You love the publicity.Your members would like to earn what you get.Why don't you waive your salary. https://t.co/RH0i7plsSQ
— Lord Sugar (@Lord_Sugar) December 15, 2022
They’ve also questioned whether if the disapproving comments on government immigration policy had been supportive instead of hostile, would he still have been suspended?
Lineker and Forbes – two sides of intolerance coin
The question of free speech and the right to voice beliefs has also plagued Kate Forbes, who seems to be emerging as the most popular leadership candidate among the SNP rank and file.
That is to the chagrin of some in the party who find her religious views repugnant and out of kilter with a modern world.
She has endured disparagement from those who feel that some of her opinions, shaped by her Free Church membership, should bar her from being party leader.
Meantime, there’s no such censure for the other two candidates from the progressives whose views and opinions, some argue, appear to be formed by the latest fads and trends on issues like gender reform.
Some might also argue that these views are quasi-religious in themselves, and no less controversial than those of Forbes.
Both Lineker and Forbes are victims of different sides of the intolerance coin.
The inability to accept that someone is entitled to a different point of view is dangerous, but not half as menacing as the refusal to allow them to air their views or hold down a job because of them.
Lineker has won his initial battle.
Forbes may face a tougher fight against much more determined opponents than BBC management.
Conversation