A MONTH or so ago, Establishment figures such as Greg Dyke and Baroness Patience Wheatcroft responded to the Gary Lineker debacle by calling out the BBC for its glaring double standards and hypocrisy and for breaking its guidance on impartiality — something the socialist left has been yelling about, and being ignored over, for decades.

On Radio 4’s Today programme on March 11, Baroness Wheatcroft accused the BBC of allowing the “rabid right-wing” rhetoric of the Tory-supporting press to go unchallenged.
 
When economically wealthy and socially secure people such as Lineker, Dyke and Wheatcroft are moved to point out fascistic moves made within governments and media institutions, we know we are in a very bad place.

But it is not so easy for ordinary people on low or average incomes to be able to spend time analysing and reflecting on the political machinations of the Establishment. They are at the sharp end of social disintegration — trying to cope with the depletion of local health and care services, the homelessness crisis and having to juggle the heat-or-eat dilemma.