Hallo Readers,
Many apologies that the subscription button is not working. Please leave a comment below with your email address and you will be subscribed from this end and receive the blog in your inbox every Friday. Meanwhile…
When the right-wing press has it for you, it has it in for you. Especially if (a) you work for the BBC (b) you earn a lot of money (c) you are woke and (d) you criticise the Conservatives. Which is why Gary Lineker drives them mad. He used to kick a football (rather well), which of course disqualifies him from having any sort of opinion about anything. Especially espousing things The Mail and The Telegraph and The Sun and (shudder) The Express disapprove of, which is pretty much everything actually, like Europe, immigration, criticism of Israel’s relentless bombing of Gaza, LGBTQ, human rights, and freedom of speech. Have you noticed how it is always the ones who scream blue bloody murder about people losing their jobs for expressing anti-trans views or promoting Christianity to patients and rabbiting on about Cancel Culture are also the ones who want people like Lineker sacked for expressing his views? Which apparently is not Cancel Culture. Anyway, this week Lineker sort of self-cancelled. That is, he was already leaving Match of the Day this Sunday (to be replaced by TWO WOMEN and a bloke, you can imagine how well that one went down with the papers) but he was still going to cover big one-off games and the World Cup for the BBC in 2026. But now he has said he will be gone after Sunday – for good. No pay off, not that he needed one. Offski. After 20+ years.
Why? Because he retweeted something plainly anti-Zionist with a rat emoji. Lineker said that he hadn’t seen the rat and further that he did not know that it was an ancient anti-semitic trope, albeit that knowing it would not have made a difference, seeing that he did not see it anyway. The retweet was of a video called Zionism Explained, accusing Zionists of “stealing the land they claim was theirs” and murdering people who live there. Lineker has long espressed stringent critisism of Israeli actions in Gaza, but he claims that not only did not he see the rat, he did not watch the film either. Which may be true but suggests stupidity at best and negligence at worst. If you put your name to something, especially if you have a zillion followers, you should be responsible for what you say, even if you just retweet it. And yes it was plainly anti-Zionist. And yes, it caused offence. And yes, he should have grovelled long and hard. He made a very bad mistake, because while it there is a difference between anti-Zionism and anti-semitism, and definitely a difference between anti-Israeli-Government-policy and anti-semitism, he conflated the two by the rat emoji (anti-semitic) and the anti-Zionist sentiments. But anti-Zionism is permissible. Criticism of this Israeli Government is, frankly, mandatory. This not about Lineker tweeting an antisemitic trope. That played into the hands of those who hate him tweeting anything they disagree but they really hate him tweeting anything “woke” and so they were besides themselves with joyful outrage that they finally “got him”. Lineker, like the rest of us, is entitled to his views, given that we are supposed to have Free Speech in this country, including the freedom to offend those who disagree with you. The glee with which the papers spreading hate and fear and lies pounced on Lineker for his bad mistake is repulsive. The speed with which the BBC edged him out is in stark contrast to the years it spent failing to act against stars who proved to be bullies, rapists, sex pests and paedophiles. Freedom of speech operates both ways. Although you might be forgiven for being surprised.
******************************************************************************
We start our review of the week’s terrible togs (which are all from the Cannes Red Carpet) with model Eva Herzigova wearing Balenciaga.
There is a massive minge split as if she has been hung, drawn and quartered in some dystopian TV series. To be frank, it is downright disturbing, but not nearly as disturbing as those things hanging from her tits like the discarded ends of a party cracker.
Actor Paz Vega wearing Sirivannavari.
Talking of dystopian TV series, Paz’s excessively ugly outfit seems to have inspired by Tyrian Lanister from Game of Thrones. What on earth has happened to her chest? Either she has undergone a major breast reduction since the first fitting for the frock or she is planning to smuggle bottles of wine from the afterparty in those tit-sacks.
Actor John C Reilly wearing who knows what?
You what? He looks like an extra from The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance.
Actor Diane Kruger wearing Prada.
She is wearing a tit-sling with a matching headband and she also appears to have the remains of a dead muppet at the end of her trailing wrap. A trailing wrap is as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike.
Our old friend, actor Jeremy Strong, who is one of the Festival’s judges, wearing Haans Nicholas Mott.
Jeremy favours eclectic fashion verging on the eyesore, in this case brown kimono jimjams worn with a matching shirt and bow tie and a pair of comfy bedroom slippers.
Actor Emma Stone wearing Louis Vuitton.
A pretty pink dress with bib like the collar you put on a doggie to stop it scratching. Woof.
Actor Alexander Skarsgård wearing a Magliano jacket and Bianca Saunders trewsies. Scroll down slowly……
There are a number of different explanations here. First, Alexander’s stylist is raving mad. Second, Alexander’s stylist is taking the piss. Third, Alexander’s stylist had drawings of different outfits in a lookbook; someone tore the lookbook in half, and said stylist took the boring businessman jacket from the top part of the lookbook and the rentboy disco trousers from the bottom half, but failed to notice until it was too late. Although how that explains the pink bow tie, WTF cannot say.
Finally, actor Isabelle Huppert wearing Balenciaga.
Yurgle! And the back view is even worse.
Next time you think that you have nothing to wear for that big night out, do not despair! Just cut up your old jeans into a skirt and wear your denim jacket back to front like a straitjacket.
WTF is also highly mystified by the way Isabelle is standing, like a bandy-legged cowboy.
This week’s It’s Got To Go comes from WTF aficionado WTF of Islington, who is furious at nearly being taken out by a butthead on a bike when she was walking back from the supermarket. She turned left into a side street, only to be confronted by an oncoming electric bike ON THE PAVEMENT. Luckily WTF got out of the way and then voiced her dissatisfaction to butthead biker, enquiring icily why he was on the pavement?
To which said butthead on his stupid Lime Bike failed to enunciate the words”I’m sorry” but instead did that thing which cyclists do when pissing off pedestrians and motorists, which is to look smug and roll his eyes. WTF forbore to smack him one, and instead marched off muttering imprecations. Pavements are for pedestrians, not for buttheads on bikes. It’s Got to Go.
Ok Readers, that’s your lot for this week. Please keep sending in your top suggestions for It’s Got to Go as well as your comments, which WTF much enjoys. Not just that, but she pines if she does not get them. Don’t make her pine! You can follow her on @wtffashionshark.bsky.social. Let us meet again next Friday. Be good x