I have been feeling a little below par the last week. A concerned friend of Germanic extraction told me to take the time off as other people would care only for themselves and not others. She's probably right about that in a fundamental sense but I've mostly just continued working because I've known in my heart I was up to it. To palm off my responsibilities on others when I'm capable myself would simply not be fair. I believe, as does Charles C.W. Cooke that one of the fundamental values held by British people is an unerring sense of fairness.
I think the public views the Gary Lineker story through the lens of fairness. I think in the long term that bodes ill for both him and the BBC. What's fair and what's good and principled do not always line up but what's fair is usually right and necessarily just. What's just is to understand that when people talk about the culture war, what's really happening more and more is a class war.
Before talking more about what's right and what's fair, let's talk about the facts after the jump.
