AS Brexit talks and continuous reporting about the pandemic dominate our news, it appears that a government minister’s brazen refusal to condemn a shocking display of overt racism by football fans has been ignored or downplayed by many UK news outlets.
George Eustice, the UK government’s environment minister, failed to condemn Millwall fans who booed players taking a knee in an anti-racism display of solidarity. Mr Eustice asked for the Millwall fans to be respected in their views and derided Black Lives Matter as a politically based movement.
As a former Ukip candidate for the European Parliament who later joined the Conservative party, it would seem to any objective observer that Mr Eustice still holds the kind of intolerant views that were widely associated with this political movement.
READ MORE: Michael Gove says Tory Government plans to 'modernise' constitution after Brexit
It is one thing to hear that peripheral Z-list celebrities like Neil Oliver are critical of Black Lives Matter but quite another to witness a UK Government minister act as an a apologist for racists and their unacceptable behaviour.
A host of high-profile current and former footballers as well as the FA and the English Football League have all roundly condemned the reaction of the Millwall fans but no government comments have been forthcoming apart from the apparent underpinning of their conduct by Mr Eustice.
In the past the minister has made attempts to curb press rights for labelling him with the epithet “Useless Eustice”. He is now well and truly part of a useless government than accepts hostile racist acts as normalised behaviour and that follows the aggressive anti- immigration and insular mentality of jingoistic xenophobes.
As a nation Scotland does not share their values or ideologies. It’s time to leave.
Owen Kelly
Stirling
HOW dare MP Owen Thompson compare Gove to Bart Simpson? I have always found Bart to be lovable.
M Ross
Aviemore
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