It’s been a big month for UK news.
Legendary British former football (soccer for Americans) star and sports broadcaster Gary Lineker – who Mehdi interviewed last year – confirmed he would be leaving the BBC, after months of coming under fire for speaking out on Gaza. Hard-right political party Reform UK made major gains in local elections and even won a fifth MP seat, beating out the Labour Party. And Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged to cut immigration in the UK, invoking lazy anti-migrant rhetoric in the process. Mehdi and Owen discuss it all.
“Let's be clear, nobody actually thinks there is an antisemitic particle in Gary Lineker. This is all just manufactured,” Owen says to Mehdi. “Ever since, of course, Israel's genocide began, there's been a deliberate attempt to turn the world upside down and the people who've been made to lose their jobs, to be silenced, to be de-platformed, to be arrested, to be facing deportation, are the people who oppose genocide.”
Mehdi brings up how YouTube star and children’s educator Ms. Rachel – who Mehdi interviewed earlier this month – has also been receiving ridiculous and unfair accusations of antisemitism, due to her advocacy for children in Gaza. As Owen and Mehdi agree, Lineker and Ms. Rachel have been targeted by apologists for Israel because they have such big platforms, and reach so many “normies outside of often political circles.”
On the topic of Keir Starmer and his anti-migrant rhetoric, Owen talks about how the prime minister’s recent shift is “even worse” than previous Labour leaders’ pivots to the right, which is emboldening Reform even more.
Paid subscribers to Zeteo can watch the full episode of “Two Outspoken”, where Mehdi and Owen chat about the latest in UK news and whether there will be a reckoning in our politics and media, on both sides of the Atlantic, over Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Free subscribers can watch the first 6-minutes of the conversation. Do consider becoming a paid subscriber to Zeteo and skip the paywall every time!
