The BBC is letting Gary Lineker 2.0 go unpunished. Nihal Arthanayake stands accused of breaching the BBC's impartiality guidelines and their social media code with relentlessly biased left-wing and offensive content.
Now you might remember, he's the guy who said that working in an overwhelmingly white workplace was bad for his mental health. That, I think, was racist. BBC let him off.
The BBC has clear social media guidelines about how staff should behave online "treat others with respect even in the face of abuse, do not use offensive or aggressive language, and do conduct yourselves with courtesy. Don't attack individuals even when you disagree with their views. Don't criticise your colleagues in public. Respect the privacy of the workplace. Don't be drawn into ill-tempered exchanges.
In fact, this was backed up by the BBC Director-General yesterday who said: "to be kind and caring in this and listen to people and be nice."
Patrick Christys branded him "Gary Lineker 2.0"
GB News
So when he called the host of the trigonometry podcast, Konstantin Kisin, a talentless grifter or goes after members of the public who disagree with his point of view. Is he breaking those guidelines?
The BBC guidelines for presenters were very clear: "Our audiences should not be able to tell from BBC output the personal opinions of our journalists or news and current affairs presenters on matters of public policy, political or industrial controversy or on controversial subjects in other areas.
"They may not express personal views on such matters publicly, including in any BBC branded output or on personal blogs and social media."
Okay, well, Nihal appears to have taken a side in the Israel-Gaza conflict. Shock, horror. That side does not appear to be Israel.
He doesn't seem too bothered about hiding his personal views on Brexit. "Taking back control," he sarcastically tweeted - he's quite clever with his wording but we all know what that means, don't we?
He also tweeted: "Can someone please send me a link to a fact-based narrative on how the UK has benefited from Brexit? A counter to this piece I cannot find."
Well, look, it's pretty obvious what he's getting at there, isn't it?
He appears to be going into battle for the Labour Party now, throwing shade over Tory Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and Liz Truss.
He said, "bit rich the Chancellor is saying that the leader of the opposition support for Jeremy Corbyn when he was leader, would have crashed the economy, considering what former PM Liz Truss did."
The BBC remains impartial
GETTY/BBCHe seems obsessed with Lee Anderson, to the point where he retweeted Gary Lineker poking fun at Lee, essentially saying that he'll lose his seat at the next election.
Is that impartial? Maybe it is. There doesn't appear to be much of a focus on left-wing politicians, certainly not in his recent Twitter history.
He just can't stop slamming GB News and our viewers and listeners. And he's even banging on about what must our annual GB news presenter's dinner looks like.
He posted a picture where he was having dinner with James O'Brien and Emily Maitlis. Siri, show me hell on earth. I'm sure he'd say, well, the company you keep doesn't necessarily define your political views and the apparent anti-Brexit, anti-tory questionably abusive stuff he puts on social media doesn't bleed over into his actual on-air output.
Yesterday he had the hard-left so-called comedian Nish Kumar on his show, apparently introduced him by saying that his kids call him uncle. Well, there we go. I'm assuming that they get on rather well then, though, don't they?
The same Nish Kumar that made such offensive comments about Brexit that he was booed off stage at a charity gig?
Nihal Arthanayake hosta a radio show on BBC Radio 5
PA
Anyway, it sounds to me like he was openly joking about his own political bias during today's broadcast.
He said: "Good news, bad news. Good news as a symbol of an evolving British society, one that is more accepting of people from ethnic minorities.
"There is an Asian Prime Minister. I think you know what the bad news is for you personally, coming from where you come from, it just happens to be Rishi Sunak.
"So how did you deal with this good news, bad news moment in your life? I, of course, have no opinion on it. But in your life."
That sounds a lot like he might be mocking the impartiality guidelines, doesn't it?
Does anyone get the impression that he thinks he's untouchable. Look, we know what his views are, don't we? It's obvious. And he has attacked individuals, hasn't he?
We've gone to the BBC and Nihall personally, who I'm sure denies breaching any of the guidelines, and we are yet to hear back.
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