Quintin Jardine's blog

Isn’t the Andy Gray/Richard Keys thing becoming a little bit silly? Leaving aside the fact that I can’t stand either of them and will not mourn their disappearance from the telly, the manner of it is something else. Two men had a private conversation, unaware that a colleague would record it then release its contents to the world. That’s what happened. Now they are being pilloried, yet we hear from Sky that there will be no internal investigation into the eavesdropping and  the leak. As an old and very non-PC mate of mine used to say, that is a Zulu’s left leg, neither right nor fair. (By repeating that remark, I invite the attentions of the PC police, but that’s the world we live in.) Let Sky fall on those two,  if they broke its company rules, but the world deserves to know exactly who ratted on them. So why isn’t that happening? Is it because the guilty party is a woman? If she is, let her have the guts to stand up. If not, let him be identified, in which event it will be interesting to see, next time he goes into a pub, say in the Midlands where Andy Gray lives, whether he’s bought drinks all night or has the shit kicked out of him.

As more and more commentators (But not Karen Brady)  are pointing out, there is an ITV show called Loose Women, which is rampantly sexist, yet no exception is taken because all of it is directed against men. Should that be taken off the air? Of course not, because it’s loads of fun, and most of us guys have thick skin. By the way in case anyone thinks I don’t understand the difference between that and Andygate, I do. One is public entertainment, the other was private comment.

In the passing, after catching some of last night’s Sky game, will a football club please employ Sam Allardyce. He’s much more entertaining in the dug-out than in the commentary box.

Oh yes, and one other thing, my last word on the subject. How can anyone seriously consider Andy Gray to be sexist? It’s a matter of record that he loves women. He has to; he’s fathered five children by four of them.