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18th Oct 2016

Gary Lineker despairs for country over attitudes towards refugees

"What's happening to our country?"

Tom Victor

Gary Lineker’s venture into political chat has been met with a mixed reception.

The former England striker was encouraged to stay in his lane when he decided to take a pop at presidential candidate Donald Trump – sure, it makes a change from the usual ‘shat on…’ responses, but it feels a little like barking up the wrong tree.

After all, when your mate from work tweets about politics you don’t tell him or her ‘stick to tweeting about office supplies’. Actually, maybe you do. We don’t want to jump to conclusions.

But I digress.

Lineker has not been deterred by the response to his Trump tweets. After seeing a bit of backlash to the UK letting in more refugees, the Match of the Day presenter spoke out once more.

Thankfully, the reaction to Lineker’s latest comments was entirely measured and sympathetic. No, wait, not that. The other thing.

https://twitter.com/dent791/status/788407511644790787

https://twitter.com/martinjames1138/status/788417725660102656

https://twitter.com/j1mbobber/status/788417322927153152

That’s not to say there weren’t some messages of support. Some were pleased to see a high-profile figure such as Lineker speak out, amid claims that ‘child’ refugees ‘appeared’ older than 18 years old.

Debate has raged amid unfounded claims that the individuals in question are not children, including from politicians, despite the Home Office stating that assessments had been carried out to verify the ages of those involved.

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