The Sun had little choice but to suspend Kelvin MacKenzie. And it would not surprise me in the least if his column never returns. He has scored a spectacular own goal by insulting the people of Liverpool yet again.
Initial attempts to pass off his asinine attack on Everton’s Ross Barkley and yet another disparaging slur on the city’s residents as a form of “robust comment” did not hold water.
I accept that MacKenzie did not know of Barkley’s ethnic background. But he certainly did know he was deliberately impugning Liverpudlians by returning to one of his familiar themes about their supposed characters.
What was truly extraordinary was that his piece ever got into the paper at all. Did the Sun executives responsible for his column not realise he should never be allowed to write about Liverpool?
Now he has united Merseyside. Having caused huge offence to the fans of Liverpool FC with his outrageous front page after the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, he has now been rude about an Everton player.
This time, surely, MacKenzie’s great supporter, Rupert Murdoch, cannot save him. It was he, the ultimate chief of News UK, who gave him the column in the first place.
Now, despite his affection for the man who edited the Sun during its most successful sales period in the 1980s and 90s, he must fire MacKenzie. Then again, it will be too little too late. That Merseyside boycott, which has already reached Belfast, is likely to spread still further across the UK.
MacKenzie has scored a spectacular own goal by insulting Liverpool again
The Sun had little choice but to suspend MacKenzie – and surely this time Rupert Murdoch, his great supporter, cannot save him
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The Sun had little choice but to suspend Kelvin MacKenzie. And it would not surprise me in the least if his column never returns. He has scored a spectacular own goal by insulting the people of Liverpool yet again.
Initial attempts to pass off his asinine attack on Everton’s Ross Barkley and yet another disparaging slur on the city’s residents as a form of “robust comment” did not hold water.
I accept that MacKenzie did not know of Barkley’s ethnic background. But he certainly did know he was deliberately impugning Liverpudlians by returning to one of his familiar themes about their supposed characters.
What was truly extraordinary was that his piece ever got into the paper at all. Did the Sun executives responsible for his column not realise he should never be allowed to write about Liverpool?
Now he has united Merseyside. Having caused huge offence to the fans of Liverpool FC with his outrageous front page after the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, he has now been rude about an Everton player.
This time, surely, MacKenzie’s great supporter, Rupert Murdoch, cannot save him. It was he, the ultimate chief of News UK, who gave him the column in the first place.
Now, despite his affection for the man who edited the Sun during its most successful sales period in the 1980s and 90s, he must fire MacKenzie. Then again, it will be too little too late. That Merseyside boycott, which has already reached Belfast, is likely to spread still further across the UK.