No Sexism Please, We're British...

Right, anyone who saw 10 O'Clock Live last night will notice that Charlie Brooker somewhat stole my thunder. Since Sexismgate broke earlier this week, I've been accumulating thoughts, jokes etc. for the Friday blog and what should happen on Thursday evening? Well, only one of my heroes making very similar jokes about the same subject to an audience of millions. So, instead of banging on about it, I'll give you a quick rundown:

I was going to discuss the details (briefly, I'm sure you all know basically what happened... but, y'know, with sparkling wit and artistic flair), then I was going to make the point (that several others have made by now) that is struck me as strange that Gray, who happened to be going through the courts to gain damages from Murdoch's News International, was the one to lose his job when the surprisingly hirsuite Keys (who ultimately walked anyway after a bizarre hour-long Partridge-esque interview on talkSPORT... where he will probably be plying his trade in 6 months time, given that his opinions are not so far removed from a good percentage of the active listnership...) received only a warning.

After all that I would go on to summarise the headlines about the story in the Murdoch press, particularly on the startling hypocrisy of the Sun (again, I was beaten to this point by Brooker) whose spread consisted of: Front page- Andy Gray is a sexist pig; and then over the page, 'oh look, some tits'. I was then going to go on to point out that the media storm over this story has quite possibly harmed Sian Massey's career a good deal more than any cheap snides from two men who should know better but were probably only saying what Massey will sadly hear from the terraces every time she makes a key decision. The ensuing media scrum has resulted in Massey missing several games in which she would be officiating, whether as an assistant or as the referee in lower league fixtures, all of which would have been occasions to impress the powers at be and appear more regularly in the officials line-ups for Premier League games.

Anyway, just as we were all being reminded that there is no place for sexism in modern society, who should crop up on Question Time but the bafflingly banal, attention-seeking harridan Katie Hopkins...

So... swings and roundabouts, I suppose...