I would not ordinarily care about Mason Greenwood, or possibly ever have heard of him. But since Rachel Riley has taken against him, then there is a political obligation to come to his aid at least unless or until Jeremy Corbyn said otherwise.
On Thursday, Christopher Thomas Binns, who appeared in character as Ivan Brackenbury on Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, was given a suspended sentence for having more than 35,000 indecent images of children, including 104 in Category A, which involves penetration, bestiality or sadism. His colleague Riley has not said a word, instead turning her fire on Greenwood. Google them to see the difference.
Although Ryan Giggs is mixed-race, as Greenwood also strikes me as being, to the untrained eye they differ in the same way as Binns does from Greenwood. This year, domestic violence charges were also dropped against Giggs because the complainants were no longer willing to testify. Riley wears a shirt that he presented to her on Countdown.
We do not know the new evidence that the Crown Prosecution Service said had come to light when it dropped the charges against Greenwood, longer ago than it dropped those against Giggs. But if, as circulated, that recording had been genuine, then the CPS would still have had an open-and-shut case. Had Greenwood been white or white-passing, and certainly if he had also been from a middle-class background and thus, it must be said, most unlikely to have been a professional footballer, then none of this would have been happening to him.
And the intervention of Riley in anything dramatically intensifies its political, racial and class dimensions. Hughie Green also tried to make Far Right interventions, but he only ever did so once of any note, he was that programme's deviser and presenter rather than some showgirl, and he was roundly laughed out, as well as being disciplined by Thames Television. Riley does it all the time, and she is treated as a figure of the utmost gravity, including by her employer. She tried to have Corbyn assassinated, and now she is using the classic allegation to try and have Greenwood lynched. I know which side I am on.
Watch this space.
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