AT a time when an apparent schism has developed in the world of professional golf regarding the LIV Tour, it is interesting to note that the royal burgh of St Andrews Community Council have conferred the title of honorary citizen on Jack Nicklaus.
The title effectively gives the freedom of St Andrews to this illustrious old golfer but crucially ignores how he is viewed by some in the golfing community, particularly in his US homeland. Journalists and fellow professionals have correctly been critical of those golfers who have amorally sold their principles away by joining a tour where unlimited funds is the attraction, provided by a country – Saudi Arabia – where human rights are regularly abused.
However, if the sport of golf is seeking to take the moral high ground, perhaps Mr Nicklaus’s off-course views and opinions should have been taken into consideration. He has been thought of previously by some observers as the representation of golf as a rich white man’s game, particularly following remarks he made in 1994 suggesting that black people found it difficult to master the sport due to the fact that “they have different muscles that react in different ways”.
Then in 2020 he decided to give his full-throated and irrevocable public support to Donald Trump in the presidential election while branding now-president Biden a candidate for socialism.
If we are in the business of holding public figures to ethical standards, as Nick Rodger regularly does in the sports pages of this newspaper, then surely we cannot separate Jack Nicklaus from what many may consider to be his repugnant and unacceptable views. By honouring his sporting prowess we conveniently turn a blind eye to his support for a racist and morally bankrupt former president who has dragged his democracy into the gutter and divided the USA for a generation. Feet of clay would be an understatement.
Owen Kelly
Stirling
A YEAR or so ago there seemed to be a growing awareness of the likely destructive effects of global warming on our world.
A year or so ago we were beginning to develop an understanding that this was the number one problem in the world!
Over the past couple of years or so there have been many more important issues for us to consider, eg Ukraine and the everyday horrors that country is facing, the cost of living crisis, steeply rising energy bills, political turmoil in Westminster.
What is now the biggest issue that we face? Answer: By one million miles, it is global warming.
Perhaps we enjoy the occasional hot day, swimming in the sea and consuming probably excessive amounts of sugary fizzy drinks and ice cream, but the way we are going, our grandchildren’s children will most certainly suffer from excessive heat, drought, food shortages and population pressures as people who live in the newly forming deserts of Africa move north to more moderate climates.
You will however look in vain to the aspiring Tory leaders in the current leadership circus for any mention at all of this crisis. In fact, there seems to be a move away from global warming awareness (all that fancy “green” stuff), with no one seeming to suggest that we should be treating renewable energy production as our top priority. Anything to keep us in power for the next five years! I genuinely fear for the well-being of future generations
Alex Leggatt
Via email
FROM the article by Laura Webster (July 12), it is noted again that the highest earner in the BBC is the popular English former footballer Gary Lineker, with not far behind, another retired English footballer, Alan Shearer. Both appear regularly on Match Of The Day.
Match Of The Day is promoted or advertised by the BBC on a daily basis throughout the UK football season – or should I say, the English first division football season, commonly referred to as the Premier League season.
So where did that title arise from? What happened to first, second, etc divisions as inspired by Scotsman William McGregor, founder of the English Football League?
Somehow it transferred to become an attractive plaything for global billionaires and promotion of English premiership in something to besot and distract the proletariat from the monotony of its mother of parliaments and globally renowned monarchy.
Let the government and elites do as they please while everyone else is hooked on wall-to-wall English first division football, or EastEnders, which apparently everyone was taking about at some time or other. Such is the way of the BBC as it reasserts its standing as the mouthpiece of government while interest in politics, the nation’s health and active sport all decline in England’s increasingly divided society.
Perhaps the new Minister of English Education has great ambitions in mind and will give the middle finger to current trends and change course. She being a Tory minister, I doubt it!
Tom Gray
Braco
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