Sir Jim Ratcliffe should never have apologised for ‘coloniser’ comment | Football | Sport
If the last few years has taught us anything, it’s that apologies are a lot like Cristiano Ronaldo when his team doesn’t have the ball – they don’t do anything. Sir Jim Ratcliffe ought to have realised that before he caved to the permanently outraged masses this week.
The Manchester United owner caused predictable hysteria by pointing out Britain’s mass immigration problem – a reality now accepted about as widely as the fact that Florian Wirtz is a bit rubbish. Granted, Sir Jim’s choice of words was clumsier than a Harry Maguire tackle in a crowded box. Claiming the UK has been “colonised” was a heavy-handed way of putting it, sure. But let’s look at the landscape he’s speaking into. We live in a world where “F*** ICE,” “Punch a TERF,” and “Death to the IDF” are treated as perfectly acceptable dinner-party chatter by the liberal elite. They’re as common a piece of commentary as a Gary Neville “oooooh” after a mistimed challenge.
However, the second a British businessman uses a bit of blunt language to describe the demographic tidal wave hitting our shores, the world ends.
Ratcliffe’s remark was tame – Liverpool‘s title defence-levels of tame – not least because the vast majority of Brits actually agree with the substance of what he said. His phrasing was a bit daft, but his logic was as pin-point as a Kevin De Bruyne cross into the six-yard box.
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The hysterical reaction to his comments highlights the rank hypocrisy of the PC Police. It’s one rule for them, straight red for everyone else.
Take Gary Lineker. He posts antisemitic rat imagery on Instagram, gets called out, and suddenly the ‘Be Kind’ brigade are wailing about free speech and mental health. But when Ratcliffe says something mildly polarising, the script flips instantly. It’s all “shut up,” “stick to football,” “boycott Manchester United” and FA investigations.
The message from the ivory towers is clear: You are allowed to be as radical, offensive and edgy as you like – provided you’re attacking Donald Trump, Israel, or traditional British values. But dare to speak up for the silent majority who have legitimate concerns about their country’s immigration policy and you’re treated like more of a pariah than Alexander Isak on a night out in the Bigg Market.
Then there’s Keir Starmer. The Prime Minister leaped onto social media faster than Chelsea sign terrible goalkeepers to denounce Ratcliffe as “offensive and wrong,” demanding an immediate apology and proving – not that any proof was needed – that he’s about as in touch with reality as Eni “Ian Wright is a massive sexist” Aluko.
It was vintage Starmer: playing to the gallery while ignoring the dumpster fire in his own backyard. This is a Prime Minister who has been stumbling from crisis to crisis, who has spent weeks dodging questions about the Peter Mandelson scandal, and who has performed more U-turns than a malfunctioning Tesla.
When it comes to his own party leaking secrets to bankers or rubbing shoulders with Jeffrey Epstein, Starmer is as invisible as the Champions League in Arsenal‘s trophy cabinet. But a football chairman makes a clumsily worded comment on immigration and he’s all grandstanding and moral sermonising.
It proves that Starmer isn’t just out of touch – he’s lost all sense of perspective and self-awareness. If he’d rather police the language of a self-made billionaire than confront the genuine anxieties of the people he claims to represent, he has about as much chance of winning the next election as Tottenham do of hiring a competent manager any time soon.
Hopefully, next time, Sir Jim won’t apologise. He’ll quickly learn what the rest of us already know: saying sorry doesn’t satisfy the mob – it feeds it. From here on, he’ll be permanently tarred as a bigot, a racist, a bad person™ – even though most of us are sensible enough to know he isn’t.
The elites may hate the messenger, but they can’t hide from the message anymore: Britain’s population is ballooning faster than Wayne Rooney’s waistline – and it’s being managed by a set of systems and infrastructure more broken than the roof over Old Trafford.
So go ahead — howl, cancel and moralise. Because every shriek of outrage just marches yet more voters straight into the open arms of the man the establishment fears most: Nigel Farage.
