Fury as Gary Neville compares Qatar's migrant labourers to Britain's striking workers

[MenInG]

Neville making some excellent points

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The political ex-England player drew criticism after discussing the Government's treatment of people who work in rail and the NHS after mentioning the hated Kafala system in the Gulf state.

He had already been criticised for jetting to Qatar to work as a pundit while taking a left-wing stance on issues in Britain.

Mr Neville brought up the system of sponsorship that gave companies a high degree of control over their migrant labourers, which has led to awful working conditions in many instances and has been described as abusive.

The Labour supporter said during ITV's coverage of the World Cup final: "The working system of Kafala, which obviously through football the conversation has started, and it's been removed here now in Qatar but it is abhorrent and we should detest low pay, we should detest poor accommodation and working conditions.

"We can never accept that in this region or any other region and it is just worth mentioning we've got a current government in our country that are demonising rail workers, ambulance workers and terrifyingly nurses.

"In our country we've got to look at workers' rights but when football goes, we have to pick up on workers' rights wherever it goes because people have got to be equal and treated equal.

"We can't have people being paid an absolute pittance to work, we can't have people in accommodation that is unsavoury and disgusting. It shouldn't happen here.

"That shouldn't happen here with the wealth that exists.

"But it shouldn't happen with the nurses in our country either where our nurses are having to fight for an extra pound or two pounds."

One Twitter user wrote: "Of course Gary Neville… made ridiculous and offensive comparisons between workers' rights in Qatar and Britain. This is a political broadcast from that hypocrite."

Another Twitter user said: "Had to switch World Cup over earlier due to Gary Neville's rant about the government.

"A champagne socialist there to talk about the World Cup. Thinks he's now a third-rate politician."

Another backed him, tweeting: "Gary Neville making some fair points here, avoiding signalling out the Middle East when workers rights are also under attack at home. Credit to him for that."

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/gary-neville-qatar-strikes/

 

[MenInG]

Rishi Sunak has criticised the football pundit Gary Neville for arguing people should “detest low pay” and poor working conditions whether for migrant workers in Qatar or NHS staff in the UK.

The former Manchester United and England defender made the comments during ITV’s coverage of Sunday’s World Cup final in Qatar, saying that the UK government was “demonising” striking rail and health workers.

Speaking to broadcasters during a visit to Latvia for a gathering of leaders from Joint Expeditionary Force countries, the prime minister told broadcasters: “I don’t think that’s right at all.”

He went on: “If you look at our track record and my track record, as chancellor, I’ve always done everything I can to support our NHS and indeed, the wonderful people who work in it.

“I grew up in an NHS family. I spent my life working in my mum’s pharmacy, when I was younger. And if you look at what we did during Covid, we provided enormous support to the frontline at a time, when it comes to pay, when everyone else in the public sector experienced a pay freeze.”

Speaking earlier to the Daily Mail, which accompanied Sunak to Latvia, the prime minister said: “I think when most people are tuning in to watch Gary Neville they want to hear about the football and watch the football. They don’t want to discuss politics.”

Asked about Neville’s comments, Sunak’s official spokesperson said: “It is clearly not a legitimate or appropriate comparison in any way.”

Neville, who publicly supports Labour, said: “We should detest low pay, we should detest poor accommodation and poor working conditions. That is something we can never, ever accept that in this region or in any region – and it is just worth mentioning we’ve got a current government in our country who are demonising rail workers, ambulance workers and – terrifyingly – nurses.

“We can’t have people being paid an absolute pittance to work, we can’t have people in accommodation which is unsavoury and disgusting.

“That shouldn’t happen here [in Qatar] with the wealth that exists. But it shouldn’t happen in our country, that our nurses are having to fight for an extra pound or an extra two pounds either.”

Nurses are due to begin a new stoppage on Tuesday, with ambulance staff striking on Wednesday, amid a wider series of disputes in the public sector, primarily about declining real-terms pay, but also in some cases about working conditions.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...fter-workers-rights-comments?CMP=share_btn_tw

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

I was going to say he should stick to talking about football, but I usually don't want to hear his opinions on that either.

 

[KingKhanWC]

Gary has been the only sane one, while the rest of ITV and BBC have been crying like little girls to promote government hate/propaganda.

He is spot on. In the UK we've had strikes from the post office, nurses, train staff, amazon workers and many more to come. Inflation is around 10%, wages are so low some of these workers have to go to food banks or charities to help with food/energy bills.

Qatar supplies 10% gas to UK. Now the World cup is over, Qatar will look at its contracts and may offer the gas to another nation.

UK has not only been humiliated on the world stage along with Germany and others. It has also shot itself in the foot. Why would Arabs or Muslims or Oriental nations ever vote for England to have the World cup? Imo you will NOT see a world cup in England for next 20 years ,which is a shame as England has the best club league and is home to football.

 

[sweep_shot]

Gary has been the only sane one, while the rest of ITV and BBC have been crying like little girls to promote government hate/propaganda.

He is spot on. In the UK we've had strikes from the post office, nurses, train staff, amazon workers and many more to come. Inflation is around 10%, wages are so low some of these workers have to go to food banks or charities to help with food/energy bills.

Qatar supplies 10% gas to UK. Now the World cup is over, Qatar will look at its contracts and may offer the gas to another nation.

UK has not only been humiliated on the world stage along with Germany and others. It has also shot itself in the foot. Why would Arabs or Muslims or Oriental nations ever vote for England to have the World cup? Imo you will NOT see a world cup in England for next 20 years ,which is a shame as England has the best club league and is home to football.

Qatar has billions of Dollars of investments in UK. If Qatar is so bad, why did UK agree to Qatar's investments?

Hypocrisy from them.

 

[SpiritOf1903]

I was going to say he should stick to talking about football, but I usually don't want to hear his opinions on that either.

Touche

 

[KingKhanWC]

Qatar has billions of Dollars of investments in UK. If Qatar is so bad, why did UK agree to Qatar's investments?

Hypocrisy from them.

The truth is its a mixture of jealousy and accepting the UK/Europe are in serious decline. This continent now lives on DEBT, they have little to no natural resources, with the days of looting and plundering over.

Europeans along with North Americans are seriously confused , their society is falling apart. Royal Mail which delivers letters/parcels has been striking regularly in December, people aren't getting their Xmas presents. Its just one of many huge issues here in the UK. Good on Gary Neville for highlighting this. If you make it political all issues should be raised and surely your own issues should be more worrying to you!

 

[RexRex]

Britain's workers have a forum for protest and redressal of their grievances. What do the Qatari immigrants have ?

 

[sweep_shot]

Britain's workers have a forum for protest and redressal of their grievances. What do the Qatari immigrants have ?

Nobody is putting a gun on their heads and asking them to come to Qatar.

 

[KingKhanWC]

Britain's workers have a forum for protest and redressal of their grievances. What do the Qatari immigrants have ?

As mentioned, the workers decide to travel/live and work in Qatar. Millions more would also do the same, they know the risk and know the pay. Maybe we should be asking why their host nations cant provide them with work to live? Pakistan, India and Bangladesh etc. Or do they share no blame.

Btw the figure of 6500 dying is simply a lie which was told by the Guardian and refuted.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Gary has been the only sane one, while the rest of ITV and BBC have been crying like little girls to promote government hate/propaganda.

He is spot on. In the UK we've had strikes from the post office, nurses, train staff, amazon workers and many more to come. Inflation is around 10%, wages are so low some of these workers have to go to food banks or charities to help with food/energy bills.

Qatar supplies 10% gas to UK. Now the World cup is over, Qatar will look at its contracts and may offer the gas to another nation.

UK has not only been humiliated on the world stage along with Germany and others. It has also shot itself in the foot. Why would Arabs or Muslims or Oriental nations ever vote for England to have the World cup? Imo you will NOT see a world cup in England for next 20 years ,which is a shame as England has the best club league and is home to football.

Here's an idea. If you don't want rocketing inflation and shortages of resources, might be an idea to stop going after countries like Russia who will turn round and kick you in the wotsits.

 

[KingKhanWC]

Here's an idea. If you don't want rocketing inflation and shortages of resources, might be an idea to stop going after countries like Russia who will turn round and kick you in the wotsits.

This idea is either common sense or genius.

There will be a big march against Nato and proxy war in London on Sat 21st January. When the Brits become hungry they will become angry too. Something Gary Neville needs to accept too.