You couldn’t make it up.

The Free Speech Union has supported the ban on taking the knee at the Tokyo Olympics. One of their gang said:

‘The majority of people support banning taking the knee. It is divisive and doesn’t have much to do with kicking racism out of sport‘.

That’s a belter.

If shooting oneself in the foot ever got incorporated as an Olympic event, the all-time gold medallist would be right there: freedom of speech is now being defined by its purported champion on restricted, subjective terms.

Even Hitler was ok with free speech frameworks of that ilk.

Yes, the knee-taking is arguably a mish-mash of shoddy opportunism and spineless conformism. For others it’s a deeply meaningful statement.

Take your choice – that’s democracy for you. And indeed, freedom of expression.

Meanwhile, nothing much will change with the battle against racism, because the embedded evils are not dislodged by mere gestures.

Most titillating, though, is how comfortably some can shred their essential principles when something more immediately irksome trots up.

As if we needed a reminder, Boris Johnson is never more than a dick’s length from a bonfire of principles. He supported and signed a Withdrawal Agreement that he now deems ‘ludicrous’. He lauded a personal advisor, dished him up a hefty pay hike, and now refers to him as a ‘maniac’.

Elsewhere, club owners at the drop of a hat ratted out on their Super League plans which must have been years in the making.

There is nothing that a charlatan will not flip-flop on in the pursuit of political or commercial expediency.

Be careful out there.