Lord Young of Acton is associate editor of the Spectator. The late Rod Liddle spearheaded the magazine's campaign against the 'Charltification' of football. Lord Young ('Tobes') is a keen Super Hoop and often complains about QPR in his column which must baffle the average Speccie reader. In her tribute to Liddle, former employee Kemi Badenoch called it the Sextator.
Editor Lord Gove knows little about football and less about Charlton so he may well drop the campaign. Liddle was a talented wordsmith and, as a Millwall supporter, had been attacking Charlton for years in both the Sunday Times and the Spectator.
However, the 'Charltificatuon' article escalated matters to a new level. Before then Liddle had mainly resorted to rather tired memes about anoraks and train spotters. I was baffled by the notion that Charlton was a 'woke' club and was somehow leading other clubs along the wrong path. Our moaners often say that Charlton are a laughing stock, but the reality is that most fans have hardly ever heard of us. For example, my chiropodist is a keen football fan (Villa) but doesn't even know which division we are in. The idea that top clubs are taking cues from us is laughable.
As far as Lord Young is concerned, one question is whether he will renew his unrequited feud with fanzine editor Rick Everitt. After his failure last year to stage a confrontation with the Rickster on Margate beach last autumn, there was speculation that he might go to the Thanet council offices with a loud hailer and urge Everitt to 'man up' and 'come outside'. The confrontation between the two folically challenged supporters could then be filmed by fellow QPR fan Louis Theroux. However, Everitt might well decide to stay in his Ramsgate lair.
I have messaged the noble lord to ask about his intentions, particularly when comes to The Valley, but he has not replied.
Things have been a little tricky for Lord Young recently (he is the son of Lord Young of Dartington, but it is a life peerage). First, he received several mentions in the Epstein files and for a while it looked as if the new UK Government might respond to calls for the British links of Epstein to be investigated.*
Now the Financial Times has launched an investigation into Young's Free Speech Union which was the vehicle he used to attack 'town hall tyrant' Everitt. Critics argue that the FSU is interested in free speech for those who agree with its values.
The FT has been investigating in depth Young's links with the Trump administration in the US and the MAGA movement more generally. The FSU's international umbrella organisation is due to receive $5m from the US State Department.
About seven FSU employees, equivalent to a quarter of the workforce, have resigned or been sacked in the last year, including the chief legal counsel. One former employee told the FT, 'There's a sharp, sinister edge to the FSU today. Previously they'd go to bat for, and were, the underdogs. Now they are the classroom bullies.' I doubt whether Everitt would succumb to bullying, particularly from a Super Hoop.
* Lord Young has made clear that he was inadvertently included in Epstein's contacts list as a result of a tenuous acquaintance with G Maxwell. Lord Young has emphatically denied that he ever visited 'Paedo Islamd' (his terminology); traveled on the plane known as the Lolita Express; or met Epstein either at one of his homes or at an incarceration facility. It is not implied that Lord Young has ever met or communicated with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor..
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