Joey Barton's Question Time Comments No Worse Than Ian Holloway's Famous Quote

Joey Barton was once again embroiled in controversy following his debut appearance on the BBC’s current affairs discussion programme Question Time. However, whilst Barton’s comments were ill-thought, he was unfairly pilloried because of his colourful past in comparison to current Millwall manager Ian Holloway, who made a similar comment in 2003.

Analysing UKIP’s victory in the European elections, the Queens Park Rangers midfielder noted: “So if I am somewhere and there were four really ugly girls, I'm thinking, 'Well, she's not the worst.'”

Earlier in the programme, UKIP Member of the European Parliament Louise Bours had explained the rise of her party on the grounds that the leaders of the three main parties are too similar, too middle class and don’t speak for the working person, or in a way relevant to them.

Barton’s remarks are paralleled with famous post-match comments made by Ian Holloway as QPR boss after a narrow win against Chesterfield in 2003:

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To put it in gentleman's terms, if you've been out for a night and you're looking for a young lady and you pull one, you've done what you set out to do. We didn't look our best today but we've pulled. Some weeks the lady is good looking and some weeks they're not. Our performance today would have been not the best looking bird but at least we got her in the taxi.

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Both Barton’s and Holloway's comments can be seen as sexist and denigrating to women, but whilst Holloway—well-known for his exuberant sound bites—is rightly regarded as a top West Country bloke, Barton’s infamous reputation seems to precede him.

This quote from Holloway features regularly on the commonplace news features on the web recalling his funniest comments, but was Barton’s any worse? Perhaps the difference is that Barton was on a serious political discussion programme, and Holloway’s quote was part of his repertoire of light-hearted press conferences.

Nonetheless, Barton—who later apologised—received support on Twitter for an otherwise strong performance on Question Time, and for speaking from the heart on issues such as obesity, a third runway at Heathrow and the Chilcot Inquiry into the origins of war in Iraq.

Barton, who is beginning a Philosophy degree at the University of Roehampton in September, has become very self-reflective. But as he continues to reinvent himself in the public sphere, he may again find himself caught between being an influential and a controversial voice.

In this case, however, his remarks—though hardly appropriate—were no worse than Ian Holloway's lauded analogy of a ground-out victory.