A crusade too far in Qatar

Last month, UK foreign secretary James Cleverly advised LGBT fans travelling to the Qatar World Cup to be ‘respectful of the host nation’, given its rather intolerant approach to gay rights. Tone down the camp, was essentially the message.

Politicians and pundits responded with fury. ‘Outrageous’ and ‘shockingly tone deaf’, was the assessment of Labour’s Lucy Powell. Cleverly’s comments ‘diminish our entire society’, said Layla Moran of the Lib Dems. Even No10 said that fans should not have to ‘compromise who they are’.

Yet it seems our political and cultural elites are less keen on other forms of fan self-expression in Qatar.