Ive got very little else to do tonight so having listened and read on this issue i thought id just ot down a few thoughts.
Firstly i believe that the timing of such a comment is extremely poor, and i understand that the Guardian will say that they were only responding to listener questions, but you do not have to take every listeners opinion seriously, especially less than 7 days after the man has died, they could have ignored the queestion and just not mentioned it. For example if i had emailled to say i thought that the satarists at Charlie Hedbo were racists (i dont but you can make a case for it, albeit a flimsy one) would they have aired that view? I doubt it.
Secondly, even if Sir Jack confessed to being xenophobic (which im not entirely sure he did in that article, he says "I have a disease" implying its been "diagnosed" to him by someone else) there is a whole world of difference between xenophobia, patriotism and racism. It is also worth pointing out that a classic sign of unintelligence and misinformed reasoning is refering any arguement to Hitler or what Hitler would have done, for example Hitler controlled the states media and could say whatever he wanted without fear of reprisal
It is worth remembering that Sir Jack was born in the 1920s, and as both a historian and a vehement left wing supporter (politically, not football wise) you have to contextualise some of the mans beliefs by looking at the era he was from. Obviously with Sir Jack he grew up in the era of the Empire, and fought in the second world war so this would have massively shaped his views of the world in my opinion, and also before we start throwing out "R" bombs perhaps we should look at the views on race of the man voted the greatest Briton, Sir Winston Churchill, especially around the Boer War, an again i doubt podcasts would have villified him in the same way.....
Finally from what i have heard, seen and read of people that knew Sir Jack it is clear that he doesnt have a bad bone in his body, and even if he did believe in putting money back into his home economy, in my opinion that does not make you a racist, and if one person no one has ever heard of wants to be famous by casting slurs upon the dead, thats his business, but its himself hes showing up. We all have our own memories of Sir Jack and one loudmouth with a microphone is never going to erase or change those.
(Anyone who read that and put up with my lack of full stops and poor structure you deserve a medal)