The whole thing smacks of a completely stage managed PR stunt.

He was given leading questions by the presenters which he no doubt been briefed about and for which he had prepared comments for. He then replies back with "witty"(sic) remarks.

The media then fall into line and create an artifcially induced storm of protest.

Coming up in the next few weeks of course will be THE TOP GEAR CHRISTMAS SPECIAL, and THE TOP GEAR DVD, and CLARKSONS MEAN MACHINES, not for getting the new Clarkson book YOUR ALL SUCKERS WHO FALL FOR THIS CRAP.

The BBC's merchandise arm will be making a mint

Don't agree with Clarkson's political views 1 iota, but I must have been the only person who found his comments funny. But, unfortunately, we live in a politically correct state, where such comments are frowned upon. It's all very Pythonesque to me. It's really quite pathetic, that something like this is deemed news-worthy when British soldiers are dieing in Afghanistan, the Euro/ eurozone is collapsing, people are starving in Africa, pensions issue, etc is going on worldwide.

ps/ I'd have shot the unions for allowing Gordon Brown to plunder the pensions pot a few years ago, and standing back, doing nothing about it.

Live Wired;
25 years member of the General Municipal Boilermakers union...

Absolutely. I compared him to our own AP on another thread.

Politeness is possibly the greatest virtue the human race posesses. It's saved more lives than the entire history of the medical profession.

I think the union guy on telly this morning got it right when he said 'Clarkson is just like the bar room bore, you move away but he follows'

What he said was not funny, but I doubt it was truly offensive in itself, but it does show his remoteness from ordinary peoples problems and that he has a 'let them starve' attitude, so long as he isn't inconvenienced.

Good old Jezza - his witty, biting satire and social conscience are a lesson to us all.

What does 'QED' mean?

I had to laugh at the Labour MP on Channel 4 News stating that we must think of the children.

I think I was a touch embarrassed for him...

It's Latin for 'ha ha, I fooking told you so'.

This is very similar to the complaints that Ricky Gervais got for the disability jokes. Last time it was charity’s getting free publicity for a comedian making a well-publicised joke and this time it’s the unions that are getting it. Maybe if the unions and charity’s concentrated on helping the people they suppose help rather than consuming too much time in demonising people then things might get sorted out in this country.

But of course unions and charities are all about publicity these days. The more publicity they can get then the more money can go into the pockets of people who run these respective organisations.

IMO, an over-reaction (but he has now apparently apologised).

Guatemala is not unique - Colombia springs to mind straight away. And there are plenty of other places.

But given how much people are feeling attacked - their pay (for several years), their pensions and even the promotion, by much of the media, of a view that public service workless are useless, are a burden on 'real' workers and anyone who pays tax (because nobody in the public services does) etc - it's equally not a surprise that many were angered, and not least because of who he is, the fact that he's paid a lot of money by the taxpayer to piddle around in flash cars, and is a close buddy of Cameron and Brooks etc al.

Complete overreaction, from our media, to the (expected) comments from Clarkson.
As I said on the women in sport debate, with the SPOTY issue, our media like to whip us all into a frenzy, to be morally outraged at the slightest thing. Typical examples (this year) are Richard Keys/Andy Gray, and the Sepp Blatter race interview, which barely made the media throughout Europe, but in the morally outraged UK, it was the first item on the news on every channel, and the front page on every newspaper.

I've said this for years, this country is run by about a dozen people....not the cabinet, but the head honchos at the BBC, Sky and ITN, as well as the editors of Sun, Star, Mirror, Mail, Express, Times etc. They decide how we should feel and what goes on, not elected people, and unfortunately, most of the nation fall for it

I thought it was a very funny joke. Once again people get their knickers in a twist over nothing. Lighten up.

Good post but if you live in London you forgot the tube union leaders.

Quote: Thorntonsaint "Clarkson for Prime Minister. www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/gro ... 2208998433

Quote: Thorntonsaint "Clarkson for Prime Minister. www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/gro ... 2208998433