Thread drift, but which ones would these be? Or are you joking too? Hard to tell from plain text

Care to find some reasoning for this remark from the same show?

[i"I do sometimes use the train to come to London but it always stops in Reading. It’s always because somebody has jumped in front of it and somebody has burst.

‘You just think, why have we stopped because we’ve hit somebody? What’s the point of stopping? It won’t make them better.”[/i

He's dug his own hole over the years, built a coffin, laid down in it and now he's hammered in the first nail. There are other high profile TV people who have simply vanished from TV over the years for much less.

I don't think people are dumb for complaining, they just don't like the guy.

Is it wrong for me to think that if a train ran him over it would stop, reverse and then do it again, just to make sure?

That said, and much as I think he's a complete and utter c0ck, the unions have handled this badly. The correct response was surely "Clarkson? He's a public school educated, faux 'lad' who likes to make controversial remarks. Who gives a flying what he thinks?"

He's Damo on a bigger stage. You have to wonder how, after all this time, he still gets such a massive rise out of people.

There was actually a union rep on Breakfast this morning who said there had been shootings of workers in Guatamala in front of people all because they belonged to a Trade Union. So it seems Clarkson really wasn't joking, it really could happen. The Union guy asked for Clarkson to dig into his pocket and donate some money to the Guatamlan victims to help their families who are now struggling ......... lets see.

IMO it was a joke but it was just another crass comment that I heard about my husband because he chose to excersise his right to strike.

The distinction between being an apologist on the one hand, and complaining about people either deliberately or through being dumb failing to comprehend something which was very clear, on the other, is pretty obvious and I don't believe you fail to understand it.

It makes no difference to me at all that it was Clarkson, and as an individual he gets on my nerves as much or more than he amuses (though I enjoy Top Gear when I watch it, which is not avidly).

My post is entirely about dumbed-down Britain, and I am in no way, not even 1%, being "an apologist" for Clarkson. Clarkson is almost irrelevant to my point. (What relevance his identity has to the point is only that those who know what he's like have even less excuse for pretending he was actually expressing personal views.) But my point would be true whoever had said it. I would be surprised if you don't get that.

I have no need to comment on the other random remark you bizarrely quote, gross though it was, as it has nothing at all to do with my point. But it is clearly a typical Clarkson attempt at humour by parody as opposed to "this is my actual opinion". It is to me more gross than amusing, but then I didn't say I found his "shoot them" parody funny either. The most amusing part of those remarks was its taking the pis.s out of the BBC's laughable claims to always be even-handed at all times on all subjects.

If only there were more people with the balls to speak their mind.

He spoke his mind?, I was under the impression it was a joke. Or did it just get classified as a joke after the fuss kicked off.

For someone who claims to be so anti PC and "says what everyone else is thinking" etc etc you'd think he'd have the courage to stick to his convictions rather than back down at the 1st sign of people disagreeing with him. Ah well, all mouth and no trousers, unsuprising really.

He hasn't backed down either.

That's unfair on Damo

The fury has been hilarious. This is Jeremy Clarkson - EVERYONE knows he says controversial things simply to get a reaction, and he's got it.

If the BBC didn't want this kind of controversy, why invite Clarkson on the One Show on the day of the strikes anyway? You know what you're going to get with him, so in my view, the BBC asked for it.

Clarkson for Prime Minister.

According to the BBC site he's apologised.

Clarksons like Marmite

Some people are so OTT. Its a joke,get over yourselfs ffs

"Your dustbins haven't been emptied Mr. Clarkson? Sorry all the bin men have been shot!"

"Street lights not working near your house Mr. Clarkson? Sorry all the maintenance crews have been shot!"

"You can't get a blood test done in hospital Mr. Clarkson? Sorry all the technicians have been shot!"

"You're in hospital and no one will empty your bedpan Mr. Clarkson? Sorry all the nurses have been shot!"

Hilarious.

And missing the point

QED FA

The BBC introduced him as being controversial and asked him the questions they wanted him to be controversial on and weren't let down

What a dull life it would be without the other side of the coin.

Why would anyone get upset at such comments- If he had said something like cancer sufferers deserve to suffer in pain due to cuts I could understand it, but shoot strikers, come on.

If its not funny just ignore it as being nonsense.

QED again

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.