We all have that one person at work that would benefit from a punch; it would make you feel better and it might deliver a message to your colleague that they are causing you a degree of annoyance. At school someone would challenge an enemy to a fight and the news would spread from classroom to classroom (I was at school before the Internet so this was word of mouth advertising, schoolkids nowadays probably create a Facebook event and invite people to a scrap on the football field, or tweet the news with #fightatlunchtime becoming a trending topic). Everybody would assemble and the two opponents would punch each other as many times as possible before the teachers were dragged away from their warm smoky staff room to run out and break things up. After the telling off in the headmaster's office you would shake hands and probably form a lifelong friendship. I'm not suggesting that this is the right way to behave in the grown up world of work, but I know that anyone with an irritating/boorish/sexist/racist person in the workplace will agree with the following point: Would you rather go around the houses reporting this person to a manager, causing a meeting to happen, forms to fill in, courses to attend and a report to write, or would you rather send an email to everyone in your department announcing that a fight would take place at lunchtime in the car park? If you answered honestly, even the most PC tree hugging, yoghurt knitting, tofu sandals wearing, breast milk on your muesli among you will have opted for the second one. Although I should of course remind you that technically (and legally) that is the wrong answer. Punching someone is wrong and never the answer.
All of which brings me to Jeremy Clarkson. This week it was announced that he has been suspended by the BBC for allegedly punching a producer and the remaining two episodes of Top Gear have been shelved. Clarkson is the kind of person who divides opinion straight down the middle; if I used clichés I would refer to public opinion of him being akin to a particular brand of foul tasting toast accompaniment. Apparently Clarkson is on a final warning by the BBC for several controversial matters last year that I won't go into suffice to point to this blog from last year to highlight how fireproof he seems to be. I'm not apologising for him or making an attempt to defend him because I simply couldn't give a shit one way or another if Top Gear stays on television. If you have withdrawals on Sunday then watch Dave, it's on all the time. What I am surprised at is the reaction from the BBC in this situation.
On the one hand, Clarkson has supposedly used racist language on two occasions on Top Gear; referrring to Mexicans in unflattering terms and using a word that nobody (and I mean nobody) even knew was a racial slur, 'slope'. The other racist incident (as mentioned in the blog I linked to) was an outtake in which he may or may not (it's the second one) have used that word, this was made public to stir up trouble and having listened to it again in the writing of this blog I still couldn't detect that word but instead only heard a 'ner ner' mumbling. People have been removed from television for this offence and on those occasions he should have received the highest level bollocking possible and had he actually used that word then of course he should have been fired. The BBC of course probably did a bit of number crunching and decided not to sack the golden goose because in financial terms Top Gear is the corporation's biggest show.
Jeremy Clarkson makes little impact in my life because I don't watch Top Gear so I genuinely don't care about the fact that they have taken it off the air. However when I have seen him on programmes such as QI or Have I Got News For You he comes across as an intelligent and witty man. It is obvious that Clarkson deliberately says things and does things to get a reaction and the public do exactly what he wants them to do, they react. Unfortunately for the detractors though, a lot of the time he talks a fair amount of sense, go on deny it if you want. Do some research if you need to (especially if you're one of the bleeding hearts who have taken to Twitter or Facebook to cry into your lentils about how the big bad wolf should never be allowed to even own a television never mind be on it) into some of his opinions regarding the scourge of health and safety, the scourge of political correctness (gone mad) and all manner of subjects. The Daily Mail jump on everything he says in their traditional out of context damnation to use him as a stick to beat the BBC with. When he said that strikers should be shot in front of their families that was the only bit they quoted from, not the bit he said in support before joking that he had to be impartial. They pulled a similar stunt with Russell Brand and fanned the flames of the Sachs-a-Phone 'scandal' by putting the recording on their website for the benefit of anyone who didn't hear it and wanted to be outraged.
The fact that the future of Top Gear is in the balance is something that I imagine Clarkson has lost no sleep over, despite no longer owning a stake in the production company that makes it. All he has to do is wait for the other channels to start waving their chequebooks and he'll be back on television. Even if the BBC refuse to relinquish the name Top Gear it won't matter because without the presenters the title is worthless.
If anything this highlights an enormous hypocrisy from the BBC; Jimmy Savile (not to mention Rolf Harris, Stuart Hall and no doubt many more) was free to rape and molest children in TV Centre for more than fifty years and was protected not only by the BBC but also by the NHS, the Government, the police, and the Royal Family. Is it fair that a fight between two adults is considered a worse offence?
Listen to this week's edition of The Sunday Alternative here.
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