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Yes, but.... The show's main presenter has been well known as having politically conservative views for many, many years. If you watch, the vast bulk of his ou

Yes, but.... The show's main presenter has been well known as having politically conservative views for many, many years. If you watch, the vast bulk of his output is joking in that general direction when it's joking. Frankly, if I were Tesla, I wouldn't have let my car appear; it smacked of a set-up against the green bogeyman who was trying to stop their fun. There seems to be a growing tendency at the moment in the UK at least for people with politically conservative views to express these loudly, prominently and repeatedly in a more forceful tone than they could otherwise use, with an I'm only having a bit of fun, it's just a joke, can't you just grow up and take it? tacked on to the end, trying to belittle those who might take offence at their assertions. If these people want to express their views from such a platform (by which I mean a prominent one, the fact of this being on the BBC isn't an issue for me), they should have the nerve to stand behind it.

philjackson 16y ago
"they should have the nerve to stand behind it" So summarise, are you saying Jeremy Clarkson doesn't stand behind his political statements? That's simply not true, have you never seen his columns in the Times? Clarkson gets a terribly hard time for his views and he doesn't waver a bit, whether you agree with him or not, you have to give him some credit.
- eftpotrm 16y ago
  I agree, I've seen his columns and he's firmly standing behind his ill-informed bigotry. A pity, because if you see some of his writing as a younger man 25 years ago he was interesting, funny and observant while still demonstrably holding the same political views; now far more he's a frustrated bigot railing against the modern world. Watch Top Gear though (which I do and largely enjoy), and there's a relatively regular stream of reactionary material with a 'boys will be boys' tongue in cheek. The problem is, it's consistently in the same direction and at the same targets; it's using a cover of comedy and his TV persona to make attacks he couldn't otherwise make in such a platform. Jeremy Clarkson the newspaper columnist stands behind his positions, I agree; Jeremy Clarkson the TV character often tries to make much the same attacks while laughing them off as 'just a bit of fun'. That isn't intellectually honest.
  - philjackson 16y ago
    "Jeremy Clarkson the TV character often tries to make much the same attacks while laughing them off as 'just a bit of fun'. That isn't intellectually honest." Are you talking about the more extreme rubbish like "all lorry drivers are prostitute murderers"? His genuine political opinions like the ones he has on bendy buses, speed cameras, the M4 bus lane etc. strike me as genuine and not veiled in the 'boys will be boys' disguise you talk of. I should probably bail from this conversation lest people mistake me as a JC supporter, I just think you're being a little unfair.
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philjackson 16y ago

"they should have the nerve to stand behind it" So summarise, are you saying Jeremy Clarkson doesn't stand behind his political statements? That's simply not true, have you never seen his columns in the Times? Clarkson gets a terribly hard time for his views and he doesn't waver a bit, whether you agree with him or not, you have to give him some credit.

eftpotrm 16y ago
I agree, I've seen his columns and he's firmly standing behind his ill-informed bigotry. A pity, because if you see some of his writing as a younger man 25 years ago he was interesting, funny and observant while still demonstrably holding the same political views; now far more he's a frustrated bigot railing against the modern world. Watch Top Gear though (which I do and largely enjoy), and there's a relatively regular stream of reactionary material with a 'boys will be boys' tongue in cheek. The problem is, it's consistently in the same direction and at the same targets; it's using a cover of comedy and his TV persona to make attacks he couldn't otherwise make in such a platform. Jeremy Clarkson the newspaper columnist stands behind his positions, I agree; Jeremy Clarkson the TV character often tries to make much the same attacks while laughing them off as 'just a bit of fun'. That isn't intellectually honest.
- philjackson 16y ago
  "Jeremy Clarkson the TV character often tries to make much the same attacks while laughing them off as 'just a bit of fun'. That isn't intellectually honest." Are you talking about the more extreme rubbish like "all lorry drivers are prostitute murderers"? His genuine political opinions like the ones he has on bendy buses, speed cameras, the M4 bus lane etc. strike me as genuine and not veiled in the 'boys will be boys' disguise you talk of. I should probably bail from this conversation lest people mistake me as a JC supporter, I just think you're being a little unfair.

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