Wednesday 11 March 2015

#BringBackClarkson




For petrolheads the world over, this week's shock-horror news didn't come from MotoGP or from Formula 1. Instead, we're all reeling from the news that the BBC has suspended Jeremy Clarkson and has cancelled the broadcasting of the remaining episodes of this season's Top Gear show, because apparently Clarkson punched a production assistant while the show's team were filming in Yorkshire. As a result, the future of Top Gear is up in the air; the contracts of all three presenters (Clarkson, James "Captain Slow" May and Richard Hammond) were coming up for renewal and, if Clarkson's contract is not renewed, it is possible that the other two presenters will not be renewing theirs.

Now, while Clarkson may be loud, opinionated and larger than life, and despite the fact that he professes to dislike motorcyclists (despite co-hosting the show with two of them), we really like the man (I mean, he punched Piers Morgan - well done that man!) and his politically incorrect attitude which is a breath of fresh air in today's PC nanny-state world; we think that Aunty Beeb has over-reacted on this occasion. We would have thought that BBC top brass, of all people, would have understood that the Jeremy Clarkson we all see on the box is just a persona and a caricature, as is Hammond's slight gaucheness and May's professorial pedantry.

So that is why we've signed the online petition to bring back Clarkson and why we stand up and say: JE SUIS CLARKSON.