If it can fly then it can crash. I would rather it stayed like it currently is.

Jonathon Woss is now on ITV in case you hadn’t noticed…

I hadn’t noticed.

I’m sure the BBC doesn’t give a toss what you, personally, find entertaining…

…but the (worldwide) viewing figures for Top Gear speak for themselves…..don’t they. 😉

To quote the late George Carlin, Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.

…it would appear you watch the programme so perhaps not all is lost.

I’ve been trying to stay fitter as of January this year. As such I try and spend around 20 minutes a dayrunning on treadmill in the gym at work. Running on a treadmill is beyond boring, so I watch TV on the built in screen. I usually end up channel hopping, and last week my choices on any given day were Homes Under the Hammer, some dull sporting tournament, Loose Women, Come Dine with Me, some terrible ’70s cop film, a re-run of Rising Damp, adverts, adverts, an ancient war film, adverts and Top Gear.

Top Gear won there, thanks to the channel Dave. I don’t watch it in my free time! My issue with the BBC, and especially the TV Licence is that it is defended, usually, by people pointing out that ‘at least you don’t get adverts on the BBC’. I don’t think that warrants making it a criminal offence to dodge the licence fee if you happen to watch any TV channel. I would rather have a system whereby I can opt out of receiving BBC services. The best stuff the BBC make is there for free on iPlayer anyway, and I can watch that when it suits me, not when the BBC happen to be broadcasting it. Their system is antiquated and they use the justice system to bully money, via a third party, out of a willing public. I’ve had unpleasant dealings with the Capita goons they send round to inspect your property, and I’ve spoken to a good number of people with similar experiences. Furthermore, the BBC is also supposedly neutral yet appears left wing in outlook, generally, and gets more right wing the further up in management you look. I would rather have TV with a few adverts and an obvious political bias than TV with supposed neutrality and no adverts that can land you a criminal record if you watch it without subserviently paying the fee (regardless of the monetary value). The fact that said fee ends up lining the pockets of such sacred cows as Clarkson and Jonathan Ross is the icing on the cake for me.

Looks like a last-ditch attempt to get the white van man vote? :sleeping:

I filled out some questions last night, based on individual policies rather than parties, and apparently my views are 50% green, 25% SNP and 25% conservative. Annoyingly whoever promised to publish the Chilcot Inquiry ASAP was also against the renewal of Trident. One policy I like and one I dislike in the same breath.

The JCB family recently sold their yacht, which is now sitting in a dock in Leith looking a bit sad for itself. They must not be selling enough diggers!

Meddle – in what way are 1) and 2) problems for you? If you were 1% as nationally popular as Clarkson you might get a few signatures. Do you resent his popularity and that of the show. It appears so. I dislike much of TV output particularly soaps and so-called reality shows but I don’t resent the popularity of the participants.

I don’t resent him. My issues are with 1) The BBC keeping old hacks on because they think people like myself actually find them entertaining (which ties in with my gripe with the BBC treating the licence fee money like a garden hose) and 2) the fact that a fairly ordinary piece of workplace violence is being spun so cheaply in favour of Clarkson (the agressor, allegedly) because he is the supposed voice of the less-than-PC working man even though his persona is an act engineered to line his own pockets.

Got it yet?

Would you take on his Top Gear persona in exchange for his income ? No, course you wouldn’t.

I’m no good as an actor and I don’t get that excited by cars. If I had the potential to be the next Clarkson then I would already be the next Clarkson. I view Clarkson as a bit of a fraud, though he has become more lovably oafish and bear-like in recent years. His job appears to be to help city boys buy their next car, and to sell this sort of suave lifestyle to tragically misinformed white van men and their 17 year old lackies by occasionally blowing up a caravan or mumbling a racial slur. Hardly worth gathering 400,000 + signatures to protect.

Clarkson is a comedian, and thus acts a role. Top Gear is clearly scripted, especially when it appears to go off piste, and the offensive material is allowed to remain unquestioned by a whole team of people paid to deliver a certain image, ethos and ‘speakeasy’ attitude. Top Gear appeals to Barry types with their modified cars and Zoo Magazines. Clarkson’s act works especially well, in my opinion, because the Daily Fail brigade thinks he is less-than-secretly on their side, and the Guardian brigade have somebody to get endlessly offended by and upset at. Both groups are being played like fiddles, and the laddie fast car market supports the endless franchising of the Top Gear brand regardless and Clarkson keeps making money. I was gifted Top Gear shower gel for Christmas! And to think Clarkson used to have quite an affected RP accent in the ’80s when he was only a thirtysomething in overly tight jeans.

Two problems for me;

1) The BBC hold on to these old dinosaurs long after their collective wells have run dry because the BBC seem to think these characters are popular with the younger crowd. See the endless Jonathan Ross debacle (and Chris Moyles, Chris Evans, et al). It is better than harbouring nonces I suppose, but the BBC don’t have their finger on the pulse and keep some absolute knackers on their books.

2) Clarkson allegedly assaulted somebody in a work place environment and I fail to see why the rules should be different for him. If I thumped my boss I would be in a bad situation, and there wouldn’t be a petition to save my behind either. Will we ever see 400K + signatures in support of something that furtherss the human race? Probably not because Barry, with his ****box car in the driveway, thinks Clarkson is a secret Ukipper and the last bastion of free speech (whilst forgetting he is part of the Chipping Norton set and is besties with Rebekah Brooks).

The thread title should be changed for all to see.