Jeremy Clarkson: You want him gone

It’s clear from the majority of your views, that my own take on the Clarkson outburst and what should be done differs. The majority of you want the serial race offender gone. Gone, at least from the tax payer funded BBC Top Gear programme.

I’m certainly not a defender of Clarkson - OBV has covered many of his outbursts with disdain. The biggest fear I’ve had regarding the issue is that by driving him out, the pin-up boy for poor taste and casual bigotry is then reinvented as a victim and a martyr. The thought of Clarkson becoming a victim, which in turn poisons the public debate and thus allowing his deluge of supporters and media outlets to turn their bile on us, makes me sick.

My view is that Clarkson and the Top Gear format is now a spent force, with the BBC plotting, not if, but when to close hackneyed programme which struggles to find new ways of ‘boys behaving badly’. I like the idea of Clarkson being a spent force and not a victim and certainly not a martyr.

But many of you strongly differ, and I respect that. The majority of you simply telling me that, ‘Simon, you’ve got this one wrong’, others, well let’s just say, have made their views to me a bit more forcibly.

From a campaigners point of view it is somewhat frustrating that when we call for, for example a national Black voter registration campaign, particularly in those areas where the Black vote has immense power and potential the response is muted, but if I say ‘let’s not make Clarkson a martyr to bigotry, the response is deluge and mostly negative.

On the issue of Clarkson my own view broadly stays the same, - we don’t always have to agree on every single method to tackle racism-, although I think the public opinion on him, if you go beyond the Sun, the Express and the Daily Mail, is slowly turning against him. Ultimately though, if you want to see Clarkson gone then I would strongly encourage you to act:

There are three ongoing-petitions you can sign, and a written complaint to the BBC would let them know how you feel too.

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/sack-jeremy-clarkson

https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/bbc-sack-jeremy-clarkson

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/52988

http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/complain-online

Lastly, whether or not you act over Clarkson I would also urge you to continue to act in supporting us -OBV- to both ensure our communities are politically strong, including registering to vote, and that this and subsequent Governments have clear and effective policies which tackle persistent race inequalities in our society.

Good luck

Simon Woolley