“Errmmmmmmm, what many of you are getting uptight about is the second, "quoted", part of what Clarkson said, and that obviously in jest:

"I would have them all shot. I would take them outside and execute them in front of their families. I mean, how dare they go on strike when they got these gilt edge pensions that they are going to be guaranteed while the rest of us have to work for a living."

What he was actually saying, from an article in the Sun by Dom Joly:

"Normally when people say that they have been quoted out of context, this means that they have said something really stupid and are trying to backtrack. This was not the case here."

"When Clarkson had originally been asked about his views on the strike he was (sarcastically) all for it."

"He claimed that London was empty and the airports were working fine."

"Then, he jokingly referred to the BBC's obsession with "balance" and swung to the other side of the argument, announcing to howls of laughter from the crew that the strikers should all be shot."

http://tinyurl.com/dynmdog

Get a life!”

“by observer72 Thursday, December 01 2011, 9:58PM

"PM Cameron views this as " a damp squib " Typical of the arrogant disregard of the wishes of the very people ( some of them ) who put this man into the job he now has. Arrogance and disregard of opinions of the electorate are rampant. Me? I am now awaiting another threatening letter from TV licensing peeps to remind me I owe them £22 and can be prosecuted, fined £1000 in a court of law if I do not pay up. Do you, Mr Cameron ever get such threats in your mail?"

Wot, from the wonderful cary-shary, woolly-liberal, trendy-lefty PUBLIC SERVICE BBC?!?!?!?!?!!?

Next you'll be saying the BBC costs too much and doesn't provide you with the service you require and should be CUT!!!!!!!!!!!!

ARE YOU CAMERON?!?!?!?!?!?!?!”

“"the facts are they are being greedy. before the strike aprrox. 90% of the public thought this. after that has risen to 95%. talk about shooting yourself in the foot." --- Mr B

Strangely, that's not what the famously left-leaning Daily Mail readership thought. At least until the Daily Mail censored the poll for giving the wrong answer!

http://tinyurl.com/c7qkh6o”

“PM Cameron views this as " a damp squib " Typical of the arrogant disregard of the wishes of the very people ( some of them ) who put this man into the job he now has. Arrogance and disregard of opinions of the electorate are rampant. Me? I am now awaiting another threatening letter from TV licensing peeps to remind me I owe them £22 and can be prosecuted, fined £1000 in a court of law if I do not pay up. Do you, Mr Cameron ever get such threats in your mail? This, Mr Cameron, is the world many people live in, despite having paid taxes for longer than you can remember. Power we gave to you and your cronies has corrupted your vision of life as the commoners know it.”

“the facts are they are being greedy. before the strike aprrox. 90% of the public thought this. after that has risen to 95%. talk about shooting yourself in the foot. if any of you strikers think you have achieved anything by doing this you are very deluded.”

“Clarkson's comments are part of a sustained ongoing smear campaign dividing private against and smearing public services.

Odd given the poor low quality performance/"success" of private sector health "care" for the old compared to superior public service ones as one example.

Midwives, nurses, doctors, teachers, police, armed forces, security forces just for starters; what crime have they committed compared to the economic vandalism wreaking misery on the many by the rich few bosses, bankers and politicians by mass under-employment, underpay, overtaxation and overcharging?”

“Keith

That says everything about your workmates - we already know what you are.

Clarkson is boorish, womanising, chauvinist, right wing pillock.”

“Yes, Xbbsensor, you must mean the obviously left-wing BBC that has not yet sacked Clarkson for making such disgusting remarks. LOL”

“In a poll taken today 35% were against what Clarkson said. 65% agreed with him. Says it all.”

“Who changed the rules allowing private companies to take pension "holidays"-now there's a euphemism for you!-so £18 Billion was transferred from workers to shareholders and bosses?

Two wrongs don't make a right, trashing private pensions is best reversed by restoring them...if the private sector is too weak to pay decent pensions, the government is best placed to be around long enough and able to create practically infinite amounts of money, unlike the foreign euro currency users over the water who are going bust, unlike us.

This country has been so badly run the last 40 years so that we are underemployed, underpaid, overtaxed and overcharged by rip off oligopoly crony capitalism, we are no way near a free market, it seems to be an extremely expensive market for the many syphoning off and hoovering up wealth and income for the rich few bosses.

That's the real divide, not private/public, but the diamond encrusted solid gold pensions of the few rich bosses who inherited enough money to live off without working yet still cream off huge wages and pensions, bearing no relationship to their performance, and the many ordinary people who are being made to pay the bankers debts, even though the bankers have been forgiven their debts!

The cause of the crisis is weak running of the economy, the abandonment of full employment depressed demand and wages, depressing demand further, the FIRE sector was de-regulated and wrecklessly overlent, particularly in the US where valuers were bribed to overvalue, borrowers pushed into taking on more debt than they could service out of artificially credit inflated house and share prices, the banks made even more money selling dodgy debt tarted up as triple AAA by the "rating" agencies who made money from the companies they "rated". Lemon (sic) Brothers AAA when Japan's monetarily solvent and unbankruptable government not? If only it wasn't such a seriously bad joke!”