The Unison union is reportedly taking legal advice over comments from Jeremy Clarkson on The One Show on Wednesday evening. When asked about yesterday’s public sector strikes, Clarkson allegedly said that the strikers should be shot.
The BBC says it has received between 50 and 100 complaints from viewers regarding the comments, which have been robustly debated over the past 24 hours. Some see the comments as ‘typical Clarkson’ and as nothing more than a joke, while others feel that suggesting strikers be shot is a little beyond a joke.
Unison clearly doesn’t see the joke, but it’s unclear whether they have any grounds to take legal action regarding the comments. Meanwhile, an alleged friend of Clarkson’s appeared on This Morning today and said the comments were silly but that he probably didn’t mean it. The friend, ‘Dave’, seemed pretty sanguine about the whole thing.
Clarkson speaks before he thinks but most of the time he is right in his opinion. Striking during a time of austerity, when everyone is cutting back, is not constructive and only damages the country. They want their guaranteed pensions to be bigger when the majority of people in the private sector don’t have a pension at all! Now the government is outlining 710,000 public sector job losses and pay rise cap of 1% for two years – so that’s what you get PS workers. You have made that necessary by asking for more – it has to come from somewhere.
As for UNISON seeking legal advice – what are they suing him for, having an opinion? Shut up.