Nuxx:Dac00bba-5396-4873-9f16-00d94b90a291@r21g2000yqd.googlegroups.com

Path: num2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!num1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!number.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border3.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!postnews.google.com!r21g2000yqd.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Message-ID:  From: Nuxx Bar  Newsgroups: uk.rec.cycling,uk.rec.driving Subject: Car-Haters Attack Top Gear Again Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2011 13:33:35 -0800 (PST) Lines: 102 Organization: http://groups.google.com NNTP-Posting-Host: 82.71.49.124 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: posting.google.com 1297287216 5983 127.0.0.1 (9 Feb 2011 21:33:36 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2011 21:33:36 +0000 (UTC) Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: r21g2000yqd.googlegroups.com; posting-host=82.71.49.124; posting-account=7_6kYAkAAABD6HrjM0VxehwvZOKMxm4g User-Agent: G2/1.0 X-HTTP-UserAgent: Opera/9.80 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.5.8; U; en) Presto/2.7.62 Version/11.01,gzip(gfe) Bytes: 5955 Xref: perfectly-safe.chapmancentral.co.uk uk.rec.cycling:798873

It's good to see the Clarkson-hating PC brigade finding so many things he's said to pretend to be offended about. It must be easier to do that than to attempt to enter (and lose) any kind of serious debate about road safety etc.

I really don't understand why we can't have one motoring show on the BBC, where Clarkson and other motorists express their (sometimes controversial, yes) opinions, and cars are shown in a good light rather than as some kind of vice (as with most of the rest of the leftie BBC), without the anti-car loonies constantly trying to find fault with it, with the presumed aim of either getting rid of it or turning it into an "on-message" programme. If they don't like it then why don't they just not watch it? Everyone knows what they're likely to get with Clarkson.

This spiteful interfering is analogous to the constant and unnecessary artificial obstructions which now assault motorists on virtually every road. "It's not enough that I think something, I've got to impose my philosophy on everyone else as well, even when it doesn't affect me in the slightest either way."

http://road.cc/content/news/30733-clarkson-cyclist-work-hard-and-get-car

Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson and co-hosts James May and Richard Hammond may have had their knuckles rapped over recent comments about Mexicans that resulted in the BBC issuing a formal apology, but happily for the doyen of the petrolhead community, there is one minority it still seems okay for him to disparage with impunity =96 cyclists. Oh, and Albanians too, going by last night=92s show, as well as the French.

Hammond, a keen cyclist, had been talking in last night=92s episode =96 the segment starts 21 minutes 27 seconds in =96 about last week=92s BBC News feature about cylists wearing helmetcams =93so they can video examples of road rage and people cutting them up on their bikes,=94 to which Clarkson interjected, =93But cyclists deserve it,=94 the exchange continuing:

Hammond: =93Don=92t say that!=94

Clarkson: =93But they do deserve it, honestly. The other week, no honestly, there I am sitting in a traffic jam in London=94 =96 oh, the irony =96 =93and a Frenchman, he was tried to cycle between the pavement and my car and after he=92d removed most of the paint with his brake handle thing he came round to the drivers door to tell me off in that silly accent French people have.=94

Hammond: =93What, a French accent?=94

Clarkson: =93Yes, that, and I said to him, listen if you just work hard you can have a car.=94

Hammond: =93You are exactly the reason why I want a camera on my bicycle helmet when I cycle.=94

Clarkson: =93Why?=94

Hammond: =93When idiots like you get out of their car having cut me up =96 =94

Clarkson: =93Who pays the road tax?=94

Hammond: =93Well =96 =94

Clarkson: =93I=92m sorry, I don=92t mind if cyclists want to come on the road with their silly Victorian distractions, I=92m not bothered, but they must behave themselves.=94

News of Clarkson=92s disparaging remarks against cyclists quickly spread through the Twitterverse, presumably giving a slight boost to Top Gear=92s viewing figures as people who would normally not even consider tuning in switched over to see what the fuss was.

More than one pointed out that rather than being a separate species, most adult cyclists do in fact own cars =96 they just choose not to use them to the exclusion of all other forms of transport.

While some might hold that Clarkson=92s comments are just banter, and that he=92s playing a kind of pantomime villain role, the fact is that Top Gear is one of the BBC=92s most successful programmes, and he also pens motoring columns for The Times and The Sun that enable his views to be read by =96 and perhaps influence =96 millions.

One cyclist is organising a group ride from Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire next Saturday with the itinerary taking in the nearby road where Clarkson lives, which we assume will be included on a number of loops =96 details here.

Meanwhile, the Save A Cyclist campaign urged Twitter users to =93Make sure you let everybody @BBC_TopGear know what you think of Clarkson's attitude to cyclists.=94

Although Clarkson, portrayed by the comedian Steve Coogan in a piece in yesterday=92s Observer as akin to a school bully could be viewed as having made something of a schoolboy error in his reference to the non- existent =91road tax,=92 we=92re guessing that the slip-up is a clever ruse on his part - it will let him show how clued-up he is about the whole issue of Vehicle Excise Duty and the fact that roads are funded out of general taxation when he corrects his error on next week=92s programme.

At the same time as apologising to cyclists, Albanians and, yes, the French.