Jezza,
This stuff all way out of proportion and it feels like you're being targetted for Ross and Brand's mistakes.
I hope you know that there are far more people supporting you than complaining about you and I hope that you, Hamster and Captain Slow will continue to provide the best Sunday night TV for many years to come.
Here is a copy of the e-mail I sent to Adrian Mole aged 13 and 3¾...oops sorry, I mean Chris Mole MP.
"Mr Mole,
Whilst I appreciate that local feeling about local murders will run deep in those local families, does the whole world have to be so ridiculously politically correct that nobody can joke at anything?
Following an article on BBC news online today (
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7712962.stm) and following other recent stories about media complaints, I have to ask, is your political career so far down the tube that you have to jump on every bandwagon wherever you can? Wasn't this essentially a joke at lorry drivers expense, after all that's what the Top Gear article was about, lorry drivers...not lunatics who weren't stopped by the police, YOUR police, until they had committed 5 murders. Was he actually making at joke about the murder victims or their profession, or their families...or the incompetence of your police force?
How many of the complaints that have been lodged have been from lorry drivers? As far as I've heard, the drivers from several large haulage companies and other related organisations have come out in support of Jeremy Clarkson, realising that this was JUST A JOKE.
I have even found a forum article from a family member of one of the victims which stated, "One of the five Victims of Steve Wright was my little sister. Three of the others where young girls I’d encountered in my professional life as a youth worker and I felt fondly towards. My Step Father is (amongst other things) a lorry driver. And I found last Saturdays episode Pant wettingly Hilarious. Ignore these morbid and humour impaired nay-sayers", so I ask where are your grounds for putting your two-penneth into this equation?
The BBC reported your letter as stating "For Mr Clarkson to make light of murder in any circumstance must be a dismissible offence. To do so with complete disregard for the families of the murdered women should make this a matter on which I would expect you to take immediate action."
Who the hell are you to be insisting that someone be sacked from their job? If I knew of a way of complaining about statements made by politicians then I would be complaining about you and 'insisting' that you be sacked from your position. What you're basically saying is that; freedom of speech no longer exists, no-one can joke about anything sensitive and that you think YOU are the Director General of the BBC and can dictate what their internal policies are...you are despicable, your statements are considerably more offensive than anything ever said by Jeremy Clarkson and I hope that your constituents reflect on this incident when they vote in the next general election."