With friends like these…

Jeremy Clarkson is a close friend of PM David Cameron. As well as both being millionaires they share a hatred of trade unions. While DC was dismissing the N30 strike as a ‘damp squib’ his friend launched a pre-planned attack on N30 participants, calling for them to be shot in front of their families. The Times reported that the BBC was aware of – and approved – the attack in advance.

In the response sent to the 30,000+ who complained the BBC claimed that Clarkson “apologised”. But Clarkson merely said that he is happy to apologise alongside the BBC. But the BBC did not apologise. And now Clarkson has denied the BBC claim that he apologised.

In the Sun, which ridiculed the strike as a “not so great general strike”, Clarkson was let loose in his Saturday column to abuse victims of the increasing suicide rate on the tube. He wrote: “get the train moving as soon as possible and let foxy woxy and the birds nibble away at the smaller, gooey parts that are far away and hard to find.”

But this time Clarkson faces hisWaterloo. Union leaders called for his sacking. Trade unionists suggested he find work inColombiaandGuatemalawhere trade unionists have been shot by paramilitaries. An Amnesty International blog suggested thatSaudi Arabiais just the country for him, where public executions of those who challenge the government are not uncommon.

Cameron dismissed his pal’s comments as “silly”. It was reminiscent of when he kindly insisted his friend Andy Coulson get a “second chance”, just like everyone deserves – apart from those young people caught up in the riots who faced severe sentencing and ruined lives.

For The Socialist 7 December 2011 –issue 697