It’s not Clarkson’s fault the #N30 strike was a damp squib

It was to be the biggest strike in a generation. People were openly and unabashedly comparing Wednesday’s day of action over public sector pensions to the general strike of 1926. It was to bring Britain to a standstill. Mark a turning point in the battle against the cuts instigated by the spawns of the evil Iron Lady. Become a talking point that would strike fear into the cold heart of Cameron and pave the way to bigger, more decisive action.

Except, erm, the very next morning it had been almost completely forgotten. It barely registered as a blip on BBC Radio 4’s flagship Today programme. Newspaper coverage was on the whole sympathetic, but slight. None of the predicted chaos came to pass. Prime minister Cameron could quite safely dismiss the strike as a ‘damp squib’ and provoke few comments except from the usual suspects. People shrugged and went back to work. Far from being a Great Event like the 1926 strike that people would draw inspiration from in 85 years time, it was barely discussed. As my colleague Brendan O’Neill had anticipated, it all felt more like a ‘loud and colourful PR stunt ultimately designed to disguise the fact that, in truth, trade unions are a sad shadow of their former selves’.

Just as the PR flames were beginning to dim, however, enter Jeremy Clarkson, the cartoonish presenter of Top Gear, who sped to the rescue with a particularly naff joke about the strikers being shot in front of their families. Of course, he didn’t actually mean it. In the context of the programme, BBC1’s The One Show, his remarks were actually more a dig at the BBC: he had in fact been praising the strikers (‘London today has just been empty. Everybody stayed at home, you can whizz about… it’s also like being back in the 70s. It makes me feel at home somehow.) but then said, as it was the Beeb, he had to provide ‘balance’, making his now notorious quip: ‘Frankly, I’d 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 have these gilt-edged pensions that are going to be guaranteed while the rest of us have to work for a living?’

Did he mean it? Absolutely not. In fact when the presenter attempted to ascribe the views to him, he very clearly said: ‘They’re not. I’ve just given two views for you.’ But, no matter, his words acted as a claxon for the inevitable, ever-more-frequent, twitch hunt on Twitter with the Twitterati rallying (or, better, herding) their followers to go to the BBC’s website to complain. Very shortly after, prominent union reps were demanding for an apology. And it didn’t stop there. Some started to call for him to be sacked from the BBC. The union UNISON declared it was considering reporting Clarkson to the police. UNISON’s assistant general secretary Karen Jennings went further still claiming Clarkson’s comments were  ‘almost like Gaddafi would have spoken about demonstrators. It’s an incitement to hatred and we are seeking legal advice.’

Sure, Clarkson is undoubtedly a fool. And his comment was a pretty low point even for him. But so what? If we chastised everyone on the BBC who wasn’t funny, there’d be hardly anyone left. But to say it’s hate speech? Akin to the comments of a murderous tyrant like Gaddafi? Surely even the most po-faced trade union rep couldn’t fail to see that it was a joke? To think Clarkson’s comments serious requires a sense of humour deficit comparable to the  current economic one.

It’s mind-blowing how, within hours, the focus of the strikes had been narrowed down from ‘strikers against the evil right-wingers and the state’ to become ‘strikers against Jeremy Clarkson’. The uncomfortable reason for this is that, for all the claims that there was a sustained media campaign to shift public opinion against the strikes and that Cameron and Osborne had revealed themselves more than ever to be hard-line Thatcherites representative only of the ‘one per cent’, actually most public figures and media outlets fawned over the strikers or at least looked on them as quaint or harmless. Despite a few shrill columns from the Sun and the Daily Mail, there was widespread sympathy towards the strikers. And certainly none of the venomous bile there would have been in the past.

This humourless scraping of the barrel, pandering to an increasingly pervasive culture of offence-seeking, is in reality a desperate attempt to gain political traction, to create a political conflict notable by its complete absence on the strike yesterday. But such traction won’t be gained through shallow Clarkson-bashing any more than it will through a drab faux-battle over the percentage points of pensions. A channel for the anger felt by the public does indeed need to be found; and serious debate needs to be had about how to transform society to bring about a better future for all of us. From this week’s actions, however, it’s clear that the trade unions as they currently exist aren’t up to the job and should be encouraged to begin to pick up their pensions themselves.

The Independent Online is partnering with the Institute of Ideas’ Battle of Ideas festival to present a series of guest blogs from festival speakers on the key questions of our time.

Patrick Hayes is a reporter for spiked www.spiked-online.com and head of press and promotions for the Institute of Ideas. Follow him on Twitter: @P_Hayes

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• geo32

  Why is this “public workers strike” being compared with the “General strike” of 1926 as there is no comparison  whatsoever.

  Dad was a miner of 21 and in the “26″ marches. He said very little about this but told of the conditions at the time and the fact they returned to work  after strike and paid less than before the strike.

  Regarding a pension when retiring at 65 he received a fortnightly “pit pension” of £3.58p

• peter169

  Oh Charles, Charles, don’t worry about me…just keep ‘guessing’…that seems to be your ‘forte’! You can’t seem to work it out can you…still, how exciting for you to enjoy the company and status of your mate Clarkson…he drives cars. On Television! Wow…

• saintlaw

  In the interests of accuracy, cumbag, Cameron performed his customary flip-flop and conceded it was, indeed, a big strike.

  He couldn’t do all else really, after initially castigating the organisers for planning a day of action that could see two million walk out – as indeed they did.

  Here in Tottenham I only had the reaction to the hospital staff picketing in front of St Anne’s hossie to go by – but so many cars honked in support of them the noise was continous.

  What really suggests to me that it made a substantial impression (outside of our wretched fourth estate of course) is the many, many daleks who’ve come online anxious to squawk the contrary.

  Your method is by the numbers: a bit snide, a bit shrill – just exactly what one would expect from a ‘Living Marxism’ groupie.

  Well, you and the rest of the zombots can prate. The public sector workers are the vanguard of a kickback against the economic orthodoxy of the last thirty years. An orthodoxy that has seen the wages of low and median workers stagnate in real terms (they now look set to plummet) even as the very wealthy have seen their fortunes swell.

  If anybody thinks that as a private sector drone they will, in any way, benefit from a further attack on the pensions and job security of public sector workers they are a tool. A further defeat here will be a prelude to eroding what employment protection, pensions, and terms and conditions of employment they currently enjoy. Expect as a result longer hours for less pay, shorter contracts, more easy terms of dismissal – and that’s if you’re lucky.

  One of an indistinguishable number below dismissed the strikers as being ‘middle class’. Well, dungbrain, it is the middle class who are dissapearing – collapsing in to the mass of poorer workers below them. Below them of course we have an ever increasing number of unemployed – many of them young.

  It is a recipe for catastrophe, and in time to come many of the sneerers will reflect on the relative civility of wednesdays day of action with nostalgia.

• http://www.http//howlet74@sky.com trader74

  The point I was making he is in no way a man of the people He is a man of the establishment

• http://www.http//howlet74@sky.com trader74

  Concentrating the nations wealth in the pockets of a small minority Who in the main, squirrel it away in offshore accounts is not a good thing
  The cash if spread out amongst the majority, would no doubt be quickly spent, creating jobs

• mitchmac83

  Most workplaces were closed down? That is completely incorrect.

  I work in the public sector and 86% of the workforce here alone were at work as per normal.
  Immigration at the airport ran smoother than on a normal day and public transport remained largely uninterrupted.
  Lets be realistic here, if London was forced to a stand still as it was claimed would happen, it would be very hard for any media outlet to ignore, anti-union or not. Don’t worry, the unions are just as quick to declare success as the anti-union media are to declare it a failure as you suggest.
  Based on the actual disruption levels to London on the day, I’m pretty confident that we can largely label the exercise a failure. Having said that, if you believe you achieved something by your industrial action then I guess you can claim a personal success.

  Subject: [independentblogs] Re: It’s not Clarkson’s fault the #N30 strike was a damp squib

• undulate

  Anyone who doesn’t think that there are more strikes, more demonstrations and more riots to come during the lifetime of this government is either a Tory MP or a wealthy person living in a protective cocoon and only meeting other rich people. Or both.

  Clarkson should have been sacked. Anyone who suggests, on prime-time TV, that a group of people (ANY group of people) should be executed in front of their families, should be sacked, whether they are joking or not. I’ve had enough of people casually wishing harm on other people on prime-time (taxpayer-funded) TV.

• mightyantar

  It’s a perfect example of Tory spin. Despite almost every media source belittling the strike before, during and afterwards, the non-story of Clarkson’s asinine and inflamatory comment got by far the widest coverage. In the press the strike now no longer matters as long as the public are diverted by an irrelevant debate.

• Gid lang

  You reckon he’s a fool do you?  He writes and is the brains behind the world’s top motoring show that outstrips the competition by light years, many bestselling books, a top magazine, newspaper columns, DVDs etc.  Some fool!