SIR – Brian Pickford (Letters, December 5) would have us believe Jeremy Clarkson (pictured) was joking when he suggested shooting strikers, and condemns the critics for not seeing the funny side.
But rabble rousers like Clarkson almost always mean what they say and hope to get away with it by pretending it was all a joke.
Mr Pickford might, for example, like to remember Mrs Thatcher calling Nelson Mandela a terrorist, or her Young Conservatives who wore T-shirts saying Hang Mandela. Or perhaps think of Daniel Hannan, Conservative MEP, who told American TV that the NHS was a waste of money, or St Andrew’s University Conservative Club members who burned an effigy of Barack Obama.
None of these things were said or done as jokes, and it was only when they were exposed to the ‘oxygen of publicity’ (Thatcher again) and seen for what they were did their authors try to ‘row back’ claiming it was all a laugh. Some laugh!
Brian Holmans, Langley Road, Bingley
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