Clarkson's tabloid hell

I usually enjoy Sky News's press preview. Their reviewers tend to be a mix of politicians and journalists and usually they deal with interesting topics appearing in the press. Tonight, I had to keep muting the sound because the two tabloid journalists (from the Sun and the Mirror) talked endlessly about Peaches Geldof and Nigel Farage, both subjects that send my blood pressure soaring, so I missed the start of the item on Jeremy Clarkson. All I caught was Jezza looking soulfully at the camera on youtube and apologising over and over for using the word nigger.

It seems Clarkson did not call anyone a nigger but it's not clear what caused the tabloid storm. Something to do with the rhyme eeny-meeny-miney-mo. How it got into a programme about cars... isn't that what the BBC (that is, you and me) pay him to talk about?...I don't know. But I was struck by the fact Clarkson wasn't even allowed to say the word nigger but had to keep referring to 'the n word'. That's what they do in the USA.

I'm not sure the word nigger has the force in the British Isles that it does in the USA with its long history of slavery and black oppression. Maybe it is used as an insult here and I've missed it. In which case, I apologise to anyone who is offended and would like to remind them I'm part of the generation that grew up with a black cat called Darkie, tried hard to stop members of the family describing neighbours as 'coloured' and used to have to remind my mother she shouldn't describe things as 'nigger brown' because people might take offence.

Maybe this story is about political correctness - or 'political-correctness-gone-mad,' as the Daily Mail usually puts it. I normally think political correctness = good manners, and I'm all for that, but in this case I wonder if someone has over-reacted at the BBC and the tabloid press - having adored Clarkson up to now - have taken agin him.

Whatever the case, it will all die down in a few days. As will the apparent 'backlash' against Peaches Geldof predicted by the tabloid people, now that we know she was using heroin. She's dead - there's not much a backlash can do to her now. By the way, I love that these London journalists couldn't think where Peaches would get heroin in her little village...In Farage's case, he's looking a bit rough these days - and I don't think it's the beer or the fags or the egg that was chucked at him today - he's just discovering that challenging the Tories brings the wrath of the right-wing press down on ones head. Good luck with that, Nige. I'm only glad support for UKIP in Scotland is under 10%. We've got enough to deal with here without you, laddie.