Top Gear presenter in hot water over ‘silly’ remarks
British Prime Minister David Cameron has criticized comments made by “Top Gear” television show presenter Jeremy Clarkson after he said the country’s striking public sector strikers be “shot in front of their families.”
Clarkson, whose mocking personality helped make the Top Gear automobile show a popular broadcast around the world, was speaking Wednesday as state workers like nurses, teachers and civil servants were staging a 24-hour strike against government plans to make them pay more and work longer for their pensions.
“I’d have them all shot,” the 51-year-old said on the BBC’s prime-time One Show.
“I would take them outside and execute them in front of their families,” he added. “I mean how dare they go on strike when they have got these gilt-edged pensions that are going to be guaranteed while the rest of us have to work for a living?”
A BBC spokesman noted the One Show had apologized at the end of the show to viewers who may have been offended.