In Defence of Jeremy Clarkson

Oh crap.
One of Fagburn's most favourite people, David Quantick, has written a defence of one of Fagburn's least favourite people, Jeremy Clarkson.
Even worse, Mr Quantick, has mounted a rather convincing defence.
'The BBC Needs Jeremy Clarkson To Be Offensive' graces the pages of The Daily Telegraph today.
It's not a defence of Jeremy Clarkson's offensive comments - he's in the news again because he's just made a joke about a "special needs car."
It's more saying that's just what the posh oaf does - big deal - and he gets off on people taking offence.
And the BBC jumps into action mainly because he's given its critics another stick to beat it with.
At least I think that's what Quantick's saying, it's all a bit forked-tongue.
David Quantick - the funniest writer the NME ever had, now rather big in radio and TV, writing gags for Harry Hill's TV Burp and stuff - likens Top Gear to a family; "Where James May is the posh mum and Richard Hammond the cheeky kid – Clarkson is the dad who says silly things and of whom nobody takes any notice."
A bit like Alf Garnett, then David?
"In his fight against what he sees as the PC BBC, Clarkson will carry on making jokes about black lesbians and disabled people, in the hope of angering someone who cares. But nobody does any more, except – rightly – those who seek to speak for the disadvantaged, and – wrongly – the dead hand of compliance, a BBC process apparently instituted not out of compassion for society's less fortunate, but out of fear of the corporation's critics."
Intriguingly, Quantick - who knows how TV works - argues that Clarkson's offensiveness is an act, and perhaps his USP to the BBC.
"Clarkson is a man whose inability to cleave to a liberal agenda makes the Duke of Edinburgh look like – well, the Duke of Edinburgh. But he isn't some rabid, racist goon: he's a seasoned broadcaster who repeatedly signs up for shows where he is allowed a lot of leeway and only censored after the naughty event
"It's almost as if – surely not! – the BBC realises that a large part of the appeal of Top Gear lies in Clarkson's apparently untrammelled political incorrectness, which is as much part of his schtick as Gordon Ramsay's swearing, Graham Norton's outrageousness, or Alan Titchmarsh's jumpers."
Fagburn will have to have a jolly good think about this one...