DESPITE protestations to the contrary, Jeremy Clarkson must be quite popular in a lot of the corridors of power.
Not that they would agree with his humorous suggestion of having strikers shot.
It was a bad taste joke, but not particularly one that should have caused surprise, given the teller, and those who listened to the remainder of his comment on the strike – in that it made him feel like we were back in the seventies, which made him feel at home – will realise that, love him or hate him, Clarkson doesn’t take himself too seriously either.
No, what they will love about it will be that it has deflected attention from the issue of the strike and the real reasons and the real issues behind it.
So David Cameron and Nick Clegg will be rather pleased about the fact that people have stopped thinking about how their coalition government isn’t doing particularly well.
Ed Milliband will be grateful because it deflects from how the Labour party, and Red Ed in particular, seems to be trying more than ever to distance itself from its trade union roots.
The Daily Mail will be delighted because fewer people will have noticed how, on Wednesday, it was forced to push its online poll further down its website when it became clear that the vast majority of Mail Online readers actually supported the strikers.
Unison, however, was not happy and called for Clarkson to be sacked.
Jeremy Clarkson himself is probably reasonably happy that there’s been a lot of publicity for him on a week when he was promoting a new product.
The problem being, the humourless overreaction of its leadership to a tasteless comment by a media personality who has a DVD out this week, has played right into the hands of those people wanting to move the debate on from issues behind the strike and the hardship being faced in the UK.
Presuming that, between the time of writing this column and the publication of our newspaper, the BBC doesn’t do anything so silly as sack him (and that’s not as safe a presumption as you might imagine considering the snowball effect of Daily Mail indignation at Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand), then it’s not been a bad week for Mr Clarkson.
I have to say I admire him.
Firstly, he’s always come across as a much beter advert for the Isle of Man than the protest group PROWL.
I’ve been a seasoned walker across the Isle of Man’s beautiful hills and shore paths for 20 years now.
I’ve never felt outraged that I couldn’t look through the window of a cottage nearby any path.
Nor have the many walkers I have traipsed the same beautiful land with ever felt a similar outrage to those members of PROWL.
Obviously there are people in PROWL who are genuinely concerned about the protection of Rights of Way, rather than in it for a spot of celebrity-bashing, but it seems odd that it took Jeremy Clarkson to cause a real campaign.
That’s the lot of Jezza. Put his name to anything and it can become controversial.
The next thing you know, he’ll cause outrage with some militant walkers because he draws the curtains in his Langness kitchen in a disgraceful attempt at privacy.
Anyway, the truth is I envy Clarkson and his ability to cause a storm.
The most I’ve ever achieved is second-hand grumbles from MHKs unhappy at something I may have said, usually relayed to me via another reporter.
There was an occasion I upset fell runners, though, in an ill-advised suggestion to push them off the top of peaks – it came purely from envy that I could labour for hours to get to the top of North Barrule, only for some kind of fitness monster to skip past in shorts, vest and trainers and tell me that I must be mad for being up so high.
Once, and only once, David Cannan apologised to me when I complained about his tone, but he’d probably deny it now.
And I also survived a full hour-long debate with the political force that was Pamela Crowe, on the merits of her proposed changes to the rules for the Manx brewing industry.
But I’ve never invoked the level of invective Clarkson has achieved.
The truth is, that while our trade unions over here may have some faults, they appear to have a little more sense than some of the leaders of the bigger versions in the UK.
Prior to the moral indignation at Clarkson’s silly remark, it appeared to me that the unions were winning the PR battle over Wednesday’s strike and politicians on all sides of Westminster were looking like weasels for not having the guts to come out and show support because they weren’t sure what the opinion of the majority was.
And that’s why Jeremy Clarkson will have been very popular on all sides of the political spectrum last week.
I hope they all buy his DVD.