to be amazed that 350,000+ people think it's okay to punch someone in the workplace?

[HootsMon]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-31832698

That's how many people have signed a petition in support of Jeremy Clarkson being reinstated. I suspect they may feel differently about it if it was them getting punched at work!

Part of me wonders if the BBC are reporting this to excuse the fact that they intend to overlook Clarkson's unrelentingly dickish behaviour yet again?

Ooh did he punch the producer then?

Can't decide if I'd rather be punched by JC or John Prescott.

That's a tough one....

I completely agree with you. I'm astounded at how many people have signed the petition.

I've always thought JC was a total wanker. Anyhoo, for some reason Top Gear has a cult following as does he and he thinks he's untouchable.
I've got double fingers and toes crossed that this is it for him.

Well, we don't know for sure. But he's been suspended during investigations into reports that's what he did.

And I think that's exactly right, as assaulting a colleague is a big deal. And would be a gross misconduct immediate sacking matter in most workplaces, even for someone with a clean record (and it was well publicised that Clarkson had at least one previous formal warning about conduct).

Oops, I cross posted a thread saying exactly the same thing!

I agree with you OP. But he will get away with it as he generates a fortune for the BBC.

It astounds me that people I thought were semi-rational have clicked on the link on facebook to sign the petition.
I can't see why people imagine any employer should not deal with behaviour like that?

He didn't punch him! It was just a joke

why did he do it?

If he actually did it then it's appalling and he should go permanently however dh thinks it's a publicity stunt by topgear like the falklands number plate fiasco.

YANBU

I hope he has been charged with assault.

Yanbu

I think some may have signed before it was released that it was a punch. I certainly heard about the petition before I heard about the punch.

Being an unrepentant racist, OTOH is fine by lots of people.

I see his career going the same as another celebrity, similar age. Who went famously off the rails and never recovered
He'll be on big brother in less than a decade blarting about how unfair it all was/is

The problem is that he revels in his notoriety and will milk this even if he gets sacked. He thrives on it. Why people think he is funny is beyond me.

He will get picked up by cable tv no doubt ?? and make even more money.

Hopefully Top Gear is owned by BBC and not him

does anyone know why he did it?

One of my colleagues (female - not sure if that is relevant but wanted to show it wasn't "one of the lads") is hawking this around at work today. I quite like Top Gear, but slightly fear for the collective intelligence of the UK in this. Also unimpressed that all sorts of petitions which people should care about get nowhere, but an overpaid, up his own arse idiot who has been rightly suspended, has so many people agitated.

I can't be bothered to get into the fight (I am not a huge fan of this colleague anyway), so I'm not sure I can really talk...

The guy is a knob! I hope the BBC finally see sense!

Isn't there petition to also have him sacked, isn't either way a bit premature?

We don't have enough information to make an informed decision. People are just knee-jerking a bit, I think.

I also thought it was a publicity stunt. There's no way he'd be swaggering about in front of the media cracking 'jokes' if he actually had punched somebody.

There must be more to it than "there's no catering"

It just doesn't ring true to me.

It really can't be a publicity stunt. Top Gear is so popular that they definitely don't need publicity, and apparently they're looking at having to pay out millions to the countries they've sold the current series to if they can't deliver the full series.