More Argy Bargy
Can it be a coincidence that Jeremy Clarkson gets into some 'argy bargy' at an airport in Germany just as he's about to launch his long-awaited Amazon TV programme The Grand Tour?
I suspect not, but read on about all the free publicity the incident has garnered from Jezza's old chums at the BBC and from other news outlets as well, no doubt.
Jeremy Clarkson accuses airport worker of barring him from flight
BBC Entertainment & Arts
Image copyrightAMAZONImage captionClarkson had reportedly been in Germany filming his new show The Grand Tour
An airport worker kept Jeremy Clarkson off a UK-bound flight because of a Top Gear special, it has been reported.
The ex-Top Gear host claimed Stuttgart Airport worker Manuel Pereira had said he was from Argentina as he stopped him boarding a flight in Germany on Monday.
Top Gear's Argentina special prompted protests over a car number plate that appeared to refer to the Falklands War.
A spokesman for Stuttgart Airport told the BBC Mr Clarkson and his team had missed several calls for their flight.
He said that the other passengers had already boarded, and added: "Due to airline policy after a certain time of absence the luggage will be removed from the aircraft and the missing passengers will be withdrawn from the passenger list.
"From this point there is no chance for boarding, even if the passengers show up."
The representative said the incident would be investigated by its partner company, S.Stuttgart Ground Services, and that the "personal behaviour" described in The Sun did "not conform to our approach on customer service at Stuttgart Airport".
He added: "We do already know that the employee mentioned is Spanish, not Argentinian."
An airport worker kept Jeremy Clarkson off a UK-bound flight because of a Top Gear special, it has been reported.
The ex-Top Gear host claimed Stuttgart Airport worker Manuel Pereira had said he was from Argentina as he stopped him boarding a flight in Germany on Monday.
Top Gear's Argentina special prompted protests over a car number plate that appeared to refer to the Falklands War.
A spokesman for Stuttgart Airport told the BBC Mr Clarkson and his team had missed several calls for their flight.
He said that the other passengers had already boarded, and added: "Due to airline policy after a certain time of absence the luggage will be removed from the aircraft and the missing passengers will be withdrawn from the passenger list.
"From this point there is no chance for boarding, even if the passengers show up."
The representative said the incident would be investigated by its partner company, S.Stuttgart Ground Services, and that the "personal behaviour" described in The Sun did "not conform to our approach on customer service at Stuttgart Airport".
He added: "We do already know that the employee mentioned is Spanish, not Argentinian."
Image copyrightSEBASTIAN GUZMANImage captionThe Top Gear special prompted protests for featuring this controversial number plate
According to The Sun, Mr Clarkson had been waiting to return to the UK with fellow ex-Top Gear presenters James May and Richard Hammond when the alleged incident took place.
The presenter, whose new show The Grand Tour makes its debut this week on the Amazon Prime streaming service, claimed he and his team had been stopped at the departure gate before being told they had missed their flight.
Mr Clarkson, who writes a weekly column for The Sun, claimed Mr Pereira had claimed to be from Argentina and had used a profanity. He had then "marched off looking pleased with himself," the presenter continued.
He also claimed other airport workers suggested he and his co-presenters were "too drunk" to fly, when they had only had "one can of beer".
'Polite and professional'
The Sun said Mr Pereira had denied he was from Argentina or that he had sworn at Mr Clarkson when the paper spoke to him on Tuesday.
"I would never say such a thing," he is quoted as saying in Wednesday's edition of the paper. "I wasn't rude. I was polite and professional."
According to Mr Clarkson, the flight he and his team ended up taking arrived in London before the one they missed.
Now the background is almost too childish to mention with grown men supposedly taking offence at the licence plate number on Jeremy Clarkson's car H982 FKL which was taken as a reference to the Falklands War or the War of the South Atlantic as the Argentinian veterans prefer to say.
For what it's worth, my view is that the dispute over the Falklands Islands should be resolved peacefully through some kind of long-term treaty and deal with Argentina because, just like Gibraltar and Spain, the UK's claim to ownership is a throwback to the days of the British Empire and simply defies common sense in the 21st century.
But there are ways and means to resolve these issues through diplomacy and negotiation, whereas violence and intimidation will get people's backs up and produce exactly the opposite reaction: a stubborn, some would say insane, determination not to get bullied and pushed around.
While I'm on the subject it's worthwhile remembering that it was a fascist Argentinian general, General Galtieri, who ordered the invasion of the Falklands Islands while acting as the head of state (President) of a fascist 'junta' which overthrew the elected government of Isabel Perón in 1976.
So the thugs queuing up to throw rocks at Jeremy Clarkson and his BBC film crew are likely to be ultra-nationalist goons of the 'rent a mob' mentality, probably the progeny of the very same people who were perfectly happy to subvert democracy and install a repressive military government less than 50 years ago.
All of which means that while Jeremy Clarkson and his chums can be irritating at times, I'd prefer their company any day of the week to an ugly, ultra-nationalist goon squad.
I can understand why some people don't like Jeremy Clarkson; he's not everyone's cup of tea, but that doesn't mean to say that people who object to his antics, in Argentina or anywhere else, are able to take the law into their own hands and mete out what they regard s some kind of vigilante justice.
As I said recently, in relation to the cowardly attack on George Galloway, people are not entitled to react with violence just because they don't like or agree with what someone else is saying.
Clarkson tells of Top Fear
By Dominic Tobin - The Sunday Times
The BBC is showing Top Gear’s Patagonia special in two parts, culminating in video footage of the assault, which forced Clarkson, co-hosts Richard Hammond and James May, and a crew of 29 people to flee the country.
Andy Wilman, the show’s executive producer, said that at one point a lorry was driven across the road to block the crew: “The terror was from knowing that they [the attackers] were all organising themselves rather than being like revellers on the high street on a Saturday night having a bit of fun. That was the terror that made you think: ‘What’s coming round the corner?’ That’s when we decided to go across country, go across the river into Chile.”
The international row has prompted the BBC to introduce strict oversight into the production of the two-part special. The scenes showing the attack will be without any of the show’s usual horseplay or irreverent humour.
“We’ve been very careful to present it as it happened rather than put an agenda or spin on it,” said Wilman. “A mob throwing stuff at you is a mob throwing stuff at you. You don’t have to shame them. Viewers will make up their own mind.”
According to The Sun, Mr Clarkson had been waiting to return to the UK with fellow ex-Top Gear presenters James May and Richard Hammond when the alleged incident took place.
The presenter, whose new show The Grand Tour makes its debut this week on the Amazon Prime streaming service, claimed he and his team had been stopped at the departure gate before being told they had missed their flight.
Mr Clarkson, who writes a weekly column for The Sun, claimed Mr Pereira had claimed to be from Argentina and had used a profanity. He had then "marched off looking pleased with himself," the presenter continued.
He also claimed other airport workers suggested he and his co-presenters were "too drunk" to fly, when they had only had "one can of beer".
'Polite and professional'
The Sun said Mr Pereira had denied he was from Argentina or that he had sworn at Mr Clarkson when the paper spoke to him on Tuesday.
"I would never say such a thing," he is quoted as saying in Wednesday's edition of the paper. "I wasn't rude. I was polite and professional."
According to Mr Clarkson, the flight he and his team ended up taking arrived in London before the one they missed.
Argie Bargy (30/12/14)
I watched the controversial Top Gear programme at the weekend which ended with a BBC film crew being threatened and then attacked by a gang of rock-throwing thugs as they attempted to leave Tierra-del-Feugo, the southern tip of Argentina.
Now the background is almost too childish to mention with grown men supposedly taking offence at the licence plate number on Jeremy Clarkson's car H982 FKL which was taken as a reference to the Falklands War or the War of the South Atlantic as the Argentinian veterans prefer to say.
For what it's worth, my view is that the dispute over the Falklands Islands should be resolved peacefully through some kind of long-term treaty and deal with Argentina because, just like Gibraltar and Spain, the UK's claim to ownership is a throwback to the days of the British Empire and simply defies common sense in the 21st century.
But there are ways and means to resolve these issues through diplomacy and negotiation, whereas violence and intimidation will get people's backs up and produce exactly the opposite reaction: a stubborn, some would say insane, determination not to get bullied and pushed around.
While I'm on the subject it's worthwhile remembering that it was a fascist Argentinian general, General Galtieri, who ordered the invasion of the Falklands Islands while acting as the head of state (President) of a fascist 'junta' which overthrew the elected government of Isabel Perón in 1976.
So the thugs queuing up to throw rocks at Jeremy Clarkson and his BBC film crew are likely to be ultra-nationalist goons of the 'rent a mob' mentality, probably the progeny of the very same people who were perfectly happy to subvert democracy and install a repressive military government less than 50 years ago.
All of which means that while Jeremy Clarkson and his chums can be irritating at times, I'd prefer their company any day of the week to an ugly, ultra-nationalist goon squad.
Sticks and Stones (23 December 2014)
I can understand why some people don't like Jeremy Clarkson; he's not everyone's cup of tea, but that doesn't mean to say that people who object to his antics, in Argentina or anywhere else, are able to take the law into their own hands and mete out what they regard s some kind of vigilante justice.
As I said recently, in relation to the cowardly attack on George Galloway, people are not entitled to react with violence just because they don't like or agree with what someone else is saying.
Clarkson tells of Top Fear
By Dominic Tobin - The Sunday Times
The international row has prompted the BBC to introduce strict oversight into the production of the two-part Top Gear special
JEREMY CLARKSON has hit back at the Argentine government, comparing mob attacks on a BBC crew while filming Top Gear in the country to the violence portrayed in the film Assault on Precinct 13.
He dismissed the Argentine ambassador’s claims that his previous account was “fabricated”, saying the footage of the attack to be screened next weekend was “gruesome”, with attackers coming in waves as in John Carpenter’s 1976 fictional portrayal of a police station under siege from armed gangs.
Writing in The Sunday Times today, Clarkson says: “You get the sense that there’s a never ending supply of — let’s call them youths — coming out of the darkness, hurling anything they can lay their hands on.”
JEREMY CLARKSON has hit back at the Argentine government, comparing mob attacks on a BBC crew while filming Top Gear in the country to the violence portrayed in the film Assault on Precinct 13.
He dismissed the Argentine ambassador’s claims that his previous account was “fabricated”, saying the footage of the attack to be screened next weekend was “gruesome”, with attackers coming in waves as in John Carpenter’s 1976 fictional portrayal of a police station under siege from armed gangs.
Writing in The Sunday Times today, Clarkson says: “You get the sense that there’s a never ending supply of — let’s call them youths — coming out of the darkness, hurling anything they can lay their hands on.”
The BBC is showing Top Gear’s Patagonia special in two parts, culminating in video footage of the assault, which forced Clarkson, co-hosts Richard Hammond and James May, and a crew of 29 people to flee the country.
Andy Wilman, the show’s executive producer, said that at one point a lorry was driven across the road to block the crew: “The terror was from knowing that they [the attackers] were all organising themselves rather than being like revellers on the high street on a Saturday night having a bit of fun. That was the terror that made you think: ‘What’s coming round the corner?’ That’s when we decided to go across country, go across the river into Chile.”
The international row has prompted the BBC to introduce strict oversight into the production of the two-part special. The scenes showing the attack will be without any of the show’s usual horseplay or irreverent humour.
“We’ve been very careful to present it as it happened rather than put an agenda or spin on it,” said Wilman. “A mob throwing stuff at you is a mob throwing stuff at you. You don’t have to shame them. Viewers will make up their own mind.”
