Don’t Bother Me with Details
I see the Guardian has wheeled out Linda Bellos, another high priestess of identity politics, to air her umbrage at Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson. Clarkson, we’re told, “makes a living by being gratuitously offensive.” Unlike the elevated Ms Bellos, who makes a living by, among other things, being gratuitously offended. And saying things like this:
As Tim Worstall notes, Ms Bellos might have fared better if she’d done a little research and actually watched the programme she presumes to criticise. In fact, Top Gear has addressed issues of disability on at least three occasions, including, in season 2, a search for the fastest disabled driver in Britain. Fans of the series may also recall a race involving hastily customised double decker cars, during which a driver’s artificial arm became detached from his person while still gripping the wheel.
Given Top Gear’s popularity outside of Guardian circles, it’s no great surprise the series has disabled fans. And it’s perhaps worth noting that Clarkson is a founder of the Help for Heroes charity which raises funds for those injured and disabled during military service. The Guardian actually mentioned the charity and its advertising earlier this year, prompting a reader to complain,
Ms Bellos will doubtless be pleased to find others airing a worldview very similar to her own. And it’s always good to see moral one-upmanship and complaints of “the same sad old stereotypes” coming from a woman who abandoned her own children to live in a separatist lesbian commune.
Related: Clarkson versus Monbiot. 
That could be the best closing sentence of the week.
“a woman who abandoned her own children to live in a separatist lesbian commune.”
LOL. Bellos has done more to reinforce “sad old stereotypes” than anyone on Top Gear.
Which clip is she in?
“Which clip is she in?”
The charming Ms Bellos can be seen throughout the episode, but the relevant part is in clip 2 around 10:50: “The reason I left both my children was that boys weren’t allowed.” And apparently she had to put her politics first.
“There are only two people who are not white in that commercial… possibly 3, there’s someone totally covered in a wet suit.”
A contender for Classic Sentences from the Guardian?
The wet suit wasn’t white. I suppose that’s a start.
Is Linda Bellos this thorough when she’s being paid as a “diversity consultant”?
‘coming from a woman who abandoned her own children to live in a separatist lesbian commune’.
I she had been my mother I’d have been fucking grateful.
…has addressed issues of disability…
You’re obviously not a native speaker of Guardianese.
…has addressed issues AROUND disability…
Better still:
…has engaged issues around disability in terms of its denormativization vis-a-vis hegemonies erected around notions of the “able-bodied”…