Public Sector Strikers and Paddington
Normally when I hear the news about political issues, I don’t think for a moment about bears – not even Paddington Bear, the fictional storybook character created by author Michael Bond for his ‘Paddington’ children’s book series.
Now I for one love Michael Bond’s writing, and his Paddington from “darkest Peru” is a supreme cutie and every bit the magnet with his royal-blue duffel coat, bright red Sou’wester rain hat, and weatherworn suitcase.
And who doesn’t warm to his tag with its winsome message written in wonky child’s print that reads, ‘Please look after this bear. Thank you’?
Nevertheless, Paddington doesn’t usually spring to mind when I catch up with the news.
Not until last Wednesday, that is, on the day when up to 2 million public sector workers walked out to protest against changes to their pensions.
Why did sweet Paddington spring to mind then for me, you might ask…
Jeremy Clarkson’s Gaffe
Well, here’s the chain of events in my head that led me to think of Paddington:
I read about plans for the strike. I supported it. The day came, and I was especially keen to hear what ensued. And then what popped into the headlines was BBC’s ‘Top Gear’ TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson’s astonishing response to presenters Matt Baker and Alex Jones of BBC’s ‘The One Show’ when they had asked for his thoughts about this strike.
I was indignant reading about what he replied, namely Clarkson framed his feelings about the strikers by declaring to Baker, Jones, and the live TV studio audience, “I’d have them all shot. I would take them outside and execute them in front of their families.”
He added: “I mean, how dare they go on strike when they’ve got these gilt-edged pensions that are going to be guaranteed while the rest of us have to work for a living.”
Average Incomes Falling By 3% This Year
I put to Clarkson that income overall for everyone including the public sector workers who went on strike last week is anything but secure.
For as Phillip Inman and Katie Allen reported last Thursday in The Guardian in their article ‘The Big Squeeze: Warning Over Incomes As Britain Goes On Strike’:
An Institute for Fiscal Studies analysis predicted that average incomes, adjusted for inflation, will fall by 3% this year and further in 2012.
Real Median Household Incomes Will Drop By 7.4% Next Year
Inman and Allen also noted what the director Paul Johnson of the Institute for Fiscal Studies pointed out:
In the period 2009-10 to 2012-13, real median household incomes will drop by a whopping 7.4% – a record matched only by the falls seen between 1974 and 1977.
Clarkson’s Earnings Compared To The Average UK Earner
So considering the squeeze that every average person including the public sector workers who struck is currently facing, I say ‘boo hoo’ to you, Jeremy – you with the £1.2 million that you earn every year for your work for the BBC.
Are you really worth that kind of money?
In any event, who are you to pass judgment on others since in 2011 the average individual earnings in Britain stood at £26,000 – which means that you earn in a year 46 times what the average UK citizen makes?
Workers Unite Over Paddington
Now this is also where our endearing Paddington comes in – because maybe Clarkson learned to scorn strikers because of none other than our winsome duffel-donning bear.
What connection am I speaking about, you may be wondering.
Not to worry: Sit back, grab some marmalade sandwiches (or whatever else you fancy), and listen to the story.
Pubescent Jeremy Clarkson – Long Ago
A long time ago when he was a Jeremy was on the cusp of his teenage years, and way, way before he joined the BBC and was seduced by all things ‘car’ as featured in Top Gear – Jeremy himself was devoted to none other than the charming Paddington.
More to the point, Clarkson’s allegiance to the bear became a family thing when his mother Shirley Clarkson observed ypung Jeremy’s passion for Paddington and came up with the idea of making lots and lots of stuffed toy versions of Paddington to sell.
Shirley Clarkson Makes A Classic
In fact, Clarkson’s mother made the very first Paddington soft toy for none other than the twelve-year-old Jeremy.
She designed a hat, and a raincoat, and wellies for the plucky little bear, making what has become a classic of a soft toy around the world.
Kudos to You, Mrs. Clarkson!
She did this with just £100 of backing, no business experience, and no other capital.
Before her son sparked that novel idea in her, Clarkson’s mom worked from a tiny spare room in the family home in Doncaster selling tea cosies through her business called Gabrielle Designs.
I say hats off big time Mrs Clarkson for this innovative and playful endeavor of hers!
Bearly Believable
As the blurb on Amazon for Shirley Clarkson’s book Bearly Believable: My Part in the Paddington Bear Story states, oodles of children and their parents around the world went crazy for Shirley Clarkson’s Paddington soft toys.
In fact, her spare room business grew into an international business shipping Paddingtons everywhere “from Tokyo to Sydney to San Francisco” because “everybody was growling for Paddington Bears.”
Overshadowing Gloom
However, although turnover soared to a million a year and Shirley and her husband (alias Jeremy’s dad) Eddie experienced wonderful success as Shirley’s Gabrielle Designs was lauded as a British success story, dark forces were gathering.
Jeepers Creepers, Where’d Ya Get Those Eyes?
First the Clarksons’ workforce went on strike, the blurb on Amazon goes on to say.
And following that, some 50,000 bears had to be recalled because of their faulty eyes.
So there we have it: Perhaps this was the first time that little Jeremy Clarkson was affected by a strike, and personally at that.
A Woman With Warmth and Wit Who Went Through A Lot
After this, Jeremy’s dad Eddie was unwell in bed for a year.
Following that, the pipes at the factory burst.
And finally the family Paddington business was truly forced under when the professional manager that Shirley Clarkson employed to rescue the situation (since she herself did not have the required business background) turned out to be “illiterate, dishonest, and incompetent,” as the Amazon blurb relates.
The blurb also noted that Clarkson wrote about the ups and downs of her remarkable story in Bearly Believable with “warmth, modesty and a blunt Yorkshire wit.”
It went on to explain that “the ’70s moved on, the craze faded, and the tide went out on Paddington as fast as it had come in.”
Nevertheless, our fair Paddington thankfully still graces many a shelf in a multitude of toy stores around the world even today.
With her entrepreneurial spirit, Shirley Clarkson bravely took on a lot of risks to make her dream of a Paddington a reality, no matter the nature of the rocky course that her business went through on its journey.
Optimism and Faith
The optimism that enterprising businesspeople like Shirley Clarkson display in the face of all the possible problems that lie in front of them also reminds me of this Quillcards ecard that we have which features a quote by Martin Luther King about the nature of faith in general:
David Cameron’s Comment, And Clarkson’s Possible Lingering Grudge?
Although Shirley Clarkson’s fortunes went up and down with Paddington, nevertheless our ursine hero changed the Clarkson family’s lives for ever.
So perhaps even all these years later, Jeremy Clarkson – who as a boy witnessed the workers of his family business strike against his dearly beloved Paddington – harbors some deep resentment in his unconscious.
That might explain why he made these “silly” comments, as Prime Minister David Cameron speaking on ITV’s ‘This Morning’ program last Thursday characterised Clarkson’s rants.
Cameron continued by saying that he was sure that Clarkson “did not mean that.”
Ah, but who are we to know for certain what grudges linger in the heart of the man who watched workmen forsake his favorite bear when he was a kiddie?
Miliband vs. Clarkson
Labour opposition leader Ed Miliband stepped in to characterise Jeremy Clarkson’s comment as “absolutely disgraceful and disgusting.”
Personally, I side with Ed Miliband’s take on Clarkson’s comments.
As reported in The Guardian the day after Clarkson made the comments, Labour leader Ed Miliband called on Jeremy Clarkson to apologize for his “absolutely disgraceful and disgusting” claim that striking public sector workers should be shot.
The Guardian article further reported that by lunchtime last Thursday the BBC had received nearly 5,000 complaints about Clarkson’s remarks made on The One Show last Wednesday.
And as of six days ago, the BBC reported that it has now received more than 21,000 complaints in total.
An Enlightening Twitter Observation
David A. James tweeting in Twitter also made this illuminating observation last Thursday about Clarkson’s inane remark, observing that:
Clarkson needs to remember it was people from the public services that saved the life of Richard Hammond.
James was referring to ‘Top Gear’ co-presenter Richard Hammond who in trying to break the English land speed record in a jet-powered car crashed at about 230 miles an hour.
Hammond suffered severe injuries including brain injury from the accident.
However, thanks to the public service people who saved him that day, he survived.
Not only that, in a later episode of ‘Top Gear’, Hammond actually presented a segment in the show relating the events of his own accident.
Thoughts On Poverty, Pensions, And Petulance
Perhaps Jeremy Clarkson also forgets these things because he doesn’t have to worry about poverty and his pension, unlike the vast majority – including the public sector employees who went on strike last Wednesday.
Or maybe it’s the petulant little boy in him who simply chooses not to remember such things, because he doesn’t give a hoot…
References
The Guardian The Big Squeeze: Warning Over Incomes as Britain Goes On Strike by Phillip Inman and Katie Allen
Amazon: Bearly Believable: My Part in the Paddington Bear Story by Shirley Clarkson.
Wikipedia: Income in the United Kingdom
Huffington Post: David Cameron: Jeremy Clarkson Was ‘Silly’ To Say Strikers Should Be Shot
The Guardian Jeremy Clarkson Comments ‘Disgraceful and Disgusting’, Says Ed Miliband by Helene Mulholland, Josh Halliday and agencies