Tomorrow's Business Today
The wokes vs the blokes
Does Jeremy Clarkson deserve to be cancelled?
I’m not sure. What he wrote about Meghan Markle was idiotic and offensive, but then that’s basically his shtick.
If we are going to take exception to him, why start there?
The Amazon executives who agreed to his extraordinary pay deals can’t have been too shocked when Clarkson brought controversy to a sensitive subject. That’s a large part of what they pay him for in the first place.
It will be interesting to see which gigs Clarkson keeps and which large corporations decide he’s bad for their reputation.
He needs, if he doesn’t already have one, a really clever PR adviser to help him make amends.
It is tempting to see the Clarkson dispute as a battle for the UK’s soul.
Who do we like best? The wokes, or the blokes?
As Unherd points out, Clarkson has always been a guilty treat. Nicholas Harris writes:
“For the length of a Sunday column or an episode of Top Gear, we could wallow harmlessly in the swamp of arrogant prejudice and self-gratification which sits at the bottom of the brain.”
The evidence suggests he may really have gone too far this time.
For our Find Out Now poll this week, we asked: To what extent do you agree that Jeremy Clarkson should lose his lucrative TV deal with Amazon?
If we assume his core audience is Tory blokes over 40, then quite large chunks of his fans have turned on him.
The poll shows the middle aged are most forgiving of him. Only 30% of men and 25% of Conservative voters think Amazon should ditch him.
You can see the full results below.
Press release of the day
Will the ESG movement survive a serious economic downturn?
This from Software AG suggests it may not. It finds that eight out of 10 organisations admit they would rather take a fine than deliver on sustainability.
This comes just as the UN called on business leaders to follow “credible” net-zero plans.
Stories that will keep rolling
1) What are the retail sales telling us about the chances of a recession?
2) How has Close Bros coped with the City downturn?
3) How many bankers in London get paid more than £1m?
