MOTOR MOUTH!
For the benefit of non-UK residents, Jeremy Clarkson is the high profile presenter of Top Gear, a television program dedicated to luxury cars and high speed antics. He is also the self-proclaimed voice of reason.
Commenting on the recent government scandal concerning the loss of CDs containing the banking details of seven million people, Clarkson branded the whole event a "storm in a teacup," and the issue of identity theft a scam.
To underline his comments that our financial details were made public with every check we write, Clarkson went to the extraordinary length of publishing his own bank account details, including sort code and account number, in The Sunday Times (the biggest selling quality Sunday newspaper in the UK). To hammer the point home, he also gave details of how to find his home address, together with details of the car he drives.
Surprise, surprise - Clarkson has lost at least $1,000 after an unidentified reader set up an automatic payment from his account to the British Diabetic Association. Well, at least it is a charity that's called the bluffer's bluff. To make matters worse for Mr Clarkson (but a whole lot more amusing for the rest of us), the Data Protection Act means that the bank cannot identify the culprit, neither can they stop it happening again.
I'll leave the last words to motor mouth himself:
"Contrary to what I said at the time, we must go after the idiots who lost the discs and stick cocktail sticks in their eyes until they beg for mercy."