"Top Gear makes Saudis look liberal, says BBC's Kirsty Wark"

If you've ever felt that tolerated cash-cow Top Gear (Jeremy Clarkson et al) really doesn't sit comfortably with the soft-left insiders of the BBC, then here's a striking headline from The Belfast Telegraph that might confirm your feeling:

Top Gear makes Saudis look liberal, says BBC's Kirsty Wark

Now, what the Belfast Telegraph quotes her as actually saying isn't quite so controversial and is, perhaps, meant sarcastically:

There are more women driving in Saudi Arabia than you will ever see on Top Gear. In fact, you actually have more chance of hosting a driving show in Saudi Arabia than you have of hosting Top Gear.

...though given Wahhabi Saudi Arabia's abysmal record on women right's, it's still a pretty incendiary /silly statement, isn't it?

"Soft left"?

As it's behind Uncle Rupert's paywall, you may have missed Kirsty's recent interview with The Times:

Wark has described her politics as “soft Left” and is seen as closest to the Labour Party. Donald Dewar, another friend and former First Minister, appointed her to the panel that chose the architect for the Scottish Parliament building. They selected the Spaniard Enric Miralles, but Wark-Clements was making a documentary about the building’s creation. It was a conflict of interest that came to greater public attention when the new Parliament’s costs went ten times over budget.

None of this is at all surprising, is it? It's Kirsty Wark, after all. It's the BBC's news wing after all.