Tosser and Wosser

The government may all think that working class parents are trash but they'd never say it. Luckily for them, they've had Jamie Oliver to say it for them. Now Jonathan Ross seems keen to join in the fun.

When Oliver made a guest appearance on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, his lisping host was soon having fun at the expense of the Rotherham mothers who have been supplying takeaway food to kids at their local school. Ross asked Oliver, 'Do you think we should put something in the water supply to stop some people having children in the future?' Oliver replied, 'What, you mean like lead?' before Ross added, 'You know the kind of people I’m talking about. Council estates.' There was an immediate shout of 'Oi!' from the audience, and the BBC received 60 complaints about Ross's comments.

Ross's humour is generally in bad taste so it's no surprise for him to have a cheap pop at the working class. Moreover, he's such a brown-nosing toadie that he'll say pretty much anything to ingratiate himself with a guest. On that basis, maybe Ross should be forgiven. Given that Oliver has recently been slagging off parents who feed their kids junk food as 'tossers' and 'idiots', Ross was only pandering to his guest's - and the obesity-obsessed government's - prejudices.

Wossy talks out of his Rs, Sun, 2 October 2006

Jamie Oliver: what a tosser, by Rob Lyons