Call me predictable, but I like watching Top Gear.  And not just because it currently features in the Emirates video-on-demand selection.  I like cars - pretty, fast ones.

I've watched Top Gear religiously since the days of Chris Goffey and William Woolard.  I've spent many a student evening discussing the relative merits of VB-H and Kate Humble.  I nearly cried when the BBC canned the original version.  Fifth Gear, despite securing VB-H, Quentin and Tiff, was never quite the same, and, I rejoiced when Auntie Beeb relented and brought my beloved TG back.

Judging by the spontaneous outpouring we've seen across numerous online fora over the past week and a half, I'm not alone in my fondness for TG - and my hope that Richard Hammond undergoes a swift and full recovery.

He's a kindred spirit, the Hamster.  There's a little bit of each of  us in him.  We feel like he's our mate, even if we've never met him.   Richard and I share a mutual live of classic Porsches - he's got two 911s and I, a continent and a lifetime away, have a thirty year old 912 that I dearly hope to repatriate soon.

Which brings me to my sweepstake suggestion:  How long, folks, before Dave the  Chameleon's team of spinmeisters pick up on this general blokeish sentiment, and the aspiring PM declares his own solidarity with the Richard Hammond?

Fresh from the caring and sharing success of his India Blog, I'm sure a donation by DC to the PistonHeads / Hamster Air Ambulance fund, combined with a suitably cheesy photo-op, has just got to be a winner.

Tags: Top Gear Richard Hammond David Cameron Porsche