Nonsense. I see no evidence of any major shift in opinion. Those who enjoy and appreciate Clarkson will only be offended that he apologised. He reflects – and will continue to reflect and enduring characteristic of English culture. At a time of increasing censorship, we should be grateful that there are people like this who still believe in free speech.
Anyone “offended” by Clarkson is taking life far too seriously.
Putting the clown role he plays aside, he is actually a very knowledgable motoring journalist. And unlike Harry, he writes his own stuff.
That can be taken two ways though, right? It can either be at face value, or be a clever way of implying that Woke is euphemism for being “an ignorant f*****g t**t.”, as Kathy Burke put it.
“Anyone “offended” by Clarkson is taking life far too seriously.”
Yes, but this is not naivete, it is instead an entirely deliberate and cynical means of exercising political power. The outrage is entirely confected and is in the service of the eradication of free speech for anyone unwise enough to argue with Liberal-Left morals (if they can be described as such at all, but that’s another debate).
The people who do this can’t be corrected by kindly explaining to them the difference between a joke and serious intent: they are not stupid and they know this perfectly well already. They can only be defeated by treating their complaints as intellectually dishonest claptrap, but unfortunately the people at the top whose reactions actually count depend for their position on Liberal-Left patronage, so they will take the faux-outrage at face value. It’s all very well saying that millions of people side with Clarkson here (I do myself), but those millions of people aren’t the ones capable of signing lucrative TV deals, so unfortunately Jeremy has just cost himself an awful lot of money.
You also sense that there’s an element of professional jealousy at work here – the hordes of mediocre journalists who resent Clarkson’s fame/wealth/success. Much as they did with Boris Johnson. That’s not to excuse Clarkson and Johnson’s faults. Just to point out that the critics also have their own agendas – including this one.
Clarkson’s Farm doesn’t sell in the USA but that is hardly any surprise given that its popularity in Britain is because it’s about Britain.
The Grand Tour is more popular in the USA of course, but the real reason Clarkson will probably do OK without Amazon is that he built a genuinely global following with Top Gear – it peaked at over 350million people in over 200 countries – a number that the subsequent versions of Top Gear never came close to once Clarkson Hammond and May left the show, and not incidentally the most successful export of the televised BBC brand globally in its entire history.
His global market still exists and there seems no reason why this could not be leveraged through a non-traditional broadcaster and simply circumvent the po-faced class of media clowns who don’t like him. Youtube is an obvious alternative but even that might still run into corporate Wokery, but since Clarkson is such a huge brand in himself even an unknown label would be fine as long as it has the technical capacity to broadcast at scale.
In short, I believe that Clarkson is probably uncancellable: he doesn’t just have a large following, that following is spread over the globe in many places where Woke morality has no traction.
Apparently not very good tractors, if the show is any guide.
But I’m surprised you haven’t heard the apocryphal story of how Ferrucio Lamborghini came to start making sports cars? It was because he was a truck and tractor manufacturer in 1960s Italy and he asked one of his mechanics to change the clutch on his Ferrari, finding the correct parts first. The mechanic did this and then told him that actually they already had the clutch in stock because Ferrari used the same clutch in its cars as Lamborghini did in its tractors.
Apparently this was a lightbulb moment for Ferrucio, who then decided that he’d like to make sports cars too since he clearly already had the factory and the skills to do so. The rest is history.
He may be a knowledgable motoring journalist but you don’t need to know much to write about cars. There’s no escaping the fact that what he wrote about MM was disgusting, mediaeval and wrong and he deserved the heavy artillery that’s come his way since. It’s not good enough to dismiss it as a joke, it was a cruel and brutish suggestion, which belonged in the 12th century and was not funny in any way. It will have swayed favour towards MM.
Basically he’s a nasty character with a lot of TV charisma. He’s used his popularity to expound his gross, multiple bigotries, which have often enhanced his popularity.
I enjoyed his farming programmes. He controlled his nasty side all through those.
So, you managed to enjoy a farming programme presented by someone who you already knew to be ‘a nasty character’ who’s guilty of ‘multiple bigotries’, did you? How fascinating!
Why is it facinating? Did not Mr Williams say that he controlled his nasty side during these programmes? I cannot comment as I haven’t seen them myself, I tend, now, to avoid anything staring Mr Clarkson.
OK, so if it’s that easy writing about cars, how about you have a go ? Here. Now. 1000 words on “Is the Italian car industry in terminal decline ?”. Or “was the Alfasud really the Car of the Seventies as Top Gear claimed ?”. Your choice.
I resemble that remark about my 12th century ancestors, who, were they alive, would turn in their graves. Please desist with this cultural appropriation and stereotyping in future. Yours in diversity, inclusion and equality (DIE).
Heh, good joke. “If Chaucer were alive today, he’d be turning in his grave”
You can’t beat the old ones.
That’s what the sign in the care home says, anyway.
Actually, to be a good motoring journalist, you do need to know a lot about cars, the industry in general and the people and politics within. Add to that an ability to entertain and connect with your audience, and you become good at the job. Underestimating what it takes to do any job well is not unusual. In this case, you appear to have done just that with the aim of discrediting JC.
On the contrary, you need to know a lot about cars to be as good a motoring journalist as Clarkson, not a subject in which you can wing it.
And for f/sake, he made a joke, not a very nice one or good one and he failed to make a footnote of the context so the terminally humourless could realise where it came from (not the C12th).
He’s a comedian now as much as a journalist. Which is a skill that the California Two could usefully learn
Trevor I can’t stand Clarkson therefore I do not watch or read anything by him.But the response by ‘the great and good’ wokeraty was pathetic.He is an offensive privileged male who has every right to express his bilge, but to cancel him?
I am delighted that he offends you: those who take offence are put on this planet, to be the butt of mick takers.. Thanks Ron, where would we be without you to laugh at?
Ohh, you’ve managed to upset a few people. I don’t know if you’re correct about not needing to know much to write about cars, but you are correct when you point out Mr Clarkson’s nasty side, although I’ve never found him particulary charismatic.
By whom? I’m not offended by what he says. Offence doesn’t come in to it. Seems to me from reading this lot that anyone who finds this loathsome, foul mouthed individual unpleasant is “in the service of the eradication of free speech.” What drivel and how lucky to have a convenient catagory to slot us into. I’m red hot on free speech. Just find this man a nasty, self opinionated pratt. Yuk!
Depends on whether you are one of the “he shouldn’t say that” or the “he can’t say that” people.
If you’re in the second then you definitely do oppose freedom of speech. From the sound of it you’re in the first group so you don’t oppose it, but the important point here is to note that just because you yourself aren’t against freedom of speech, that doesn’t mean there aren’t many others who are.
And ? Last time I checked we still had free speech in this country. No one’s forcing you (or me) to read or watch him. I won’t be reading “Spare” for the same reason.
What really got up H&M and the wokies’ noses was that he made a joke of his apology. They will never be satisfied with anything less than sackcloth and ashes. So there’s no point in trying to placate them. He was really trying to rescue his Amazon contract. It’s worth a shot applying to Netflix. He could write and present his commentary on Harry’s “sobumentaries”. That that could be a money spinner.
If Amazon cancel him then he’ll be snapped up by someone else because as you suggest, there is a market for him, so I disagree with the author. But yeah, he should never have apologised.
Absolutely on the money. Outside of the MSM, Clarkson still is the anti-Woke mouthpiece for the Demos.
Very funny, rather silly & very British. The Chiswick Brigade have not seen the last of him, try as they might.
just find it tragic and perplexing that many British people want to get Americanized. There should be some international emergency to preserve British humor and British ways – I can’t bear to imagine the insipid and purgatorial world without it. And personally, I cannot get enough of Hammond, Clarkson, and May. (US immigrant woman). (P.S. please watch -any- American car show in order to see the brilliance of these guys – and I don’t even care much for cars)
Last edited 2 months ago by A S
Hugh Bryant
2 months ago
Poking fun at the pretensions of a self-important elite has always been central to our humour.
For decades Clarkson has almost single-handedly provided an antidote to the sanctimonious pomposity of the UK media class. He went too far in his attack on the toxic twosome – but he needs to be rehabilitated if we don’t want to live in a culture utterly dominated by James O’Brien, Emily Maitlis et al and entertained by establishment sycophants like Nish Kumar.
Or we dont watch the telly!! We’ve long abandoned television and radio for the reasons you mention. They both sit gathering dust in the house. My last listen to a radio four afternoon play was on a long drive home from Leeds. I nearly crashed the car in rage at the content, turned it off and never turned it on again. Id already lost patience with Radio3 content when the insufferable presentation of a request programme finished it for me.. Shame. Radio used to be a pleasant part of my life.
So, any opinion that you disagree with is po faced super petite bourgeoise. I shall say it again “he can be rather obnoxious”, if you find that your sensibilities are offended by that then it’s your problem not mine.
A good article. I want to embrace a Clarksonian spirit of defiance but I cannot. His defeat – and his wretched apology to the high priests of toxic identitarianism – is yet another marke of the ending of free speech in the UK. It is over. Ever since the liberals and BBC bowed to the first hate mob – the Rushdie book burners- we have seen the new cult like dogmas on race gender identity progressively eliminate any form of dissent from books plays films TV. The BBC will not use the word Muslim or Islam in its reports on terror attacks. Police hound people over tweats. Why dont we acknowledge that the battle is lost?? We cannot ever win because these new credos are pulsing out from State LAW – notably the Equality Acts from 2010. And belief in a whole new ideology – identitarianism, social justice, anti discrimination, anti meritocracy, anti wealth creation, welfarism and bailout culture, the EU’s precautionary principle and regulation, a culture of victimhood greviance and entitlement – is held by ALL political parties and everyone in the UK State!!!! So political parties as constituted are irrelevant. We now inhabit a de facto One Party State with a detached elite in their 3million London dachas. I honestly think this explains why nothing is changing. We are not so different from a Poland or Hungary in the 1980s (minus only the secret police). UK 2023 = USSR 1989.
Very true. But they are not in Parliament. Remember there are over 80 Liberal Democrats in the Lords and a ragbag of Scots who also form part of the One Dogma Ruling clerisy. Look closer at how much the modern Tories, Labour, Lib Dems SNP and their overlords in civil service now all agree on. Hard lockdown tyranny. Net Zero extremism and climate catastrophism. Reverse racist Harry style multiculturalism. Mass feminization of workforce without childcare. Anti meritocracy and class war on rich. Brownite welfarism and benefit bailouts. Bailouts. Brownite high tax. Statism. Antipathy to private enterprise and wealth creation. EU style judicial intervention and supremacy. The EU precautionary principle and risk aversion. The crippling Equality ideology and anti discrimination mania. The extension of the unelected governing technocracy. Tolerance of and passivity militant identitarianism as minimum. Censorship – esp on Islam and tactit disavowal of free speech. Er – what is left???? This covers everything. That is their Groupthink. The unacknowledged One State Party possesses ALL.
Secret police not needed. Replaced by mass online surveillance and about-to-be introduced CBDCs.
Ben Jones
2 months ago
Hmmm. You do know Clarkson was an ardent Remainer, don’t you? To his credit, once the deal was done he suggested we all just get on with it, as you might expect.
The part Nicholas misses about Clarkson is this; he’s actually a very good journalist. He can take on and explain virtually any subject and make it relatable to the vast majority of Britons. Especially those who live outside of the M25 and university cities. I’m not wildly interested in cars or farming, but will happily watch Clarkson talk about both.
I wouldn’t write him off quite yet. I suspect there’s another act left in the old warhorse.
I voted Remain but am nonetheless OK with Brexit having happened, as in my view Britain never should have been allowed in in the first place. In England, there is simply too much cultural contempt for mainland Europe for it ever to work. I just wish the leavers would quit moaning about the EU.
I’m a Remoaner, but not for political reasons, for purely practical ones. It’s all very well for the leavers to bang on about all of the opportunities that Brexit was going to bring, but the government that was supposed to take those opportunities has failed disasterously.
Whining about Covid and Putin won’t cut it, even the nuclei of nascent projects for a great future for the UK as yet do not exist in any physical form at all. As a result, the polls show an ever increasing majority of opinion to return to the EU. It’s at around 20% higher than Leave right now, and set to increase. Interestingly, the change is due to (pragmatic rather than emotional) Leave voters who have changed their minds, the “Don’t knows” remain at around 10% as they always have. How long can Westminster withstand this political pressure?
So, dear Leaver, I wish you had proven me wrong and made Brexit a great success for the country, I could have lived with that. I think no less of you for believing in an exciting project and trying to make change for the better my fellow countryman, but instead it’s a total and abject failure and you are now flogging a dead horse.
What are we supposed to do now, sit around and twiddle our thumbs while ignoring the elephant in the room in fear that the mere mention of it might irritate a Leaver? Or do we to do something positive for the country, be that find someone, anyone who can govern and actually work with the Brexit opportunities? Or return to something like the EU that was admittedly flawed but at least worked, unlike our current rapidly failing system. Soon we will be poorer and less relevent than Poland.
Here’s an idea to heal our society – don’t just blindly attack people who see things differently to you, suggest something useful for our country instead and lets work together to achieve it.
What did the Common Market, the EEC and the EU do for the economic growth of the UK?
20 years before joining the Common Market the average annual increase of GDP was 3.3%
In the 20 years after joining tEurope our average annual increase was 2.9%
From joining the Single Market to the year before the Bankers’ induced collapse of the economy the average Annul increase was 2.3%
These figures are from the ONS
A long comment justifying an elitist undemocratic mindset. Democracy only works if losers consent. When they don’t there is no point with elections.or referenda. Just have a first fight in the street and let winner decide. I assume that’s your preference.
The entire history of this country has been about making those who rule a little bit accountable to those they rule over. All Brexit has to do is prevent that tradition from being nullified. To the extent that we have recovered at least a degree of self-determination, Brexit is already successful.
Do one, wokey. Nobody’s putting up with you any more.
Stephen Walsh
2 months ago
The generational divide on these issues which Clarkson was writing about in the offending article was graphically illustrated when his own daughter popped up on social media to denounce him. But then people will repay the loyalty shown to them. The religion of Woke appeals to the younger generation because no alternative value set was ever taught or demonstrated to them.
Given Clarkson is divorced from her mother, there may be other factors at play!
AC Harper
2 months ago
The fictional John Falstaff was important enough to be included in three of Shakespeare’s plays. Not as a hero but as a counterpart to the hero.
How bland and sterile would our society be without the likes of Jeremy Clarkson, Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson?
It seems clear that bland sterility is something a great many opinion formers actually want. The same applies to arguments about Net Zero for instance: those objecting say things like “it’ll cause economic collapse”, and “it’ll destroy people’s living standards and personal liberty” etc.
The problem is that people who make such objections are doing so to an elite class of people whose attitude is that they want all this to happen: they actually WANT to sit atop a society of serfs whose only means of living depend upon the patronage of said elite. This elite doesn’t want a population with economic choices and the bad habit of thinking for itself.
I’m of the “Whatever gets you through the night, it’s alright” – (so long as you are not bothering anyone else) persuasion, so I hold no prejudices against anyone. Some would probably accuse me of being PC for that.
I’m also Gen-X, so pretty difficult to offend, so I have to admit you are right, everything is getting a bit boring now.
Nicky Samengo-Turner
2 months ago
Classic blinkered, leftist lower middle class, chippy woke gospel: The truth is the diametric opposite to what this piece says.
Clarkson is one of the very few public figures who actually reflects and represents the now stifled, fear ridden, ” cancelled” views of the majority of Britons, not least at both ” horseshoe” ends of the socio demograph, but more significantly has the guts, courage, backbone and wry cynical humour and articulate ability to express the views.
If only Tory politicians were imbued with similar bravery, they would corner the majority of voters in an instant.
The woke are petrified of Clarkson: the Tories should have put him in The Upper House ages ago, and I venture to suggest that were he ever to stand for election as an MP, anywhere in Britain, his opposition would all lose their deposits…
If true why might Amazon, ITV opt to not renew? Profit maximisation driver ought to mean they have good grasp of audience preferences and how to attract advertising? If he represents a majority then they renew surely?
Or perhaps they know something the article suggests – tastes are changing?
Clarkson farm is one of their most popular shows ever, but since video streaming is just a tiny proportion of their profits and they are a US megacorp they are expected to be as wokie as possible. They will drop Clarkson but cynically only after they raked it in with the second season.
I predict he will be back on TV within six months. H&M are total wrong’uns and Clarkson is one of the most talented entertainers in the world. This episode is a bit of nonsense that will blow over not a cultural turning point. In fact if anything I suspect it is wokery, not laddish high-jinx that has had its day.
The mainstream is purging itself of cross-over figures like Clarkson – and in so doing hastening its own demise. A polarizing figure, but undeniably one of the best entertainers of our age. The BBC and now Amazon bow to woke orthodoxy, they become less entertaining and more and more unwatchable. Watch for Clarkson to align with Ben Shapiro or someone like that to produce edgy ‘unwoke’ content. Nature abhors a vacuum and people will still pay to be entertained.
Katharine Eyre
2 months ago
I wouldn’t make this into a ponderance on the English national character…or even the British character for that matter. Clarkson and his brand have had massive global appeal. The biggest Clarkson fan in our house is my partner, who is from Luxembourg and who is still splitting his sides about J’s antics long after I’m rolling my eyes!
I thought the column was unacceptable…but as far as I can see it’s six of one and half a dozen of the other. Clarkson has – once again – gone too far and got himself into hot water: I have little sympathy for him and think he owed an apology. If someone said that about me, I’d loudly demand one too!
But on the other hand, we have the joyless, perma-bitter Sussexes who probably can’t even accept a pedestrian joke if it can possibly be interpreted as racism, sexism, misogyny, whatever and are themselves on a hate-fuelled crusade to completely destroy Jezzer…while of course calling themselves humanitarians and social justice warriors – which is the real joke here, if anyone wants to see it.
They really had the chance to be the bigger people here, show a bit of grace and accept the apology. As it is, they are simply lending further credence to those bullying claims from inside Buckingham Palace and making the public think that the RF shouldn’t offer any apology if this is where it gets them.
If I was offered a day with Clarkson or a day with the Sussexes, I’d be straight over to Clarkson’s place. It’d be funny, irreverent, probably politically incorrect and an enormous laugh…the Sussexes I imagine would be preachy, self-righteous, humourless, bitter and insanely dull. Some people in my circle went a bit that way and spending time with them became such a bore and a drag, I just stepped away.
Well, Clarkson has definitely done the RF a big favour in demonstrating where an apology will get you with the Sussexes…into an even bigger puddle of whinge and woe is me and it’s all your fault.
I don’t think I’ve ever come across two people so determined to be unhappy and bitter. I pity them. Who’d want to be around people like this? Not I.
I pity their children.
Time to call social services I think
Malcolm Webb
2 months ago
So Clarkson is “ … responsible for Brexit” and an “ ethical criminal” – two phrases which show the author’s true colours . Just another episode of “Carry on Wokely Remoaning” dressed up as a supposedly intellectual insight.
Thanks Paul. I assure you I did read the article carefully before commenting. However as John’s amusing and pertinent comment above shows, it was possibly the author of the piece who should have read a little more before making that revealing comment about Brexit.
The words “Woke” and “Remoaner” indicate that you most definitely follow a “herd” and like to simplify things into easily digested and understood chunks for yourself. At least you can feel like you “belong” to a cultural movement with self-declared enlightenment I suppose. Your fellow journeymen can upvote your vacuous comments to reinforce their own cosy membership, even as it evaporates as the old guard dies off and Britain becomes poorer and less relevant in the world.
I envy you in a way,I have never been able to subscribe to such proscribed thought on either the Left or Right, it must be simple and comforting though.
Shame really, some of the pieces in here are quite thoughtful.
Crack on.
I didn’t invent the word woke – as I recall it those who advocate such a mindset did! As for Remoaner I think that is an apt, albeit, I agree, shorthand description of people who cannot or will not accept Brexit and seldom miss an opportunity to say so. Furthermore, using such words doesn’t in my opinion make me part of “ a cultural movement with self declared enlightenment“ . I also can assure you that I am not engaged in any mutual upvoting nonsense of the type you describe.
However, if it pleases you to believe and say these things in the conviction that you are a bold, free and independent thinker of real merit, then so be it and may you find it as fulfilling as I sense you do. For my part, I must admit that I am usually struggling to see the light.
I suspect Otto’s woke and lashing out because you hit his sore spot.
Samir Iker
2 months ago
A thought to consider, Harry.
If you and your camp are so keen to be outraged and unleash cancel culture on someone for a few words.
What do you think your family’s reaction would be to your book…
Or the Taleban (and their supporters) to your bragging about killing, what , 25 of their number?
Harry is currently trying to apply for ‘international protected person’ status from the UK government, so he can get his security paid for. He can use any threats from the Taliban as justification for this. It’s like those American kids who killed their parents in the US asking their murder trial judge for mercy because they had become orphans.
CHARLES STANHOPE
2 months ago
Clarkson like Starkey before him, should NOT have apologised!
It is simply pathetic behaviour, and always “ends in tears”.
Have they both forgotten the immortal words of that great Irishman, Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington? “Publish and be damned”.
But he didn’t apologise C. He certainly tried to make it look a bit like that, and his press release suggested that. But if you read what he sent it’s no sincere apology.
It was all about protecting his income as we all know. That means of course he’s prepared to potentially upset/mislead quite a few of his supporters too in order to retain his commissions rather than stick to his guns. Begs a question – who’s he mugging off here? Was his shtick all about income maximisation?
The apology was a Hail Mary pass. Once its clear his relationship with the mainstream can’t be saved, watch for him to double down on an alternative platform. Eventually, as with Joe Rogan and his massive fan base, the illusion that the mainstream is actually still the mainstream will fade even further.
Possible, but still needs financial backing and it’s becoming quite a crowded space. Rogan has a younger demographic and Clarkson doesn’t translate quite the same across the Atlantic, esp without the visuals he had on TG.
Gill Holway
2 months ago
Perhaps Clarkson is an oaf but he is OUR oaf and we will dispose of him as WE wish. We dont need or want a woman with an iffy background herself and no desires or personality other than those surrounding pure acquisition making moral and social decisions on our behalf Personally Im waving the flag or Clarkson and all the others this awful woman is somehow empowered to destroy within OUR culture.
Has Markle said anything about Clarkson? Or has he just been hung on his own stupidity? Don’t think she decides who Amazon or ITV commission.
She perfectly entitled to not accept an apology that was disingenuous and much more about trying to reduce the risk of a loss in his earnings. But the berk did this all himself.
Last edited 2 months ago by j watson
Jonathan Nash
2 months ago
No doubt Amazon dropped him because he did a deal for his farm series whereby he got paid by reference to the number of views. Contrary to Amazon’s expectations it has been a huge hit, so the deal has been very expensive for them and very lucrative for him.
That may be so, but also and probably more importantly he offended one of their other ‘big stars’ … Amazon ‘had’ to choose which of their their 2 commercial assets to support – a pure financial decision.
The poisonous pair flogged their lives to Netflix, not Amazon. I can’t understand why Amazon are shooting themselves in both feet, dropping one of their big earners to placate their biggest rival’s cash cow.
An article which confuses the superficial changing social fashions over time with a more profound change of attitude amongst a cohort of the population. It may no longer be wise to be overly blokeish in polite company but the author seems to think that’s the only company blokes keep. Clarkson is popular because he says what many blokes, and many women too, are thinking. Let’s call the phenomena “Shy Blokeism”.
Paul Walsh
2 months ago
I have never been a big fan of Clarkson, I found James May more amusing. I think the popularity was similar to the Inbetweeners, you can and do say all sorts of things to wind up your male friends. It doesn’t mean you really mean it or agree with it, but they would get worried if you were nice. I think if you understood that you can see the joke, but when you play it out in public, many people just don’t get it.
Harry says he wants an apology from the Royal Family for the way they (allegedly) treated Me-again. Had they graciously accepted Clarkson’s offering that might just have happened. But there is no point in apologising if the response is just more whingeing.
Someone should show him a few Gillray or Rowlandson cartoons of his ancestors, so he can see how he’s got off lightly.
Last edited 2 months ago by Dougie Undersub
Michael W
2 months ago
It’s just the way things are going. The crass but funny and intelligent Clarkson who actually adds something of value and brings entertainment to people’s lives is removed from the public’s view. In his place is the talentless, vindictive liar Meghan, who is put on a pedestal, despite giving no one any joy, just because her characteristics make her the perfect victim.
Martin Terrell
2 months ago
The irony is that for all the non-pc bluster, Clarkson would rather be out watching birds (the furry flying kind) and watching TV at home. He has no wish to change the world for the better, just celebrate the good bits and poke fun at those who take themselves too seriously. The kinder gentler younger crowd will cause a great deal more anguish imposing their new doctrines on the rest of us.
Ethniciodo Rodenydo
2 months ago
“But …. he was a vulgar treat to indulge. ………, we could wallow harmlessly in the swamp of arrogant prejudice and self-gratification which sits at the bottom of the brain”
True of the author and his self-righteousness I would have thought
Janet Pollard
2 months ago
He was referring to Game of Thrones and the horrible Cerse Lannister – no one seriously thought he was advocating for this to happen to Meghan, so no call to violence. It’s called “humour ” or “irony” and that includes the right to be offensive and insulting. Free speech is a central core of civilised life and we must protect it – we can’t wail and sulk about banning things just because we don’t like them.
Jeremy is either loved or loathed – personally i think he’s a breath of fresh air (even if the odour is sometimes straight from the farmyard).
Adrian Maxwell
2 months ago
I assume his escalating (or de-escalating) apologia are simply part of a well thought out ploy on his pathway. I certainly hope so.
Clive MacDonald
2 months ago
Here we go again. Repton is in Derbyshire. Derbyshire is not ‘The North.’
Globally he’s probably the most popular Englishman alive
Malcolm Knott
2 months ago
Here’s your choice of dinner guests for tomorrow night:
Lloyd Russell-Moyle or Jeremy Clarkson.
Keir Starmer or Jacob Rees-Mogg.
Emma Watson or J. K Rowling.
Dennis the Menace or Walter the Softy.
Nicky Samengo-Turner
2 months ago
OK, so lets take a leaf out of the authors woke National Socialist book… and all threaten to cancel our Unherd subscriptions unless he is sacked and cancelled?
B Emery
2 months ago
Well we thought Clarksons farm was brilliant. I hope they don’t cancel that we’ve been looking forward to it. We grew up watching top gear. How have we got to this point. He’s an idiot sometimes but I think this is getting blown out of all proportion.
Marissa M
2 months ago
We had something similar. My husband and I call them, “the Sinatra crowd”, in the states. Martinis, cigarettes, slap the waitress on the ass, fast cars, leather jackets…yeah. Definitely a dying breed. The ones hanging on are distasteful and rather embarrassing.
Roger Mortimer
2 months ago
“Referendums proceeded according to plan“
What referendums were held during this period?
Nick Walker
2 months ago
Next career move: run for MP of Doncaster North against Ed Miliband.
Nicky Samengo-Turner
2 months ago
Yurr, like n stuff… Apple and ifone are like seriously guilty of emoji classism and privelige distinction, yuh!… like they have emojis of Guardsmen in bearskins, reflecting upper class prejudice and bias, and no other, like military guys? At least they have err.. terro… sorry freedom fighter emojis, and Islamic culture non binary M/F human unit persons… This is like SOOO serious n stuff?
DenialARiverIn Islington
2 months ago
Hmmmm. You seem unaware that Clarkson is a die-hard Remainer. Ironic, no?
Daniel P
2 months ago
Clarckson ROCKS! I have enjoyed his smart ass, screw PC, attitude for years.
People are offended way way too easily and they take things way more seriously than they deserve to be.
God….what a puritanical BORE western culture is becoming.
Ian Stewart
2 months ago
Multiply snobbery to the power of woke, and divide it by the proportion of trans people in the U.K., and you get this drivel.
Jeez this piece is just embarrassing for Unherd – maybe it’s a job application to write for the Guardian, or get a gofer role at the BBC?
Paul Hemphill
1 month ago
As an old Pom reading DownUnder, who’s never watched or read Clarkson, nor intends too, this is a most entertaining article, as are the comments, as always.
Times and tastes do indeed change, as many observe. Many of the films and shows of my youth would never be made today, even counterculture ones like Easy Rider, Blow Up, and If, Steptoe and Python. And old jokes and phrases would definitely be verboten nowadays even ostensibly innocuous ones. I Love the bit about Dads Army causing Brexit.
Brendan O'Leary
2 months ago
The number of people who know anything about mechanics and associated economics in this country is dwindling, and that was a large part of Clarkson’s appeal, so you might be right in that respect.
But quoting a joke in a Millennial comedy to summarise his appeal seems more like dreary received opinion that actual observation.
Galvatron Stephens
2 months ago
I love Jezza but he should have known better, frankly.
Oliver McCarthy
2 months ago
Rubbish! Clarkson screwed up by being friends with David Cameron and opposing Brexit. He’s never really recovered, and in the long run he will almost certainly amount to little more than a mildly charismatic but still oafishly pseudish petrolhead.
Simon Blanchard
2 months ago
He had his day; times have changed. “That’s all there is to it”.
It certainly isn’t “all there is to it”. Freedom of speech and the ability to tell jokes, albeit crass ones, that might ‘offend’ someone of an approved list of grievance merchants (you can be obnoxious to Brexiteers, Tories and ‘gammon’ all you want) is dying in this country.
People are laughing – he’s one of the most successful entertainers of our times. He’s not in trouble because people stopped tuning in. This is a take-down by people like yourself who never liked him. He will continue to thrive and whoever picks him up will make gobs of money.
Well, old people (like me) do. Youngsters are fairly nonplussed by them, in my experience. The only comedy that lasts forever is slapstick. Actually, I blame Dad’s Army for Brexit.
Yes, murdering your wife and burying her bum-up as a bike-stand … hilarious! ,,, beats Clarkson.
j watson
2 months ago
Clarkson was a bore to many even back in his pomp. Thank goodness we no longer delight in such tripe.
I don’t doubt some in a certain demographic – many my own middle aged white Male – have seen him as some form cultural-warrior reaffirming it’s ok to bully and abuse. Sad. He’s an embarrassment to my generation, as none other than his own daughter highlighted.
In UK we’ll have all been hearing last few days about the Carrick case in the Met. And probably heard the excellent Mark Rowley refer to the need to root out this cancer of misogynistic, racially tinged prejudice in his Force with 800 officers being currently investigated – real Robert Marks moment. We may see Clarkson’s shtick as harmless but it plays into a set of values and behaviours being acceptable that takes us to this type of end-point.
Unashamedly working class. I get excited about laying my fireplace and I coveted my nans bed pans, she had some on the wall as decorations. Lmao. What does that say. Can I have a brace of pheasants to take home after?
I only scroll down & read the bottom few to see who can speak sense/truth regardless of the unpopularity votes. Thumbs up from me even if it barely registers.
It’s interesting that I can move from agreeing with unpopular comments to popular ones depending on the subject matter. Totally agree with you on this. Never cared for anything JC had to offer.
I wonder where you stood on lockdown & vaccinations, personally I was hardcore against both. Just as a matter of interest .
Nonsense. I see no evidence of any major shift in opinion. Those who enjoy and appreciate Clarkson will only be offended that he apologised. He reflects – and will continue to reflect and enduring characteristic of English culture. At a time of increasing censorship, we should be grateful that there are people like this who still believe in free speech.
Anyone “offended” by Clarkson is taking life far too seriously.
Putting the clown role he plays aside, he is actually a very knowledgable motoring journalist. And unlike Harry, he writes his own stuff.
I certainly didn’t want him to apologise. Surely everyone has learned that apologies to the woke only emboldens them.
In that case, would that more people were as nice and wise as… Kathy Burke!
That can be taken two ways though, right? It can either be at face value, or be a clever way of implying that Woke is euphemism for being “an ignorant f*****g t**t.”, as Kathy Burke put it.
“Anyone “offended” by Clarkson is taking life far too seriously.”
Yes, but this is not naivete, it is instead an entirely deliberate and cynical means of exercising political power. The outrage is entirely confected and is in the service of the eradication of free speech for anyone unwise enough to argue with Liberal-Left morals (if they can be described as such at all, but that’s another debate).
The people who do this can’t be corrected by kindly explaining to them the difference between a joke and serious intent: they are not stupid and they know this perfectly well already. They can only be defeated by treating their complaints as intellectually dishonest claptrap, but unfortunately the people at the top whose reactions actually count depend for their position on Liberal-Left patronage, so they will take the faux-outrage at face value. It’s all very well saying that millions of people side with Clarkson here (I do myself), but those millions of people aren’t the ones capable of signing lucrative TV deals, so unfortunately Jeremy has just cost himself an awful lot of money.
You also sense that there’s an element of professional jealousy at work here – the hordes of mediocre journalists who resent Clarkson’s fame/wealth/success. Much as they did with Boris Johnson. That’s not to excuse Clarkson and Johnson’s faults. Just to point out that the critics also have their own agendas – including this one.
I suspect Amazon prime want the film rights to Spare. It’s all about the money. Jeremy Clarkson doesn’t sell in the US particularly well.
Clarkson’s Farm doesn’t sell in the USA but that is hardly any surprise given that its popularity in Britain is because it’s about Britain.
The Grand Tour is more popular in the USA of course, but the real reason Clarkson will probably do OK without Amazon is that he built a genuinely global following with Top Gear – it peaked at over 350million people in over 200 countries – a number that the subsequent versions of Top Gear never came close to once Clarkson Hammond and May left the show, and not incidentally the most successful export of the televised BBC brand globally in its entire history.
His global market still exists and there seems no reason why this could not be leveraged through a non-traditional broadcaster and simply circumvent the po-faced class of media clowns who don’t like him. Youtube is an obvious alternative but even that might still run into corporate Wokery, but since Clarkson is such a huge brand in himself even an unknown label would be fine as long as it has the technical capacity to broadcast at scale.
In short, I believe that Clarkson is probably uncancellable: he doesn’t just have a large following, that following is spread over the globe in many places where Woke morality has no traction.
I really liked his farm show. I had no idea Lamborghini made tractors. US of A here
Apparently not very good tractors, if the show is any guide.
But I’m surprised you haven’t heard the apocryphal story of how Ferrucio Lamborghini came to start making sports cars? It was because he was a truck and tractor manufacturer in 1960s Italy and he asked one of his mechanics to change the clutch on his Ferrari, finding the correct parts first. The mechanic did this and then told him that actually they already had the clutch in stock because Ferrari used the same clutch in its cars as Lamborghini did in its tractors.
Apparently this was a lightbulb moment for Ferrucio, who then decided that he’d like to make sports cars too since he clearly already had the factory and the skills to do so. The rest is history.
There’s always Geebeebies.
I’m in the US and I like him but I’m an outlier.
Very good point
He may be a knowledgable motoring journalist but you don’t need to know much to write about cars. There’s no escaping the fact that what he wrote about MM was disgusting, mediaeval and wrong and he deserved the heavy artillery that’s come his way since. It’s not good enough to dismiss it as a joke, it was a cruel and brutish suggestion, which belonged in the 12th century and was not funny in any way. It will have swayed favour towards MM.
Basically he’s a nasty character with a lot of TV charisma. He’s used his popularity to expound his gross, multiple bigotries, which have often enhanced his popularity.
I enjoyed his farming programmes. He controlled his nasty side all through those.
So, you managed to enjoy a farming programme presented by someone who you already knew to be ‘a nasty character’ who’s guilty of ‘multiple bigotries’, did you? How fascinating!
Why is it facinating? Did not Mr Williams say that he controlled his nasty side during these programmes? I cannot comment as I haven’t seen them myself, I tend, now, to avoid anything staring Mr Clarkson.
OK, so if it’s that easy writing about cars, how about you have a go ? Here. Now. 1000 words on “Is the Italian car industry in terminal decline ?”. Or “was the Alfasud really the Car of the Seventies as Top Gear claimed ?”. Your choice.
I was in Italy during the Alfasud fiasco. Northern Italians wouldn’t buy it because it was made by southern Italians.
“He may be a knowledgable motoring journalist but you don’t need to know much to write about cars.”
Clearly said by someone who knows so little about the subject that such an assertion can seem reasonable.
I resemble that remark about my 12th century ancestors, who, were they alive, would turn in their graves. Please desist with this cultural appropriation and stereotyping in future. Yours in diversity, inclusion and equality (DIE).
If they were alive, they’d prefer getting out of their graves than turning sadly within them.
I made curry last night.Was that cultural appropriation?
Diversity is our strength and cultural enrichment is good.
Englishmen have been eating curry since the time of Chaucer.
Crusades, in fact. They brought 5he herbs and spices and recipes home.
Heh, good joke. “If Chaucer were alive today, he’d be turning in his grave”
You can’t beat the old ones.
That’s what the sign in the care home says, anyway.
Good one.
Actually, to be a good motoring journalist, you do need to know a lot about cars, the industry in general and the people and politics within. Add to that an ability to entertain and connect with your audience, and you become good at the job. Underestimating what it takes to do any job well is not unusual. In this case, you appear to have done just that with the aim of discrediting JC.
On the contrary, you need to know a lot about cars to be as good a motoring journalist as Clarkson, not a subject in which you can wing it.
And for f/sake, he made a joke, not a very nice one or good one and he failed to make a footnote of the context so the terminally humourless could realise where it came from (not the C12th).
He’s a comedian now as much as a journalist. Which is a skill that the California Two could usefully learn
They knew full well what he was referencing.
I wont lower myself to comment on this…..
That makes two of us!
Trevor I can’t stand Clarkson therefore I do not watch or read anything by him.But the response by ‘the great and good’ wokeraty was pathetic.He is an offensive privileged male who has every right to express his bilge, but to cancel him?
I am delighted that he offends you: those who take offence are put on this planet, to be the butt of mick takers.. Thanks Ron, where would we be without you to laugh at?
Ohh, you’ve managed to upset a few people. I don’t know if you’re correct about not needing to know much to write about cars, but you are correct when you point out Mr Clarkson’s nasty side, although I’ve never found him particulary charismatic.
Anyone who’s had a sense of humour bypass should definitely give Clarkson a wide berth.
I enjoyed Harry and Meghan’s wedding on the day..for the same reason.
He compared driving some svelte supercar to “smearing honey on Keira Knightley” : )
Many years ago – it was reasonably acceptable at the time!!
By whom? I’m not offended by what he says. Offence doesn’t come in to it. Seems to me from reading this lot that anyone who finds this loathsome, foul mouthed individual unpleasant is “in the service of the eradication of free speech.” What drivel and how lucky to have a convenient catagory to slot us into. I’m red hot on free speech. Just find this man a nasty, self opinionated pratt. Yuk!
Depends on whether you are one of the “he shouldn’t say that” or the “he can’t say that” people.
If you’re in the second then you definitely do oppose freedom of speech. From the sound of it you’re in the first group so you don’t oppose it, but the important point here is to note that just because you yourself aren’t against freedom of speech, that doesn’t mean there aren’t many others who are.
Do you actually know him? Have you met him?
and still is
And ? Last time I checked we still had free speech in this country. No one’s forcing you (or me) to read or watch him. I won’t be reading “Spare” for the same reason.
Unfortunately the only way you can avoid more H&M drivel in the UK is to avoid any and all broadcast news or discussion program.
What really got up H&M and the wokies’ noses was that he made a joke of his apology. They will never be satisfied with anything less than sackcloth and ashes. So there’s no point in trying to placate them. He was really trying to rescue his Amazon contract. It’s worth a shot applying to Netflix. He could write and present his commentary on Harry’s “sobumentaries”. That that could be a money spinner.
If Amazon cancel him then he’ll be snapped up by someone else because as you suggest, there is a market for him, so I disagree with the author. But yeah, he should never have apologised.
Absolutely on the money. Outside of the MSM, Clarkson still is the anti-Woke mouthpiece for the Demos.
Very funny, rather silly & very British. The Chiswick Brigade have not seen the last of him, try as they might.
I don’t inhabit “woke” territory, but I know of only one person who has any time for the man, so please to not equate him with being very British.
You probably come from the wrong part of the social scale…
What’s the wrong part, then?
just find it tragic and perplexing that many British people want to get Americanized. There should be some international emergency to preserve British humor and British ways – I can’t bear to imagine the insipid and purgatorial world without it. And personally, I cannot get enough of Hammond, Clarkson, and May. (US immigrant woman). (P.S. please watch -any- American car show in order to see the brilliance of these guys – and I don’t even care much for cars)
Poking fun at the pretensions of a self-important elite has always been central to our humour.
For decades Clarkson has almost single-handedly provided an antidote to the sanctimonious pomposity of the UK media class. He went too far in his attack on the toxic twosome – but he needs to be rehabilitated if we don’t want to live in a culture utterly dominated by James O’Brien, Emily Maitlis et al and entertained by establishment sycophants like Nish Kumar.
He didn’t “go too far”. He called a spade a spade, and told it straight.
Or we dont watch the telly!! We’ve long abandoned television and radio for the reasons you mention. They both sit gathering dust in the house. My last listen to a radio four afternoon play was on a long drive home from Leeds. I nearly crashed the car in rage at the content, turned it off and never turned it on again. Id already lost patience with Radio3 content when the insufferable presentation of a request programme finished it for me.. Shame. Radio used to be a pleasant part of my life.
“He went too far in his attack on the toxic twosome”
No he fvcking well didn’t.
He didn’t go too far for him. He is often like this, rather obnoxious..
a bit your your po faced super petite bourgeoise sensibilities!
So, any opinion that you disagree with is po faced super petite bourgeoise. I shall say it again “he can be rather obnoxious”, if you find that your sensibilities are offended by that then it’s your problem not mine.
Wokeness = Misery
A good article. I want to embrace a Clarksonian spirit of defiance but I cannot. His defeat – and his wretched apology to the high priests of toxic identitarianism – is yet another marke of the ending of free speech in the UK. It is over. Ever since the liberals and BBC bowed to the first hate mob – the Rushdie book burners- we have seen the new cult like dogmas on race gender identity progressively eliminate any form of dissent from books plays films TV. The BBC will not use the word Muslim or Islam in its reports on terror attacks. Police hound people over tweats. Why dont we acknowledge that the battle is lost?? We cannot ever win because these new credos are pulsing out from State LAW – notably the Equality Acts from 2010. And belief in a whole new ideology – identitarianism, social justice, anti discrimination, anti meritocracy, anti wealth creation, welfarism and bailout culture, the EU’s precautionary principle and regulation, a culture of victimhood greviance and entitlement – is held by ALL political parties and everyone in the UK State!!!! So political parties as constituted are irrelevant. We now inhabit a de facto One Party State with a detached elite in their 3million London dachas. I honestly think this explains why nothing is changing. We are not so different from a Poland or Hungary in the 1980s (minus only the secret police). UK 2023 = USSR 1989.
You can mention “both” political parties
But not all. Reform Party dure does not not embrace those totems.
Who?
Very true. But they are not in Parliament. Remember there are over 80 Liberal Democrats in the Lords and a ragbag of Scots who also form part of the One Dogma Ruling clerisy. Look closer at how much the modern Tories, Labour, Lib Dems SNP and their overlords in civil service now all agree on. Hard lockdown tyranny. Net Zero extremism and climate catastrophism. Reverse racist Harry style multiculturalism. Mass feminization of workforce without childcare. Anti meritocracy and class war on rich. Brownite welfarism and benefit bailouts. Bailouts. Brownite high tax. Statism. Antipathy to private enterprise and wealth creation. EU style judicial intervention and supremacy. The EU precautionary principle and risk aversion. The crippling Equality ideology and anti discrimination mania. The extension of the unelected governing technocracy. Tolerance of and passivity militant identitarianism as minimum. Censorship – esp on Islam and tactit disavowal of free speech. Er – what is left???? This covers everything. That is their Groupthink. The unacknowledged One State Party possesses ALL.
Die Gedanken sind frei.
This is frighteningly correct and would suggest a grim or violent future for this country.
The Woke Age is defined by its ‘humorlessness’.
I think yore being very hopeful about the secret police.
“…minus only the secret police”
How do you know if the police are secret?
It’s kind of in the name, but I see your point. Aren’t some police departments in the UK monitoring people’s online content?
Secret police not needed. Replaced by mass online surveillance and about-to-be introduced CBDCs.
Hmmm. You do know Clarkson was an ardent Remainer, don’t you? To his credit, once the deal was done he suggested we all just get on with it, as you might expect.
The part Nicholas misses about Clarkson is this; he’s actually a very good journalist. He can take on and explain virtually any subject and make it relatable to the vast majority of Britons. Especially those who live outside of the M25 and university cities. I’m not wildly interested in cars or farming, but will happily watch Clarkson talk about both.
I wouldn’t write him off quite yet. I suspect there’s another act left in the old warhorse.
I really hope so as it would be boring without him!
Remainers fine. There were reasons to Remain as well as reasons to Leave. The debate was had, the decisions made. Remoaners are a different matter.
I voted Remain but am nonetheless OK with Brexit having happened, as in my view Britain never should have been allowed in in the first place. In England, there is simply too much cultural contempt for mainland Europe for it ever to work. I just wish the leavers would quit moaning about the EU.
I’m a Remoaner, but not for political reasons, for purely practical ones. It’s all very well for the leavers to bang on about all of the opportunities that Brexit was going to bring, but the government that was supposed to take those opportunities has failed disasterously.
Whining about Covid and Putin won’t cut it, even the nuclei of nascent projects for a great future for the UK as yet do not exist in any physical form at all. As a result, the polls show an ever increasing majority of opinion to return to the EU. It’s at around 20% higher than Leave right now, and set to increase. Interestingly, the change is due to (pragmatic rather than emotional) Leave voters who have changed their minds, the “Don’t knows” remain at around 10% as they always have. How long can Westminster withstand this political pressure?
So, dear Leaver, I wish you had proven me wrong and made Brexit a great success for the country, I could have lived with that. I think no less of you for believing in an exciting project and trying to make change for the better my fellow countryman, but instead it’s a total and abject failure and you are now flogging a dead horse.
What are we supposed to do now, sit around and twiddle our thumbs while ignoring the elephant in the room in fear that the mere mention of it might irritate a Leaver? Or do we to do something positive for the country, be that find someone, anyone who can govern and actually work with the Brexit opportunities? Or return to something like the EU that was admittedly flawed but at least worked, unlike our current rapidly failing system. Soon we will be poorer and less relevent than Poland.
Here’s an idea to heal our society – don’t just blindly attack people who see things differently to you, suggest something useful for our country instead and lets work together to achieve it.
What did the Common Market, the EEC and the EU do for the economic growth of the UK?
20 years before joining the Common Market the average annual increase of GDP was 3.3%
In the 20 years after joining tEurope our average annual increase was 2.9%
From joining the Single Market to the year before the Bankers’ induced collapse of the economy the average Annul increase was 2.3%
These figures are from the ONS
“What did the Common Market, the EEC and the EU do for the economic growth of the UK?”
I feel a Monty Python sketch coming on.
You cannot compare the post ww2 period of massive infrastructure rebuilding with a period blighted with the oil price inflationary effect.
A long comment justifying an elitist undemocratic mindset. Democracy only works if losers consent. When they don’t there is no point with elections.or referenda. Just have a first fight in the street and let winner decide. I assume that’s your preference.
The entire history of this country has been about making those who rule a little bit accountable to those they rule over. All Brexit has to do is prevent that tradition from being nullified. To the extent that we have recovered at least a degree of self-determination, Brexit is already successful.
Quite right.
Oh I do hope not.
Who put the vacuous and vicious H&M in charge of telling us what’s proper and what isn’t ?
“Pot kettle”, “Do as I say”, “Take the beam”, and all that.
You’d rather King Tampon Charles do that?
Do one, wokey. Nobody’s putting up with you any more.
The generational divide on these issues which Clarkson was writing about in the offending article was graphically illustrated when his own daughter popped up on social media to denounce him. But then people will repay the loyalty shown to them. The religion of Woke appeals to the younger generation because no alternative value set was ever taught or demonstrated to them.
Given Clarkson is divorced from her mother, there may be other factors at play!
The fictional John Falstaff was important enough to be included in three of Shakespeare’s plays. Not as a hero but as a counterpart to the hero.
How bland and sterile would our society be without the likes of Jeremy Clarkson, Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson?
It seems clear that bland sterility is something a great many opinion formers actually want. The same applies to arguments about Net Zero for instance: those objecting say things like “it’ll cause economic collapse”, and “it’ll destroy people’s living standards and personal liberty” etc.
The problem is that people who make such objections are doing so to an elite class of people whose attitude is that they want all this to happen: they actually WANT to sit atop a society of serfs whose only means of living depend upon the patronage of said elite. This elite doesn’t want a population with economic choices and the bad habit of thinking for itself.
Or to own their own vehicle and be free to travel where they want without permission
I’m of the “Whatever gets you through the night, it’s alright” – (so long as you are not bothering anyone else) persuasion, so I hold no prejudices against anyone. Some would probably accuse me of being PC for that.
I’m also Gen-X, so pretty difficult to offend, so I have to admit you are right, everything is getting a bit boring now.
Classic blinkered, leftist lower middle class, chippy woke gospel: The truth is the diametric opposite to what this piece says.
Clarkson is one of the very few public figures who actually reflects and represents the now stifled, fear ridden, ” cancelled” views of the majority of Britons, not least at both ” horseshoe” ends of the socio demograph, but more significantly has the guts, courage, backbone and wry cynical humour and articulate ability to express the views.
If only Tory politicians were imbued with similar bravery, they would corner the majority of voters in an instant.
The woke are petrified of Clarkson: the Tories should have put him in The Upper House ages ago, and I venture to suggest that were he ever to stand for election as an MP, anywhere in Britain, his opposition would all lose their deposits…
Well said!
If true why might Amazon, ITV opt to not renew? Profit maximisation driver ought to mean they have good grasp of audience preferences and how to attract advertising? If he represents a majority then they renew surely?
Or perhaps they know something the article suggests – tastes are changing?
Because they’re woke.
Clarkson farm is one of their most popular shows ever, but since video streaming is just a tiny proportion of their profits and they are a US megacorp they are expected to be as wokie as possible. They will drop Clarkson but cynically only after they raked it in with the second season.
I will in turn drop my amazon subscription.
A one word answer. Gillette
I predict he will be back on TV within six months. H&M are total wrong’uns and Clarkson is one of the most talented entertainers in the world. This episode is a bit of nonsense that will blow over not a cultural turning point. In fact if anything I suspect it is wokery, not laddish high-jinx that has had its day.
Hope you are right!
He’ll be on GB News alongside the rest of the ‘has-beens’ imminently. Then all the sado’s can rage together and feel better.
Hope you are not!
The mainstream is purging itself of cross-over figures like Clarkson – and in so doing hastening its own demise. A polarizing figure, but undeniably one of the best entertainers of our age. The BBC and now Amazon bow to woke orthodoxy, they become less entertaining and more and more unwatchable. Watch for Clarkson to align with Ben Shapiro or someone like that to produce edgy ‘unwoke’ content. Nature abhors a vacuum and people will still pay to be entertained.
I wouldn’t make this into a ponderance on the English national character…or even the British character for that matter. Clarkson and his brand have had massive global appeal. The biggest Clarkson fan in our house is my partner, who is from Luxembourg and who is still splitting his sides about J’s antics long after I’m rolling my eyes!
I thought the column was unacceptable…but as far as I can see it’s six of one and half a dozen of the other. Clarkson has – once again – gone too far and got himself into hot water: I have little sympathy for him and think he owed an apology. If someone said that about me, I’d loudly demand one too!
But on the other hand, we have the joyless, perma-bitter Sussexes who probably can’t even accept a pedestrian joke if it can possibly be interpreted as racism, sexism, misogyny, whatever and are themselves on a hate-fuelled crusade to completely destroy Jezzer…while of course calling themselves humanitarians and social justice warriors – which is the real joke here, if anyone wants to see it.
They really had the chance to be the bigger people here, show a bit of grace and accept the apology. As it is, they are simply lending further credence to those bullying claims from inside Buckingham Palace and making the public think that the RF shouldn’t offer any apology if this is where it gets them.
If I was offered a day with Clarkson or a day with the Sussexes, I’d be straight over to Clarkson’s place. It’d be funny, irreverent, probably politically incorrect and an enormous laugh…the Sussexes I imagine would be preachy, self-righteous, humourless, bitter and insanely dull. Some people in my circle went a bit that way and spending time with them became such a bore and a drag, I just stepped away.
Excellent post, Katharine! So well articulated that I need add no observations of my own. Thank you!
Bloody well said Katharine!..
Hey, Unherd, won’t you give Katharine her own column? Pretty please…
Sounds like a good idea.
He shouldn’t have apologised. Like pricking your finger in shark-infested water.
Cause for all us non-famous people to be grateful we’ll never face the seductions of a camera and an audience.
Well, Clarkson has definitely done the RF a big favour in demonstrating where an apology will get you with the Sussexes…into an even bigger puddle of whinge and woe is me and it’s all your fault.
I don’t think I’ve ever come across two people so determined to be unhappy and bitter. I pity them. Who’d want to be around people like this? Not I.
I pity their children.
Time to call social services I think
So Clarkson is “ … responsible for Brexit” and an “ ethical criminal” – two phrases which show the author’s true colours . Just another episode of “Carry on Wokely Remoaning” dressed up as a supposedly intellectual insight.
Ironically, Clarkson is a Remainer!
Perhaps learn to read before commenting in future.
Thanks Paul. I assure you I did read the article carefully before commenting. However as John’s amusing and pertinent comment above shows, it was possibly the author of the piece who should have read a little more before making that revealing comment about Brexit.
Perhaps learn to read before commenting in future.
The article did not say that. He’s saying that’s what other people think. He is certainly not endorsing such viewpoints himself. Do learn how to read.
Of course not!
The words “Woke” and “Remoaner” indicate that you most definitely follow a “herd” and like to simplify things into easily digested and understood chunks for yourself. At least you can feel like you “belong” to a cultural movement with self-declared enlightenment I suppose. Your fellow journeymen can upvote your vacuous comments to reinforce their own cosy membership, even as it evaporates as the old guard dies off and Britain becomes poorer and less relevant in the world.
I envy you in a way,I have never been able to subscribe to such proscribed thought on either the Left or Right, it must be simple and comforting though.
Shame really, some of the pieces in here are quite thoughtful.
Crack on.
I didn’t invent the word woke – as I recall it those who advocate such a mindset did! As for Remoaner I think that is an apt, albeit, I agree, shorthand description of people who cannot or will not accept Brexit and seldom miss an opportunity to say so. Furthermore, using such words doesn’t in my opinion make me part of “ a cultural movement with self declared enlightenment“ . I also can assure you that I am not engaged in any mutual upvoting nonsense of the type you describe.
However, if it pleases you to believe and say these things in the conviction that you are a bold, free and independent thinker of real merit, then so be it and may you find it as fulfilling as I sense you do. For my part, I must admit that I am usually struggling to see the light.
I suspect Otto’s woke and lashing out because you hit his sore spot.
A thought to consider, Harry.
If you and your camp are so keen to be outraged and unleash cancel culture on someone for a few words.
What do you think your family’s reaction would be to your book…
Or the Taleban (and their supporters) to your bragging about killing, what , 25 of their number?
or even the Taliban
Both are correct. Taleban for translation from Persian and Taliban for Arabic. They are pronounced Tal’ban.
or Islamic sunglasses Tali Bans?
Yes.
Harry is currently trying to apply for ‘international protected person’ status from the UK government, so he can get his security paid for. He can use any threats from the Taliban as justification for this. It’s like those American kids who killed their parents in the US asking their murder trial judge for mercy because they had become orphans.
Clarkson like Starkey before him, should NOT have apologised!
It is simply pathetic behaviour, and always “ends in tears”.
Have they both forgotten the immortal words of that great Irishman, Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington? “Publish and be damned”.
But he didn’t apologise C. He certainly tried to make it look a bit like that, and his press release suggested that. But if you read what he sent it’s no sincere apology.
It was all about protecting his income as we all know. That means of course he’s prepared to potentially upset/mislead quite a few of his supporters too in order to retain his commissions rather than stick to his guns. Begs a question – who’s he mugging off here? Was his shtick all about income maximisation?
The apology was a Hail Mary pass. Once its clear his relationship with the mainstream can’t be saved, watch for him to double down on an alternative platform. Eventually, as with Joe Rogan and his massive fan base, the illusion that the mainstream is actually still the mainstream will fade even further.
Possible, but still needs financial backing and it’s becoming quite a crowded space. Rogan has a younger demographic and Clarkson doesn’t translate quite the same across the Atlantic, esp without the visuals he had on TG.
Perhaps Clarkson is an oaf but he is OUR oaf and we will dispose of him as WE wish. We dont need or want a woman with an iffy background herself and no desires or personality other than those surrounding pure acquisition making moral and social decisions on our behalf Personally Im waving the flag or Clarkson and all the others this awful woman is somehow empowered to destroy within OUR culture.
Has Markle said anything about Clarkson? Or has he just been hung on his own stupidity? Don’t think she decides who Amazon or ITV commission.
She perfectly entitled to not accept an apology that was disingenuous and much more about trying to reduce the risk of a loss in his earnings. But the berk did this all himself.
No doubt Amazon dropped him because he did a deal for his farm series whereby he got paid by reference to the number of views. Contrary to Amazon’s expectations it has been a huge hit, so the deal has been very expensive for them and very lucrative for him.
That may be so, but also and probably more importantly he offended one of their other ‘big stars’ … Amazon ‘had’ to choose which of their their 2 commercial assets to support – a pure financial decision.
The poisonous pair flogged their lives to Netflix, not Amazon. I can’t understand why Amazon are shooting themselves in both feet, dropping one of their big earners to placate their biggest rival’s cash cow.
It’s because they’re woke.
An article which confuses the superficial changing social fashions over time with a more profound change of attitude amongst a cohort of the population. It may no longer be wise to be overly blokeish in polite company but the author seems to think that’s the only company blokes keep. Clarkson is popular because he says what many blokes, and many women too, are thinking. Let’s call the phenomena “Shy Blokeism”.
I have never been a big fan of Clarkson, I found James May more amusing. I think the popularity was similar to the Inbetweeners, you can and do say all sorts of things to wind up your male friends. It doesn’t mean you really mean it or agree with it, but they would get worried if you were nice. I think if you understood that you can see the joke, but when you play it out in public, many people just don’t get it.
Perfectly put.
Harry says he wants an apology from the Royal Family for the way they (allegedly) treated Me-again. Had they graciously accepted Clarkson’s offering that might just have happened. But there is no point in apologising if the response is just more whingeing.
Someone should show him a few Gillray or Rowlandson cartoons of his ancestors, so he can see how he’s got off lightly.
It’s just the way things are going. The crass but funny and intelligent Clarkson who actually adds something of value and brings entertainment to people’s lives is removed from the public’s view. In his place is the talentless, vindictive liar Meghan, who is put on a pedestal, despite giving no one any joy, just because her characteristics make her the perfect victim.
The irony is that for all the non-pc bluster, Clarkson would rather be out watching birds (the furry flying kind) and watching TV at home. He has no wish to change the world for the better, just celebrate the good bits and poke fun at those who take themselves too seriously. The kinder gentler younger crowd will cause a great deal more anguish imposing their new doctrines on the rest of us.
“But …. he was a vulgar treat to indulge. ………, we could wallow harmlessly in the swamp of arrogant prejudice and self-gratification which sits at the bottom of the brain”
True of the author and his self-righteousness I would have thought
He was referring to Game of Thrones and the horrible Cerse Lannister – no one seriously thought he was advocating for this to happen to Meghan, so no call to violence. It’s called “humour ” or “irony” and that includes the right to be offensive and insulting. Free speech is a central core of civilised life and we must protect it – we can’t wail and sulk about banning things just because we don’t like them.
Jeremy is either loved or loathed – personally i think he’s a breath of fresh air (even if the odour is sometimes straight from the farmyard).
I assume his escalating (or de-escalating) apologia are simply part of a well thought out ploy on his pathway. I certainly hope so.
Here we go again. Repton is in Derbyshire. Derbyshire is not ‘The North.’
lol… its a long way north of Islington 🙂
Quislington please!
Globally he’s probably the most popular Englishman alive
Here’s your choice of dinner guests for tomorrow night:
Lloyd Russell-Moyle or Jeremy Clarkson.
Keir Starmer or Jacob Rees-Mogg.
Emma Watson or J. K Rowling.
Dennis the Menace or Walter the Softy.
OK, so lets take a leaf out of the authors woke National Socialist book… and all threaten to cancel our Unherd subscriptions unless he is sacked and cancelled?
Well we thought Clarksons farm was brilliant. I hope they don’t cancel that we’ve been looking forward to it. We grew up watching top gear. How have we got to this point. He’s an idiot sometimes but I think this is getting blown out of all proportion.
We had something similar. My husband and I call them, “the Sinatra crowd”, in the states. Martinis, cigarettes, slap the waitress on the ass, fast cars, leather jackets…yeah. Definitely a dying breed. The ones hanging on are distasteful and rather embarrassing.
“Referendums proceeded according to plan“
What referendums were held during this period?
Next career move: run for MP of Doncaster North against Ed Miliband.
Yurr, like n stuff… Apple and ifone are like seriously guilty of emoji classism and privelige distinction, yuh!… like they have emojis of Guardsmen in bearskins, reflecting upper class prejudice and bias, and no other, like military guys? At least they have err.. terro… sorry freedom fighter emojis, and Islamic culture non binary M/F human unit persons… This is like SOOO serious n stuff?
Hmmmm. You seem unaware that Clarkson is a die-hard Remainer. Ironic, no?
Clarckson ROCKS! I have enjoyed his smart ass, screw PC, attitude for years.
People are offended way way too easily and they take things way more seriously than they deserve to be.
God….what a puritanical BORE western culture is becoming.
Multiply snobbery to the power of woke, and divide it by the proportion of trans people in the U.K., and you get this drivel.
Jeez this piece is just embarrassing for Unherd – maybe it’s a job application to write for the Guardian, or get a gofer role at the BBC?
As an old Pom reading DownUnder, who’s never watched or read Clarkson, nor intends too, this is a most entertaining article, as are the comments, as always.
Times and tastes do indeed change, as many observe. Many of the films and shows of my youth would never be made today, even counterculture ones like Easy Rider, Blow Up, and If, Steptoe and Python. And old jokes and phrases would definitely be verboten nowadays even ostensibly innocuous ones. I Love the bit about Dads Army causing Brexit.
The number of people who know anything about mechanics and associated economics in this country is dwindling, and that was a large part of Clarkson’s appeal, so you might be right in that respect.
But quoting a joke in a Millennial comedy to summarise his appeal seems more like dreary received opinion that actual observation.
I love Jezza but he should have known better, frankly.
Rubbish! Clarkson screwed up by being friends with David Cameron and opposing Brexit. He’s never really recovered, and in the long run he will almost certainly amount to little more than a mildly charismatic but still oafishly pseudish petrolhead.
He had his day; times have changed. “That’s all there is to it”.
It certainly isn’t “all there is to it”. Freedom of speech and the ability to tell jokes, albeit crass ones, that might ‘offend’ someone of an approved list of grievance merchants (you can be obnoxious to Brexiteers, Tories and ‘gammon’ all you want) is dying in this country.
I wouldn’t disagree with that. I’m just saying that times change. No one laughs at Round the Horne anymore.
Yep that’s point. He can generally say whatever he thinks but we’ve stopped laughing and for good reasons..
People are laughing – he’s one of the most successful entertainers of our times. He’s not in trouble because people stopped tuning in. This is a take-down by people like yourself who never liked him. He will continue to thrive and whoever picks him up will make gobs of money.
You’ve stopped laughing, don’t be speaking for the rest of us. Personally I think the hysteria is hilarious. Pearl clutchers as far as the eye can see
But they do laugh at “The Life of Brian” and “Dads Army” to name but two ‘vintage’ comedies.
Well, old people (like me) do. Youngsters are fairly nonplussed by them, in my experience. The only comedy that lasts forever is slapstick. Actually, I blame Dad’s Army for Brexit.
I do, on the rare occasions I hear extracts, because I find Kenneth Williams’ camp accent funny. On the other hand, if you had said On the Buses ..
Surely the Gender Stasi at the BBC must have banned any reruns of Kenneth Williams by now?
evidence other than your own looking glass please?
Yes times have changed. There were funny people now there aren’t.
Billy Connolly for example.
Never remember Billy being misogynistic or having a racial undercurrent. Think he’d be mortified and angry about any association.
His conduct over the late Mr Bigley was unforgivable.
Yes, murdering your wife and burying her bum-up as a bike-stand … hilarious! ,,, beats Clarkson.
Clarkson was a bore to many even back in his pomp. Thank goodness we no longer delight in such tripe.
I don’t doubt some in a certain demographic – many my own middle aged white Male – have seen him as some form cultural-warrior reaffirming it’s ok to bully and abuse. Sad. He’s an embarrassment to my generation, as none other than his own daughter highlighted.
In UK we’ll have all been hearing last few days about the Carrick case in the Met. And probably heard the excellent Mark Rowley refer to the need to root out this cancer of misogynistic, racially tinged prejudice in his Force with 800 officers being currently investigated – real Robert Marks moment. We may see Clarkson’s shtick as harmless but it plays into a set of values and behaviours being acceptable that takes us to this type of end-point.
Some years ago he did an excellent TV documentary on the life of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Did you see it?
Vague recollection. Was the Great Britons series? Fantastic subject matter on one of our Greats not aided by a buffoon presenting.
Yes it was the Great Britons series. Each episode had a different presenter, and the late Mo Mowlam ‘won’ with Churchill.
Yes was a superb series from what I remember. WSC voted No.1 I think.
First sensible and intelligent comment I have come across in these responses. I salute you.
Thank you Watson, that will be all now: warm the bedpans and lay the fireplaces for shoot breakfast…
Unashamedly working class. I get excited about laying my fireplace and I coveted my nans bed pans, she had some on the wall as decorations. Lmao. What does that say. Can I have a brace of pheasants to take home after?
ask Watson… he’ll speak to master of the game larder after Watson has finished whitening my Hunting boot garter straps and brassoing my spur buckles….
Thanks! I’ll check the brassoing is up to my nans standards.
I only scroll down & read the bottom few to see who can speak sense/truth regardless of the unpopularity votes. Thumbs up from me even if it barely registers.
It’s interesting that I can move from agreeing with unpopular comments to popular ones depending on the subject matter. Totally agree with you on this. Never cared for anything JC had to offer.
I wonder where you stood on lockdown & vaccinations, personally I was hardcore against both. Just as a matter of interest .