Prince William at the controls of an RAF Sea King. Photo: Flight Sergeant Andy Carnall/MoD
Mister Popularity Jeremy Clarkson, already distinctly unwelcome in the homes of public-sector workers, may have lost any fans had among the hillwalking community.
After upsetting the families of suicide victims, calling people who kill themselves on railway lines Johnny Suicide, and saying striking nurses, teachers and ambulance staff should be shot in front of their families, the Top Gear presenter turned his attention to mountain rescue.
As journalist Ed Douglas reports, the man credited with making denim jeans unfashionable has had a pop at the Duke of Cambridge and the injured walkers he helps pluck from mountainsides in his RAF Sea King.
Responding to the news that the coalition Government was planning to privatise the UK’s search and rescue helicopters and end the role of the Royal Navy and RAF in the operation, the Yorkshire-born broadcaster said: “’I'm not really surprised to hear that the navy and RAF’s rescue services will soon come to an end.
“Politicians say we can’t afford them. Military bigwigs say neither service was set up to rescue Janet Street-Porter if she trips us and gets a hurty ankle.
“I’m afraid I have an objection, too. I don’t mind paying for schools and hospitals because a civilised country must help those who cannot afford to help themselves.
“But why should I fund the rescue of a rambler?
“He or she chose to go out there in the mountains. He or she knew the risks. And I’m sorry but if they fall over and get gangrene, they can’t furtle around in my wallet for assistance.”
As Douglas points out, as a near-neighbour and friend of Prime Minister David Cameron, Clarkson, who took part in a National Union of Journalists strike when he was a journalist on the Rotherham Advertiser, should know that mountain rescue is a fine example of what Mr Cameron coined The Big Society.
Thousands of volunteers turn out hundreds of times each year in all weathers to help lost, injured and cragfast walkers and climbers, and call upon the military and Coastguard helicopters to help them if they consider it necessary.
Hillwalkers can now join a large band of offended groups who have been the targets of Clarkson’s sharp tongue including caravanners, the residents of Norfolk, Rover car owners, the Welsh, gay people and Gordon Brown, though his recent comments on railway suicides probably trumps most of them.
Describing victims as selfish, he wrote in The Sun: “The train cannot be removed nor the line reopened until all of the victim’s body has been recovered.
“And sometimes the head can be half a mile away from the feet.
“Change the driver, pick up the big bits of what’s left of the victim, get the train moving as quickly as possible and let foxy woxy and the birds nibble away at the smaller, gooey parts that are far away or hard to find.”
The presenter and journalist has a new DVD in the shops.
Si G
06 December 2011Seriously, the first rule of the Internet is "Don't feed the Trolls". Clarkson has a DVD out. He is courting publicity.
colin
06 December 2011He does not like walkers as he blocked paths in the Isle of man. He owns some buildings around a light house in the South of the Isleand. Think he lowered a wall and then he did not like people passing his window.
Then on another note. What would happen if he had a car accedent. Its on a country road. Snow on the ground. Only Mountain Rescue can get to him as the have the 4x4. Ambulance service cannot get to him. Would he say anything bad about that. As the mountain rescue teams did help alot in the last snow fall. Unpaid! Why should anyone treat him?
Mr. T. Member
06 December 2011Firstly I agree with Si G
Secondly remembering of course dear Jezza that most of the cost of the rescue isnt borne by the taxpayer..... but the individual Mountain Rescuers.
In fact in a bizarre twist not only do MR volunteers pick up a large slice of the tab saving the government millions if not billions, they pay a lot of it back in Vehicle Excise Duty and Fuel Duty.......AND VAT
A fact very quickly forgotten, till you have to fill up on the way back from a call out
DS
06 December 2011The press is to blame for two things:
1. It wasn't his view that he said, he gave two opposing views.
2. he actually cleared it with the BBC floor manager beforehand.
They are things the press failed to report, but both are on the BBC news website along with the actual transcript.
Not condoning what he said, but the press lied about it. Just saying.
Jeff Warlock
06 December 2011His comments can be equally aplied to motorists. Why should my taxpayers money go to providing rescue and medical treatment to those people injured whilst driving, who voluntarily go out in their cars when they know the risks? Hey maybe we should now set up a scheme whereby if the injured party has no road tax or insurance they have to pay for their medical treatment? (Please note this is not a serious suggestion.)
Accidents happen in any activity from driving to work to playing golf to walking in the hills. Sadly many of these, but not all, are caused by idiots who don't know what they're doing, as Mr Clarkson clearly demonstrates.
I do wonder if Mr. Clarkson is advocating Darwinian evolution?
Mr. T. Member
06 December 2011Mr Clarkson would do well to remember the contribution MR made in his home county during the heavy snow just 12 months ago.
Mr Clarkson hails from Tickhill which is but a stones throw from the villages of North and South Anston and Dinnington where 3 MR teams worked for 48 hours to rescue stranded motorists and the ill, injured and needy
Mr. T. Member
06 December 2011http://www.grough.co.uk/magazine/2010/12/03/mountain-rescuers-combine-to-help-150-stranded-in-snow
Here Mr Clarkson read this....proper journalism
Tinto 63
06 December 2011I, like most people, use a car to get to the hills, I am always aware that the road journey is the most dangerous part of the day, and that I am safer on the hills than on the road.
Of course, much of this is because on the hills you are responsible for your own actions and your own safety and are unlikely to encounter eejets like Clarkson.
Ian Jones
06 December 2011I don't remember him complaining about some twit needing to be rescued by the Yorkshire Air Ambulance after demonstrating his inability to control a drag car at Elvington air field.
rhodesy
06 December 2011"The presenter and journalist has a new DVD in the shops." - And there's the reason for all of these daft statements. This article, and all the others about him recently, are only going to increase sales of his DVD and so line his pockets. He's being quite a clever chap if you think about it.
Steve
06 December 2011The man is a publicity seeking tit with mental problems. Ignore him.
Steve
06 December 2011The final word on Jeremy Clarkson and Top Gear from Stewart Lee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0i0RXMvzMs
Warning: Contains foul language and satire, worth sticking with right the way through.
MacKenzie Barker
06 December 2011As stated above he's only trying to sell more DVD's
there's no such thing ass bad publicity.
Dave Richardson
06 December 2011Makes me ashamed to call myself a Yorkshireman - and I dont say that often
Jenno
06 December 2011Why does everybody take what he says literally, he doesn’t take much seriously and we shouldn’t either?
I’m ex M.R., he doesn’t offend me. We all have the freedom of speach and rightly so. There is one more thing...........
WHERE HAS EVERYONES SENSE OF HUMOUR GONE????
Pauline Mycock
06 December 2011This man is an over paid prat out of my TV licence fee I make a point of not watching him
welsh dave
06 December 2011im welsh im also mountain rescue and i drive a rover, wouldnt it be nice if one day clarkson was testing one of his cars on a bendy welsh road and had a misshap, im not judgemental when dealing with cassualties within mountain rescue, they might be black, white or green, anybody in pain neeeds to be helped, no discrimination. but if by any chance there was a fat balding two faced two timing stupid yorkie, yes i would help, but it might take the hospital at least an hour to retrieve my ice axe from his a-se.
Nick B
06 December 2011Why should I fund the rescue of a Top Gear presenter?
Richard Hammond chose to go out on that race track. He knew the risks. And I'm sorry if he went too fast and crashed his car and suffered life-threatening injuries, but he can't furtle around in my wallet for assistance.
Clarkson is a fool!
Locoman
06 December 2011Who was it that drove a land ROVER to the top of a British mountain,for Top Gear, left the vehicle for somone else to recover, returned to London by Helicopter with the Land Rover key's in his pocket ?
Cl*****n !
newmiller
07 December 2011Agree that much of this is free publicity for a chap who perhaps isn't quite as clever as he thinks he is.
Conveniantly ignores the fact that a lot of MR activity involves non-hill goers eg searching for missing vulnerable people. But that wouldn't interest him
MR T Member2
07 December 2011The use of RAF/RN helicopters in civilian rescue does not cost the taxpayer a penny, all Heli rescue teams train daily and are often already in the air when called out. The best training is going to an unknown scenenario and having to adapt.
Clarkson does go over the top at times but i don't believe his offensiveness is a deliberate mean streak. may be he could help out with a rescue team for some good PR.
We could race to a casualty on the other side of a mountain....
Mick
07 December 2011Reply to Mr T member2.
Who do you think pays for the fuel, maintenance, crew wages etc? the tax payer.
They do train daily, and cost us money doing so, but shouldn't our armed forces train for war not for picking up injured hillwalkers.
That job should be left to an emergency service (privately operated possibly) not our fighting forces. They are struggling to maintain military budgets and have already lost essential capabilities after the recent SDSR (Nimrod for example). They shouldn't be expected to provide a glorified ambulance service for those pursuing a leisure activity.
The Wok Smuggler
07 December 2011As an ex MRT of very long experience and a Welshman I find the all the hullabaloo about Clarkson's the most hilarious part of the whole thing. Anyone who watches Clarkson if they have any common sense will realise he is NOT SERIOUS - Anyone who comments without watching the programme or the full set of comments has no right to comment as they like Ed Milliband are being led by the nose to create publicity either for themselves or Clarkson. We were noted for our sense of humour but that seems to have got lost in a sea political correctness or so many whingers have ahd a personality bypass and its been replaced by anal retention.
MR T Member2
07 December 2011Mick, good attempt at a wind up but and I quote from the mouths of the pilots and flight teams I have spoken to, the best training they have for pulling soldiers off mountains in the Falklands or Afganistan or Iraq or off burning friggates in the night etc is doing real rescues. We run excerises with RAF bases every year, it's not to rescue walkers as you correctly put rescue people in need of help whether thats a pregnant woman trapped at home, an elderly dog walker with no road access, a hill walker, a bad car crash. Thse are exactly the scenarios they train for.
If/When SAR by RAF/RN/CG is made private alot of good pilots will have to reapply for their jobs and heaven forbid you need to call out a private team because it may cost you more than an Arm and a leg!!
Dave
07 December 2011Clarkson is an unpleasant man who is short on ideas , but that does not make him funny or clever.
Cheap jokes at the expense of people worse off than your self have always been the desperate recourse of people well passed their sell by date.
Ignore him and he should be removed from the shelves soon enough....
Mike
07 December 2011JC never makes his own comments, He uses a publicist/script writer as he lacks the brains. He may have come from Rosso, but was obviously not a part of the community so please do not call him a Yorkshire man as his home is now in the Chilterns and that is where his heart is.
Ben
08 December 2011Get a grip of yourselves, Clarkson makes a good living out of courting controversy, he is after all very good at it and entertaining to boot, let the viewing figures for Top Gear speak for him and you'll see that he's a popular presenter and makes otherwise dull programmes worth watching. If Clarkson's comments are all you've got to worry about in life then you ought to get out more. The truth is, he is funny and clever, his bank balance will verify that.
R Webb
08 December 2011No feeda da trolls.
MJC
13 December 2011Committing suicide by jumping in front of a train IS a selfish act. You have to be some sort of heartless b*stard not to see that. Fine, a person has decided to end their life. Its very sad, maybe its the result of depression or illness, who knows? Yes, I think we all agree, very sad. When these people can be spotted early then great, hopefully we can help them. But if not...
Now that person could take their own life quietly without hurting anyone else, in their own home. But instead they decide to jump in front of a train. In the end the result for them is the same - they're dead, as they wanted. But how about the other people who's lives have been affected? How about the train driver who ends up with PTSD & has a breakdown because it was his train that the person jumped in front of, and he has the nightmares every night to show for it? What about the hundreds of people who have the right to get to work on time maybe missing important appointments, while some poor guy has to clear up all the guts & bones spread over hundreds of meters of track? Don't they have the right not to be traumatised, inconvenienced, or in any other way affected by one selfish persons actions - an action i might add they can never be held responsible for?
It doesn't matter what you think of JC as a person, on this issue he's right.
With regards to his comments on S&R cutting back, well there i think he's wrong, I think its an important service that we should support as long as we can afford to. I will point out to the people who remember RH's big crash & the air ambulance that effectively saved him that actually that rescue was a cash flow positive job - the donations received after the event was more than enough to fund the aircraft for the next 3 years, which no doubt meant countless more lives saved. So personally i would thank RH for that.