The sorry world of the Clarkson apesBy Anna Smith
I suppose I should thank the masses who spewed their bile at me last week after I ripped into Jeremy Clarkson over his sick jibe at Gordon Brown.
I said Clarkson was a “no talent, snooty tosser, and the posh equivalent of a knuckle-trailing English football
thug”. Just in case you missed it.
Well, well. My comments unleashed the wrath of the nation’s Clarkson-lovers, and gave a frightening insight into the depths of resentment out there.
Judging by the poison of the braying mob, Clarkson was just about right when he described some of the people who turn up at his shows as “apes”. No. That would be unfair to apes.
Tell you what though. When the ashes of this country are being trampled through in years to come, and we try to figure out how it came to this, we can look no further than the bigots and lowlifes who were so ill-equipped to take part in intelligent debate that all they could do was post nasty insults online, not just to me, but the Scottish people as a whole.
Because if Britain is broken, then it has been broken by people like them.
Comments like “tartan tosser” and “get a crack pipe and stab your way through life like the rest of the people in Glasgow” are just an example of the vitriol.
With a few intelligent exceptions, most of the people who wrote in support of Clarkson were the very people that the privileged bighead would cross the street to avoid. Yet they think it’s funny and acceptable for him to hurl cruel jibes at someone who battled through his early life after losing the sight of one eye and who happens to be our Prime Minister.
Let’s get this into perspective here.
I think Jeremy Clarkson can be quite witty and droll, but there’s a snootiness about his humour. All of his quips are at the expense of others, and not in a funny way. It’s just mean-spirited.
Now whether you like Gordon Brown or not, and whether you think he is a good Prime Minister or not doesn’t really come into it. He is a world leader, and Clarkson called him a one-eyed, Scottish idiot.
Twenty years ago, a celebrity just wouldn’t have got away with saying that. There would have been a
public backlash.
But there is no respect any more. No manners. Nothing. It’s all gone down the pan.
If you’re a celebrity these days, the more badly behaved you are the more popular you are. Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand are still being applauded.
There’s a whole generation out there who think nothing of insulting people, whether they are old, disabled or less privileged. Their heroes are football stars, rock stars or showbiz celebs. And celebrity is more important than integrity, achievement or humility.
And my rant on Clarkson exposed a terrifying insight into just how much society is crumbling.
I really despair for the future if some of these people – who posted what can only be described as hate mail on the website – have actually bred, and have instilled their shameless values on their offspring.
It will be a sorry day if they are all that Britain has to offer.
Mirror
