Jeremy Clarkson has taken aim at the BBC over the corporation and other news outlets’ portrayal of the state of farming across Europe.
In his latest column, Clarkson discussed the cost of foods on supermarket shelves and just how little ends up in farmers’ pockets amid ever-rising prices when it comes to production.
In the past few weeks, farmers in Europe have taken to their tractors and put on widespread strikes due to plans to end subsidies that would aid this income.
In Germany, for instance, angry farmers took to the roads in their farming vehicles in protest at the government’s decision to end subsidies for diesel fuel used in agriculture and cut an exemption from car tax for farm vehicles.
After branding the money he at Diddly Squat and farmers across the continent receive as “bugger all”, Clarkson blasted the fact that subsidies and other aid are being cut across the board.
The former Top Gear host said: “The green movement has come along and announced that it’s bad for the upper atmosphere to grow food and we must all stop.
Jeremy Clarkson knows firsthand the trials and tribulations of farming
PA
“And because modern politicians have all become enslaved by idiotic left-leaning pressure groups, they’ve nodded, said okay and decided to cut farming subsidies to the bone. Which means Europe’s farmers are screwed.
“They can’t make anything approximating to a living wage without government help and they can’t put up prices because the supermarket system doesn’t allow it.”
Clarkson has shown fans through his Amazon series Clarkson’s Farm just how measly a farmers’ pay packet can be without aid.
Due to volatile weather conditions among other factors, Clarkson only made £144 profit in his first year of farming.
Siding with his fellow farmers, Clarkson turned his attention from the governments who are planning to cut subsidies to the media that relay the information to the public.
The Oxfordshire-based farmer feels farming protests have been politicised by news outlets and farmers are being unfairly painted as “far right”.
And he’s clearly less than impressed as he explained in The Times: “Everyone from the BBC to The Guardian is saying that the farmer protests in Germany have nothing to do with fuel prices and are, in fact, a smokescreen for a resurgence of the far right.
“They imply that if you peer over the steaming piles of manure being left at the Brandenburg Gate, you can see lots of weird rural boys in brown shirts with daggers and suspiciously neat hair.”
Jeremy Clarkson has defended the farmers protesting across the continent
GETTY
Clarkson went on to refer to similar receptions from media outlets including the Beeb towards protests in the Netherlands, Italy and the UK.
Hitting out at the divisiveness of such depictions in the media, Clarkson added: “In all of the world’s elections this year, we’re told it’s a battle between the centrist left and the ‘far-right’.
“This is the new racism and misogyny catch-all badge of disgrace, handed out by the left whenever they think they might lose a debate. ‘You’re far-right,’ they scream.”
With the prospect of less subsidised help at Diddly Squat, Clarkson and many other farmers have contemplated the “heartbreaking” prospect of selling up in order to make some money.
However, with Clarkson’s Farm being renewed for a fourth series – and with season three expected sooner than fans expected – it seems he’ll have to cling onto Diddly Squat for the time being.
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