If Jeremy Clarkson’s public persona has really been an act – he has some explaining to do

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has found himself in exactly that position in recent years, as he’s tried to repackage himself as a salt-of-the-earth farmer after years of deliberately provoking people. Maybe I should try eating people.” Jeremy Clarkson’s “comic creation” on the other hand, “just kidding” or not, gave a high-profile public platform to the kind of reactionary right-wing discourse that dominates our politics today. We haven’t even scratched the surface.” It’s difficult to see where the “comic” part of his creation is supposed to be in what looks like a pretty straightforward example of science denialism. Don’t get me wrong, Clarkson is nowhere near Jones in terms of his behaviour or the extremity of his beliefs, but it is interesting that both men believed they could spend a decades-spanning career deliberately upsetting people and then try to drop the “act” whenever it became inconvenient.