There are many miserable people in Great Britain who love to spread their misery around. One such person is Jeremy Clarkson, who seemingly spends his free time devising new ways to belittle benefit claimants.
As many have pointed out, Clarkson himself is a beneficiary of government money. In other words, expect a thank you letter from him sometime soon.
Jeremy Clarkson, the meat w*nker
In his latest piece for the Times, Clarkson compares welfare recipients to dogs. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the broadcaster suggested that welfare recipients are actually worse than animals, because “at least dogs are grateful”.
Speaking of gratitude, now is a good time to remind you Clarkson once punched a man because the platter of meat he brought was cold — not hot, as Jeremy would have preferred. Is this the famous ‘gratitude’ he’s speaking of?
Clarkson’s piece begins:
As I’m sure you’ve heard, there are now more than a million young people in this country who are not working. They’re not even looking for work. They’re just sitting at home all day, gormlessly watching shortform nonsense on their massive vulgarsonic televisions.
Nearly a million young people being out of work is true. The idea that none of them are “even looking for work” is some shite he made up. Also, we’re not sure he should be criticising people for “gormlessly watching nonsense on television” given that he was the host of Top Gear.
If you live in the world, you’re no doubt unsurprised to learn that a significant number of young people are out of work. The high streets are run down, many jobs have been lost to automation, and people can’t afford to go out, which means fewer jobs in hospitality. These are all areas in which young people traditionally worked, so of course fewer of them are in work.
Plus, the rise in national minimum wage has reduced the jobs available for youngsters.
While he’s coming at it from the wrong angle, Clarkson isn’t wrong to suggest social media is having an impact. Because of phones, we’re never more than a swipe away from seeing how the other half lives. You don’t think that will instill a sense of hopelessness in young people who can’t even get an interview in retail?
Clarkson clueless about PIP
Like everyone on the right, Clarkson doesn’t understand how Personal Independence Payments (PIP) work. Clarkson suggests they’re given to people for not working, but Rachel Charlton-Dailey explained:
PIP isn’t an out-of-work benefit and has nothing to do with employment.
Here’s what Clarkson said:
And what makes this especially dispiriting is that if they’ve got ants in their pants, or ADHD as it’s now called, or some other head-based issue with an acronym, the state will give them up to £194 a week. Which is £100 more than they’d get if they got off their arses and did some kind of part-time work in the local shop.
Charlton-Dailey reported that about four in 10 claimants with ADHD receive the top rate of £194. As this is PIP, many will be in work because that’s how PIP functions.
Misery loves company
Clarkson’s piece contains a long section about his dogs, in which he admits that they sometimes shit in his house (training issue). He then gets to his idea to belittle benefit claimants:
It’s very simple. Every week, when the benefits are paid, the recipient is given the email address of a randomly selected person who is getting up and going to work every day. And they are told that unless a proper and genuine email is sent, thanking the working person for their generosity, the benefits will stop. And I’m not talking about a cursory “thanks mate”. I want fulsomeness. I want to hear what they’ve done with the £194 I gave them that week. And I want effusiveness as well. I want to feel their gratitude.
“It is SO kind of you to go to work every day so that I don’t have to. Thanks to you I was able to buy an even bigger television this week”
This way, the communists in the Labour party would be happy because the benefits are still being paid. And the taxpayer will feel a bit better too because they’re at least being thanked.
This might not need pointing out, but this is blatant right-wing propaganda. We have a benefits system to ensure:
- Those who become unemployed can survive between jobs
- Sick and disabled people don’t become homeless
- People of retirement age are able to retire
The benefits system was designed to benefit everyone besides the ultra-wealthy — the people who will never require government support for themselves or their loved ones. The reason they’ll never require it isn’t because they’re inherently better than us; it’s because they and their ancestors benefitted from the fruits of other people’s labour.
Jeremy Clarkson benefits from govt handouts
These ultra-wealthy people use their position of influence to highlight the small numbers of people who are, admittedly, taking the piss, to tarnish the reputation of the entire benefits system. For what? So they can get away with paying less tax?
Clarkson has an estimated net worth of £50 million by the way. Despite this, he’s accepted the following government and EU subsidies:
- Environmental Stewardship scheme (£116,352)
- Basic Payment Scheme (£133,733)
The government subsidises things like farming because crops — much like people — are needed to ensure society remains functional. The right-wing press doesn’t criticise farming subsidies because the land barons who benefit from them are often right-wing themselves. Funny how that works, isn’t it?
This aside, there is a method for people to make money without working, and that method is to be born wealthy.
If a person has a million pounds, they can pay a second person to turn that fortune into more money through investing and asset hoarding. Over time, this has led to a situation in which global wealth is concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people. And wouldn’t you know it, this has also coincided with there being fewer opportunities for ordinary working people.
To be fair to Jeremy Clarkson, he does seem like someone who works hard. The problem is, he works hard at being a f*cking knucklehead.
The longer we allow the rich to seize all the wealth, the worse things will get. The worse things get, the more that the rich will blame us for the problems they created.
Featured image via Acub Porzycki/ Getty Images
By Willem Moore
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(@TiceRichard) 
NEW: Jeremy Clarkson says benefits claimants should be forced to write a genuine thank you email to a random worker every week
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