Clarkson “Apology” NOT GOOD ENOUGH

And so it came to pass that Jeremy Clarkson, yesterday’s blokish and mildly edgy presenter, returned to the site of his most recent controversy and told the world that he was prepared to eat humble pie. He had got it wrong. His column attacking the Duchess of Sussex was needlessly OTT. He had messed up. He was sorry. He was honestly so fucking sorry.

For some reason, the BBC, who some time ago parted company with Clarkson following a violent and racially aggravated attack on one of the Corporation’s producers by The Great Man, relayed the alleged apology straight. Perhaps they did not see him coming, that Jezza was holding his hand over his mouth as he spoke. So what’s his schtick?

“Jeremy Clarkson has said he has apologised to Harry and Meghan over his column in The Sun newspaper in which he said he ‘hated’ the Duchess of Sussex. In a statement on Monday, the TV presenter said he emailed the couple on Christmas Day to say his language in the column had been ‘disgraceful’ and he was ‘profoundly sorry’”. There was more.

“In his lengthy Instagram post on Monday, the presenter of Amazon Prime's The Grand Tour and Clarkson's Farm and ITV's Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, said he usually reads what he's written before filing his copy, but he was home alone that day and in a hurry”. This excuses the content of the column? And what was the supposed apology doing on Instagram?

Whatever. “He said he picked up a copy of The Sun and quickly realised he had ‘completely messed up … You are sweaty and cold at the same time. And your head pounds. And you feel sick. I couldn't believe what I was reading. Had I really said that? It was horrible’ … He said he had been thinking of a scene in Games of Thrones when he wrote about imagining the duchess being abused in the street, but had forgotten to mention it”.

As you do. But this attempt at faux sincerity did not take long to unravel, with Jezza’s arse being handed to him on a plate by the Sussexes, whose spokesperson revealed that the Clarkson correspondence which he claimed had been sent both of them had in fact been addressed solely to Haz.

And it got worse. “While a new public apology has been issued today by Mr Clarkson, what remains to be addressed is his long-standing pattern of writing articles that spread hate rhetoric, dangerous conspiracy theories and misogyny … Unless each of his other pieces were also written 'in a hurry', as he states, it is clear that this is not an isolated incident”. And then worse still.

Jeremy who?

Jezza’s Instagram post tells “that he had ‘tried to explain’ himself. ‘But still, there were calls for me to be sacked and charged with a hate crime. More than 60 MPs demanded action to be taken. ITV, who make Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and Amazon, who make the Farm Show and the Grand Tour, were incandescent’”. ITV let him off. But, it seems, Amazon did not.

“Jeremy Clarkson 'dropped by Amazon Prime' as he posts grovelling Harry and Meghan apology … Reports allege that the streaming service will only continue with Clarkson on shows already commissioned” told the Manchester Evening News. Do go on. “Sources told [Variety] that Clarkson won't be working with Amazon Prime outside of seasons of The Grand Tour and Clarkson's Farms [sic] which have already been commissioned”.

So saying “One of the strange things I’ve noticed in recent times is that whenever an MP or a well-known person is asked to apologise for something, no matter how heartfelt or profound that apology may be, it’s never enough for the people who called for it in the first place … So I’m going to try and buck the trend this morning with an apology for the things I said in a Sun column recently about Meghan Markle. I really am sorry” didn’t work.

Yes, blubbering “We never did ‘women can’t park’ gags [on Top Gear] for instance. Or suggested that powerful cars were only for men … I’m just not sexist and I abhor violence against women. And yet I seemed to be advocating just that” didn’t stop Amazon Prime following the BBC’s lead.

And in any case, this is not good enough: Clarkson should have made his grovelling apology not through his personal Instagram account, but in the pages of the Murdoch Sun, and on the paper’s website, with the same prominence as the original column. And signalled on the front page.

But at least, with the apparent decision by Amazon Prime, and almost eight years since the Beeb sacked him, we can see that the time of Jeremy Clarkson as an influential screen and press presence was for a time, but not for all time. Yes, there goes Jeremy Clarkson, on his way … out.

So one less purveyor of hate to worry about. Just rejoice at that news.

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