Jeremy Clarkson has been a favourite of mine since the 1980s, when he was already writing with that sharp, unpretentious style in the motoring press. Over the years his programmes and columns have entertained me and, indeed, my now octogenarian father, who on some Sundays asks whether I have read Clarkson’s column in that day’s newspaper.
Nothing he has done, however, has been more valuable than Clarkson’s Farm. As someone who farms on a smaller scale in County Galway, I can say without hesitation that he is performing a magnificent service for farmers everywhere. Week after week he shows an increasingly urbanised population what agriculture actually involves: the weather, the labour, the margins, the supply chains and the sheer unpredictability of producing food. In an age when most people have little or no connection to the land, this kind of education is genuinely important. In my opinion, for this alone he deserves a knighthood for services to farming.
