The television presenter Jeremy Clarkson says that the amount of abuse he’s receiving on social media is starting to wear him down.
The 65-year-old broadcaster, who recently won an award for the best Factual Entertainment show at the National Television Awards, admitted in his latest Times column that he was starting to find the misguided criticism difficult to take.
His comment was made following one article he wrote about why he wouldn’t move to Dubai. However, he says many people read this the wrong way and then thought he was moving to Dubai, despite the fact he explicitly said he wouldn’t.
As a result, Jeremy said he was on the receiving end of people repeatedly asking him why he was moving and others who kept telling him they were glad he was moving.
Jeremy explained: “A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a column saying that no matter how bad things got in Starmer’s Britain, I definitely wouldn’t move to Dubai, because that would be worse.
“And within hours, the internet was full of stories saying I was moving to Dubai. Someone even posted an AI-generated image of me in a ghutra and soon I was being stopped in the street by people who wanted to know why I was emigrating.
“Meanwhile, on social media, there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth and people were queueing up to say good riddance and that they’ve always hated me and that it would be better if I shot myself in the head. I’d love to say it’s all water off a duck’s back. But to be honest, it’s wearing.”
In recent months, Jeremy has begun to comment more and more on the current state of the country as the impact of his show, Clarkson’s Farm, continues to grow.
At the same time, statistics reported by the Times reveal there are now more British people in Dubai than there are in Oxford with around 180,000 Britons living in the area, although research firm Oxford Economics has suggested the figure could be higher.
In the aforementioned column about leaving the UK he said the simple fact was that if one moved to another country they could find themselves in a strange position surrounded by people they didn’t know, but if they stayed in the UK, they would at least be with their friends and family.
Meanwhile, his attention has turned to what people will start throwing or saying about him next, jokingly wondering if they might send him fellow columnist Giles Coren.
He said: “The last time I enraged the left they came to my house and threw horse manure over the garden wall. But that’s not shocking or clickbaity enough these days. God knows what they’ll throw at me next time. Giles Coren probably.”