Even more non-cycling related, but still an interesting insight into the mind of Mr Clarkson. A
while ago I asked if anyone had seen a report of Clarksons supposed 'ratting' shennanigans. Some
suggested this was based on an 'off the cuff' remark or was a fabrication. However, a search of a
newspaper archive service brought up the following...
Sunday Times (London) June 2, 2002, Sunday
I'm gonna make a killing at this charity game Jeremy Clarkson
I don't understand. On the one hand we're told there has been zero growth in the economy for the
past six months and that if things don't improve in the next few weeks Britain will officially be in
recession. But on the other hand we're told that a Wendy house in Bury St Edmunds is worth £4m and
that the waiting list for a new Mercedes SL stretches into 2005.
The only trouble is finding new and interesting ways of blowing your surplus cash. How about this
for an idea: I've just spent ... I can't say how much, you'd faint ... on a day's ratting. The idea
is that next February 10 of us will drive to a North Yorkshire farm where we will kill between 400
and 1,000 rats.
No guns are allowed, but we will be able to use tennis rackets and croquet mallets. It
sounds a hoot...
Sunday Express May 11, 2003
HEADLINE: RSPCA STEPS IN OVER STAR'S SICK PLAN TO CLUB SMALL ANIMALS TO DEATH 'FOR CHARITY'; YOU'RE
THE REAL RAT, ANIMAL LOVERS TELL CLARKSON
TELEVISION'S Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has been "cautioned" by the RSPCA over a sick plan
to club animals to death. Clarkson boasted on national TV how he had paid to go to a "ratting party"
to slaughter hundreds of rats with pickaxe handles.
RSPCA spokeswoman Katie Geary said: "Jeremy had written about this ratting event and we were
obviously very concerned about it. We rang him up trying to find out when and where this would
happen, but he wasn't very forthcoming with that information. We wanted to send inspectors along to
check it out, but he wouldn't tell us anything.
"Having spoken to him, there was no one here who didn't believe this event was real. In the end we
advised him not to attend. We explained that in our opinion someone of his calibre and profile
should be more responsible. It amounted to a caution, which was as far as we could go at the time."
John Bryant, spokesman for the pressure group Protect Our Wild Animals, said: "It doesn't matter
if they are just rats. If they're captive wild animals and they are being clubbed to death, it
is illegal.
"It sounds like something out of the dark ages. In my opinion this proves Jeremy Clarkson is a yob.
To me, it looks like he is a sadist."
RSPCA vice-president Audrey Eyton said: "Mr Clarkson is a very big man
- in a physical sense, at least - and obviously takes pleasure in battering or crushing to death
small animals. I find this repellent and nauseating."
Last night Clarkson was working on a new TV series and "unavailable" to comment.
And for something cycling related from Jeremy...
The Sun, 5 August 2002. The Lycra Nazis are taking over. By Jeremy Clarkson
Bicycle guerrillas? We've already got them. We don't need this new loony idea to encourage them even
more to shoot red lights and ignore the Highway Code. They have already taken over a third of the
roads with their green tarmac cycle lanes. Now the Lycra Nazis want to take over the whole lot! And
they still don't pay a penny for going on the roads which the poor old motorists pay through the
nose for....Cyclists and ramblers already have 27,000 miles of bridleways and public footpaths.
Roads only cover two per cent of the country and now they want a slice of that too. Well, they can
get lost. When will people understand that roads are for cars and that there is no danger at all
from speeding motorists if walkers and cyclists steer clear?
Despite the above, let's not forget that in the cyclists hating stakes Clarkson is a pussycat
compared to the likes of Tony Parsons and David Thomas of 'The Daily Hate Mail.'
