Jeremy Clarkson has called on Prime Minister Andy Burnham to take action over the UK's "gormless" unemployed youth. The Clarkson's Farm star, 66, criticised the fact that jobless young people with ADHD or other mental health issues can claim up to £194 a week, funded by tax rises in the Labour Party's last two budgets, both steered by then Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
Clarkson's column sparks debate
"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," he wrote in his column for the Sunday Times.
He noted that the £194 they can claim is "£100 more than they'd get if their got off their a***s and did some kind of part-time work in the local shop". Clarkson, who is currently in remission after a cancer battle last year, said the benefits leave people who work 10-hour shifts feeling "miffed" and urged the new PM to ease taxpayers' frustrations by getting unemployed people to write thank you messages.
Proposal for thank-you emails
"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," he suggested.
"I want to hear what they've done with the £194 I gave them that week....I want to feel their gratitude."
Youth unemployment in London
London's youth unemployment rate is the highest in the country at 24.6 per cent, meaning some 135,000 of 16 to 24-year-old Londoners were actively looking for work between November and January this year.
Clarkson's farming frustrations
Clarkson's column comes after he blasted Burnham's decision to make Dame Angela Eagle the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The former Top Gear presenter has faced challenges at his 1,000-acre Diddly Squat Farm, from relentless heatwaves to a TB outbreak among his cattle.
He claimed Eagle's appointment will only "worsen" the situation and begged the government to do something over the farming sector's financial struggles.
"Action is needed now because farmers have reached the point where it is quite simply impossible to make money from growing food," he said in The Sun. "This year, I have 200 acres on my farm where we grew nothing at all. We knew that if we planted it with wheat or barley, we would definitely make a loss."
Clarkson said he predicts the situation will deteriorate further for farmers under Burnham's leadership.
"The only big worry for me right now – and I'm talking with my farming hat on – is that he's put someone called Angela Eagle in charge of the countryside," he wrote. "And so far, her only real claim to fame is that David Cameron once told her to 'calm down, dear'.
"I've done some digging, though, and it seems she has never worked on a farm and has never run any kind of business. So putting her in charge of the countryside is like putting Alan Carr in charge of the Army," he wrote. "Or me in charge of the diplomatic service. And that's no good."
Eagle was previously the Minister of State for Food Security and Rural Affairs under Keir Starmer.
