In some ways that makes it more impactful in that him being a twat and discovering how hard farming is and how at risk our ability to produce is side steps the lefty liberal accusations. Not that farmers are lefty liberals in large part. The climate is fucked and we cant grow crops properly.
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I've never watched an episode, precisely because he's a cunt. But maybe I should give it a go.
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Watched the first couple of eps of the new Grand Tour, enjoying it, a very familiar format with fewer twats.
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I accept your apology.
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Yeah, but I know that from having an allotment without needing to watch Clarkson.
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I think the point about Clarkson's Farm is that he's exposing the vulnerability of the food chain. He repeatedly makes the point that he's a wealthy man who can afford to absorb the losses, and he highlights actual farmers who don't have his resources having to deal with the same risks and pressures.
I understand why people don't like Clarkson and while I don't have the same hatred for him many do, I do find many of his views disagreeable and hypocritical (not least the fact that he has spent his entire public career hammering fossil fuels in massive volume for entertainment and pooh-poohing climate change and is now suddenly upset about it because it hits his wallet). I really do believe his heart is in the right place here though, and he's using his somewhat unique position in the public consciousness to expose something that many of us would have been ignorant of.
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Hang on a minute, Labour tell me all farmers are rich and should be appropriately taxed on their wealth.
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Rich and wealthy are measures of assets, not income.
In Clarkson's case, if he was purely running the farm, he'd still be rich, he'd just have a very low income.
Labour think that he shouldn't be able to pass that wealth onto his children tax free when he dies.
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But in keeping with people who don't understand tax have chosen a measure to do it that is ineffective. See also wealth tax
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Google tells me
Being rich means having a high income and spending money on an expensive lifestyle, while being wealthy means having a high net worth and assets that provide long-term financial independence.
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Cambridge dictionary definition of rich "having a lot of money or valuable possessions:"
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The last school I worked at had a heavy farming contingent. There were farmers kids who were entitled to free school meals. However, they would be picked up in a brand new Range Rover and talked about the horses they rode. Lots of assets in the business being used for personal purposes I think.
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Maybe they can't afford a car so have to use the work vehicle. Not everyone buys a 4x4 for poncing about in, like me.
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Or me.
Thing is, and as has been discussed before, not all farmers are the same. Massive difference between landowners like Dyson, the Duke of Buccleuch, Clarkson and some of my cousins, and a tenant farmer struggling to make a living from a few acres of Welsh hillside.
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I can see why Clarkson is liked by farmers, but he said himself he bought that land as a tax dodge. The farming thing is just a convenient way to keep himself in the spotlight, while avoiding tax.
I'd rather get my understanding of the problems in farming from people like Wendell Berry, James Rebanks and Helen Browning who are actual multi-generational farmers who understand the importance of rural communities whilst also having a balanced understanding of the good and bad farming does.
Politicians are generally urbanites who look down on rural communities, but Clarkson, along with Farage and the other front of march populists, is an opportunist.
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I'm sure you're right but the only person I've heard of from the 4 names you mention is Clarkson.
