With this exorbitant number of complaints, Jeremy Clarkson’s article has thus become the most criticized article, even exceeding the number of complaints received over the whole of 2021 by the regulatory body.
“An unacceptable climate of hatred and violence”
More than 60 MPs from all parties have also taken the trouble to contact Victoria Newton, editor of The Sun, to demand an apology and action to deal with the behavior of columnist Jeremy Clarkson.
We were therefore able to find the signatures of Liberal, Democrat, Conservative, Labour, SNP and Green MPs at the end of this letter, describing the dangers of such a column: “Meghan has received credible death threats and articles such as Jeremy Clarkson’s contribute to an unacceptable climate of hatred and violence“, can we read. MPs also made it known that they “condemn in the strongest possible terms violent and misogynistic language… This kind of language has no place in our country and it is unacceptable that it could have been published in a mainstream newspaper”.
Following this letter, the editor immediately removed the poisonous column.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also reacted, saying that “words matter when you’re a public person”, while other personalities, such as the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, or the Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon, strongly condemned Jeremy Clarkson’s column.
”I will be more careful in the future”
The columnist’s words are incisive. Reacting to the latest episodes of the Harry&Meghan series, Jeremy Clarkson bluntly writes that he “hates her”: “At night I can’t sleep and I lie there, gritting my teeth and dreaming of the day when she’ll be paraded naked through the streets of every city in the UK, while the crowds shout ‘Shame!’ and throw excrement on him”. This reference to a scene from Game of Thrones did not fly with his readers and the journalist ended up apologizing. The scene in question is that of Cersei’s “walk of shame”, who has to parade naked in the streets while people throw rubbish in her face.
He justifies himself on Twitter without apologizing openly: “I put my feet in the dish. I made a clumsy reference to (the series) ‘Game of Thrones’ and it was taken badly by many people. I am horrified to have caused so much pain and will be more careful in the future.”
Oh dear. I’ve rather put my foot in it. In a column I wrote about Meghan, I made a clumsy reference to a scene in Game of Thrones and this has gone down badly with a great many people. I’m horrified to have caused so much hurt and I shall be more careful in future.
— Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) December 19, 2022