Review: Jeremy Clarkson vs. British Bureaucracy

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In the British documentary series Clarkson’s Farm (Amazon’s Prime Video), former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson, a self-described libertarian, attempts to run a 1,000-acre farm in West Oxfordshire, England, with no prior farming experience.

From ploughing fields and sowing seeds to helping deliver a calf, Clarkson gives viewers a remarkably personal, and at times rather graphic, insight into how food is made. Clarkson’s Farm also shows that the difficult work of running a farm is made even tougher by the government.

Throughout the show, state pen pushers become Clarkson’s primary source of frustration. In one episode, Clarkson applies for planning permission to convert an existing lambing shed into a restaurant. “We have been told as farmers to diversify, and that is exactly what this proposal is,” he pleads at the council meeting. The planning application is scrutinized by a long list of consultees, including the Cotswolds Conservation Board, the Thames Valley Police, West Oxfordshire District Council’s environmental health officers, and Oxfordshire County Council’s ecology, archaeology, transport, and drainage teams. Council officials demand a flood-alleviation scheme for the proposed restaurant, even though, as Clarkson points out, the farm sits “800 feet above sea level, miles from a river.” One lawyer at the council meeting says that granting permission for the restaurant “conflicts with the statutory objective of conserving and enhancing the area of outstanding natural beauty.” The application is rejected.

Clarkson’s Farm brings the audience into a farmer’s battles, so that viewers too can rage at the state.

The post Review: Jeremy Clarkson vs. British Bureaucracy appeared first on Reason Magazine.

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