It’s a noble cause, even though my suspicion is that Jeremy had another, equally ambitious purpose. As an enthusiastic and long-serving patron of licensed establishments, he probably always had in his mind the platonic ideal of the village boozer: no music, a bar billiards table, affordable food, local produce, a community hub.
He’s right. There are a number of beautiful villages in the Cotswolds that you can drive through, all honey-coloured stone cottages and well-kept gardens, and it’s only after passing through them that you get the sense that something is missing from a scene of rural perfection. A centre of activity. A gathering place. A beating heart. A public house, by any other name.
Here in the Cotswolds, many of these once-thriving establishments stand fallow, the “For Sale” signs a grim testament to what has been lost from a community’s social life. Villages have indeed become just a collection of houses.
I wish it had taken Clarkson’s fancy, but instead he opted for a bigger enterprise elsewhere in Oxfordshire and rechristened it The Farmer’s Dog. Despite its teething problems – a power failure on its first weekend – and the back-breaking and thankless labour required, he seems to be making a fist of it. What’s more, he is faithful to his idea of not selling anything that isn’t indigenous, hence you won’t find coffee or Coca-Cola on offer here.
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And here is the central proposition. Clarkson’s Farm is a significant piece of television, having brought to public attention the wide range of economic, social and indeed meteorological struggles faced by the British farming industry. He’s been on protest marches, attracted the interest of prime ministers and used his various media platforms to prosecute his case.
Even as someone who doesn’t frequent pubs I understand the role they play in the country’s social fabric, and, while recognising that central government has many other more pressing problems, an initiative to give publicans – and, in fact, the hospitality industry as a whole – some support in the way of tax relief would be a tangible way to improve our quality of life.
I doubt that Jeremy Clarkson ever saw himself as a political figure, representing pressure groups and able to influence government policy. But it shows the power of both television and celebrity that he is able to agitate for change so effectively. And if he is able, through his own direct experience, to make the demise of the great British pub a cause célèbre, then more power to his elbow.
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