BREAKING: Jeremy Clarkson slams BBC after rap punk band Bob Vylan’s Glastonbury Festival set sparks outrage across the UK – Video stayed on iPlayer for 5 hours before removal, “Chilling Chants” echoed by crowds – and “90% had no clue what they were shouting,” says Clarkson, calling BBC’s reaction too slow and demanding answers.
Jeremy Clarkson hits out at BBC after Bob Vylan Glastonbury outrage
The BBC came under fire after Bob Vylan’s controversial Glastonbury performance remained on iPlayer for five hours.
Jeremy Clarkson hit out at the BBC (Image: Getty)
Jeremy Clarkson has hit out at the BBC after they failed to remove Bob Vylan’s Glastonbury performance from iPlayer. The Rap punk act led a crowd in chants of “Free, free Pɑlestine” and “D3ath, d3ath to the I::D::F” (Isrɑel Def3nce Forces) during their set at the festival last weekend. It later emerged that BBC’s director general Tim Davie was at the festival when Bob Vylan were on the West Holts stage. After being made aware of the chants, Davie, 58, said the performance should not be made available on demand. However, the live stream remained on BBC iPlayer for a further five hours, sparking outrage and calls for Davie to resign.
Clarkson, 65, has now addressed the fury, admitting people have repeatedly asked him why the BBC didn’t remove the footage Writing for The Sun, the Clarkson’s Farm star said: “It was a pretty amazing spectacle, if I’m honest, because all those Tarquins and Arabellas in the crowd joined in. Even though I’m willing to bet 90 per cent of them had absolutely no clue what the I::D::F is. “But what’s even more amazing is that the footage remained on the BBC iPlayer for a full five hours after the event.” The former Top Gear presenter went on to confess that he has no interest about what people say at music festivals, claiming it’s been going on for years.
Bob Vylan led a crowd in chants of “Free, free Pɑlestine” and “D3ath, d3ath to the I::D::F” (Image: Getty)
He explained: “The crowds at these festivals are young and idealistic and they chant and they weep… and then they grow up and buy a people carrier and no harm’s done.
“But people watching at home are not young and idealistic. Or stoned. And they’ve already got the people carrier.”
Expressing his “shock” over the BBC’s decision to keep the footage on iPlayer, Clarkson continued: “So when the BBC broadcast a man saying he wanted to KL everyone in the I::D::F, it was a bit of a shock. You know it. And I know it. And yet somehow, the BBC didn’t know it. Why?”
The presenter said the BBC should have heard “alarm bells ringing” following Bob Vylan’s controversial remarks due to the all-familiar Lucy Connolly case.
“We know, and they must know too, that these days you can go to prison for a long time for sending an offensive tweet,” Clarkson wrote. “So you’d think that if a man on stage was calling for the d3ath of 169,000 Jewish conscripts, it might set the alarm bells ringing in the BBC’s well-manned operations centre.”
He claimed the BBC’s problem is lack of instinct, believing their natural reaction would have been to cut the feed in seconds had someone “climbed on the stage and started chanting about d3ath to immigrants”.
The Grand Tour star went on: “But Bob Vylan was chanting about the awfulness of the Isrɑeli army. And to a BBC person, that doesn’t trigger instinctive revulsion at all. I know, because I worked at the BBC for a really long time, that most of the people there are lefties.
“Soft lefties for sure but lefties nevertheless. So everyone they talk to at the water cooler, and everyone they meet at their agreeable Islington dinner parties, and everything the algorithm sends them on their lefty social media feeds, says the same thing.”
He added: “The Pɑlestinians are right. And Isrɑel is wrong. As a result, the plug stayed in the wall. And if they were reading the online backlash, they’d put it down to far-right, Zionist agitation.”
