Jeremy Clarkson says UK villages are ‘losing their soul’

42 comments

1. I know right. Rich bellends moving in and upending the local community. Shake your fist harder Jeremy.

2. Good job he doesn’t support the party that made most of this a reality then isn’t it. Oh wait.

3. Maybe they should all have a rich person move in their travelling circus and shut down the local businesses?

4. Claims there’s no village school anymore – really? Maybe not in a tiny village of 40 houses, but was there ever? 

   Also moans there’s no village vicar. I do like it when people complain about the decline of the church when they only darken the door for weddings and funerals. 

5. Yes, and it’s because of rich knobheads like him using farms to hide money and pubs to play landlord.

6. Every village is turning into a retirement home. Any children who grew there up move away because of house prices and slowly but surely every resident is geriatric. That’s the issue.

7. How village is his pub? Do local villagers regularly go there? Is it actually in a village? Or is it just a tourist attraction on a roundabout on an A road?

8. You can certainly trust that the old, white millionaire has his finger on the pulse of British society.

   Or he’s a twat. It’s a coin toss really.

9. Of all the commenters so far, how many of you actually live in a village?

   Our 800 inhabitants village lost it’s only GP three years ago, the church has just been put up for sale, the community center that is less than five years old is ‘under consultation due to lack of funding’, the small Morrisons is at risk despite doing fairly good trading for sucjh a small community and of the two pubs I haven’t a scoobie how they survive.

   Our primary school is doing well but mainly because it acts as overflow for the nearby town.
   Villages are losing their soul. Just because Clarkson says it, doesn’t make it less true.

10. Yeah, all these rich incomers are spoiling it…what a dick he is.

11. Because rich tv presenters move there to cosplay as farmers?

12. Too right. Ask Clarkson. Clarkson knows. People like fast cars, they like females with big boobies, and they don’t want the Euro.

13. Well that’s nonsense for a start. I live in a village. We have a village vicar. We have a village shop. We have a village doctor. Fuck it, we even have the world’s smallest fire station , fireman Sam-like. We have 2 pubs. We have a school

    Nobody gives a fuck though because most of us are young, aren’t sickly , aren’t arsonists, are atheist and have good jobs in the surrounding major cities.

    I assume what he really means is ‘all the old people are dying off and I think people should be more like they were in the 70s’. Fuck off Jeremy.

14. Seems like he’s getting in a muddle. If a village has a doctor, a school, a bobby walking the street, and so on, it’s no longer a village. He’s describing a town. Heck, even most towns don’t have police bobbies on community watch anymore.

    And whilst loneliness might be a big issue in rural areas, I’d say our deprived towns are hardly better for my mental health. I’d rather live in a village with plenty of greenery, where people are friendlier, and know each other; over a grimey town where there are still no jobs, and nothing to do because the high street is dead – only now you have to also deal with antisocial behaviour and junkies.

15. Cutesy villages are becoming a tourist destination for air BNBers. Its hard to have a community feel in a pub when there’s a transient audience of ever changing people that live 300 miles away drifting in and out of it rather than a local community. See all the booking.com villages in rural Scotland Wales Devon and Cornwall.

    In non-cutesy villages younger people make a decision between minimum wage local agricultural or little shop retail work or leave by the time they’re 21 and/or go to Uni and never return. Anyone that stays has a lifetime of NIMBYism, making sure that people don’t park in front of access gates and moaning about the neighbours house thats 500 yards away having a bonfire or a BBQ ahead of them.

    Welcome to village life in the UK.

16. Jeremy, the horse bolted so long ago it’s died of old age already.

17. Why is this news? People have been saying that for 100 years.

18. I don’t want to blame rich people, but second homes that are lives in once a year maybe for a couple of weeks at a time may be an issue

19. Because wealthy landowners buy up farms, and pubs, and make homeownership unreachable?

20. He says sitting on his near £1b throne as he uses the Cotswold as his own personal playground.

21. Once upon a time, rural houses were occupied by farm workers, not city workers or retirees.

    How many full time employees work on his 1,000 acre farm?

22. Old man annoyed because things aren’t like they were in the old days shock.

23. They keep voting Tory/Reform. I know, because I live in one. They’re perennially unhappy. They can’t seem to connect those dots, though.

24. Yes it’s terrible now everything is so car centric, I wonder who promoted that for 30 years?

25. Heard it all before. For good or ill, the rural spirit will continue in all its various forms.

26. Airbnb, 3rd 4th and 5th homes and buying up property and land as an investment and tax negation

27. He’s right. But he’s part of the problem.

    Bellend.

28. Pretty rich coming from the guy who blew up a countryside house 😂

29. Probably because youngsters can’t afford to buy a property with the local income so they left

30. That’s what happens when communities are priced out.

31. Walk up the Main Street of Haworth, Bradford, every house either side has keysafes for guest air b&b’s, not a single genuine person is living there

32. >”If everyone does it, if all the farmers get together and buy a pub – as you can get a pub for chicken feed these days – it might work.”

    Hey, farmers, you want to buy a failing business? Don’t worry, there’s a bunch of farmers who will probably want to have a local pub to go to. They even own the pub, so they’re invested in making sure it has business. You can all sell drinks to each other.

    There’s no profit in it, but Clarkson will nod approvingly that the pub exists, and gives the village character, so you’ll have that going for you.

    >“You don’t have a village doctor anymore. He’s in a health centre 30 miles away and you can’t get an appointment. There’s no village bobby on the beat. There’s no village vicar, there’s no village shop, there’s no village school.

    No, you don’t. But I tell you what, if we raise taxes on the wealthy then maybe we could use that money to fund more local doctors, or local bobbies on the beat. Clarkson wouldn’t mind more taxes, would he?

    He would?

    Oh.

    I tell you what. Why don’t they make a ‘theme village’. It can be for the ultra wealthy. You go live in a pictureque cottage, with a nice little vegatable garden. Everyone has their own chickens for Local Eggs. A pig if you really want. There’s a vicar (paid actor), and bobby (paid actor, although there are also security to ensure outsiders and wind farms don’t ruin the vibe).

    And there’s a pub. The fire is always roaring. There’s proper pub food. Local beers, and a cheerful, slightly racist landlord, to keep people comfortable.

    There could be special events, like a hunt that marches through, or a beer festival. Paid actors would be on hand to ensure the cheerful, fantasy vision of the eartly 20th century is maintained. Cricket and village fetes. A tombola. Uh… what other sterotypes do these people go for?

    There’s some good profit in it, and we could give it some tax breaks to encourage investment. Clarkson would love it.

33. Has anyone seen the hideous tourist trap that Clarkson has built?

    [Diddly Squat Farm Shop Experience | Cotswold April 2025](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJcZErQCC0Y)

    Not sure this guy really has the best interests of village people in mind.

34. The whole country is. We’re becoming an island of strangers. London isn’t England anymore and many other large cities will soon follow.

35. Our village has a pub, post office, school, dedicated police person, community hall and a very active parish council.

    Also, behind this are loads of people that dedicate time and effort to make things like cubs, scouts, fetes, provide facilities to the WI etc, to help build that sense of community.

    That pool of willing volunteers is getting smaller and if anything is going to ‘destroy’ the village it’s that. People won’t be there to rattle the cages to get potholes fixed, arrange school visits from the pcso, manage events that facilitate those community bonds. Stuff that without, makes the village a pushover for unwanted change.

36. nothing to do with rich cunts like him pricing any normal people out im sure

37. Is it because tax avoiding multimillionaires are moving into farming villages to make tv shows and open farm shops where they charge £9 for a pound of potatoes?

    Or is it because tax avoidance has pushed wealth inequality to the point where the only surviving businesses in villages are the post office, the betting shop and the offie?

38. Yep. Ruined by the car industry that he champions. Villages turned into commuter estates.

39. Maybe if rich townies didn’t move there and play at being farmers then the villages would prosper.

40. Argh grrr jezzer, it’s all those rich people moving in and taking over nice areas by either hoarding the nice properties to themselves or turning them out as air bnbs so the locals can’t get homes. Or out of touch celebs who’ve made their careers by saying dickheady things to dickheady audiences to get a reaction and have now decided to remarket themselves as a ‘friend’ to the local farmers while simultaneously supporting the parties that actually don’t give a shot about them and only want to protect their own lands while driving the value up so villagers can’t ever afford to live in their own home villages.

    Could be that jez you massive see you next Tuesday.

41. I think this will revert in the near future. Technology is going to create a seriously deflationary environment and the need for cities will disappear. House prices in cities will drop and rural prices will increase as people decide they would rather live somewhere idyllic and beautiful.

42. Well if him and his mates could stop buying all the houses and only visiting once a year, that’d maybe help.

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