Jeremy Clarkson Weighs In On Recent Clarkson’s Farm Controversy: “Two Weirdos”
After last week’s controversy surrounding Kaleb Cooper and his antics at Clarkson’s Farm, lead presenter of the show Jeremy Clarkson has now weighed in on what happened between the farmer and a member of the public.
Cooper came under fire from social media after it was revealed that he’d threatened to shoot down someone’s drone who was flying the machine over Diddly Squat Farm. Grand Tour Nation reported on this and how our readers had supported Kaleb, and now Jeremy has added his opinion to the subject.
The Grand Tour presenter admitted that we “should be on Kaleb’s side, rather than supporting two weirdos who get their kicks by taking footage through the bedroom windows of other people’s houses”.
The drone flier, Andrew Dickinson, travelled to Diddly Squat Farm to take video footage of the land and everything on it. Jeremy saw the drone outside his bedroom and bathroom windows and was also alerted to its whereabouts by the farm’s security systems before Kaleb drove over to investigate.
Jeremy was worried that the drone pilot was “trying to get some footage of [his partner Lisa Hogan] in the shower”, or instead trying to “case the joint” for burglary.
He wrote the following in his column for the Sunday Times:
“As a general rule, the only reason an ordinary man might buy one is that he’s a pervert or a burglar.
“That’s why I was a bit concerned to discover the other day that a drone was buzzing around outside my house.”
Once Kaleb had found the culprit, he threatened to shoot down the gadget if it wasn’t landed straight away. But it turned out audio of the conversation was being recorded and was later misreported by the likes of tabloid outlets who put the blame on the farmer.
Dickinson, the man behind the drone, told Mail Online the following:
“We’re both fans of Clarkson’s Farm.
“I was flying a drone over the property when Kaleb Cooper drove up to me in a truck demanding that I land it immediately. I wasn’t parked on his land and was perfectly entitled to fly the drone.
“Kaleb threatened to shoot the drone down if I didn’t land it even after I explained the drone laws to him and was not breaking any laws that day flying over the farm.
“He was swearing at us, asking how we’d like it if he flew a drone over our house. He was quite aggressive, but there was no need for it.”
Like many of us, Jeremy described Kaleb’s argument as “quite reasonable”.
He continued:
“Seriously, it said that anyone could fly a drone over my farm, that the Herberts were just fans.”
He also fought against reports that Kaleb’s truck didn’t have a front number plate, arguing that “it was just muddy”.
He noted that some people were siding with the drone flier because of England’s need to side with an underdog:
“It’s a slightly weird national characteristic.”
A Clarkson’s Farm spokesperson also released the following statement:
“Having drones fly over private land can be very frustrating.
“In addition, Kaleb and other farmers know how much drones can scare cattle and these cattle were in calf.
“Kaleb’s comments reflect how seriously he takes his cattle’s welfare.”
