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Status Anxiety

Toby Young

Wednesday, 4th June 2008

Clarkson and Monbiot are the same: they are just being true to themselves

My opening gambit to Clarkson was to ask him which of the cars in the driveway was his. ‘The grey Volvo,’ he said — and then proceeded to tell me how much pleasure he gets from relaying this crushing disappointment to his legion of fans.

‘Quite often I’ll be standing in a pub car park and someone will come up and say, “So which one of these beasts is yours?” You should see the look on their faces when I say, “The grey Volvo”.’

In truth, no fan of Clarkson’s would be disappointed to meet him. There is simply no distinction between the public and the private man: he is exactly like he is on the telly. He kept up a constant stream of anecdotes, not varying his pitch or delivery whether he was addressing one person or the whole room. In terms of sheer force of personality, the volume was constantly cranked up to 11.

Meeting Clarkson confirmed my view that the most successful celebrities have not re-invented themselves to satisfy some imagined public demand, but are simply being true to themselves. What distinguishes them from ordinary people is that they are more fully realised; they have buffed and polished their personalities until they sparkle in almost any situation. They have become famous almost by default because they embody traits that huge numbers of people possess in a much milder form. Clarkson reminded me of Walter Bagehot’s definition of what a good MP should be: an ordinary man of extraordinary abilities. I suspect the same is true of Monbiot, who, while not quite a national figure, is regarded as a folk hero by the sort of people who attend Hay. In fairness to him, I don’t think his attempt to arrest John Bolton was a cynical device to attract attention. On the contrary, he believes so passionately in the anti-war cause that he felt he could not act otherwise. Like Clarkson, Monbiot possesses an array of widely held characteristics, but these characteristics are more fully expressed in him than in most people.

He is not merely a hair-shirt environmentalist, he is the most puritanical leftie you are ever likely to meet. How marvellous it would be if these two political antagonists locked horns in a public debate. If the producer of Question Time is reading this, it is time to get your skates on.