It’s clear The Grand Tour’s Jeremy Clarkson isn’t the biggest fan of activist Greta Thunberg, however his co-host James May suggested Jez is ‘threatened’ by the teenager.
Oh, we cannot wait for Jeremy’s response to that one.
The Our Man In Japan presenter has hit back at his colleague afterJeremy claimed the 16-year-old environmental activist had ‘killed the car show’, while also calling her ‘mad and dangerous’ for her views.
In light of this, James has insisted his pal’s views are unfounded because their show is still going strong, while the pair’s former programme Top Gear is also still on – albeit with a different cast.
‘He’s feeling threatened or something. I don’t think Greta’s destroyed car programmes,’ James told Bang Showbiz.
‘We’re still making ours and as far as I saw the other day the BBC are still making theirs and there are still quite a few on the internet.’
Fair enough.
Jeremy also recently claimed that everyone he knows under 25 ‘isn’t the slightest bit interested in cars’, but James believes that is down to insurance being ‘horrifyingly’ expensive, and public transport being ‘pretty good’ in many major cities.
He added: ‘In London, Manchester and other big cities around Europe, cars are expensive.
‘They’re difficult to manage, it’s difficult to find somewhere to put them and the insurance is horrifying. At the moment we have Uber, and public transport is actually pretty good in places like London.
‘It’s not that young people aren’t interested in cars it’s just that they don’t need to be interested.
‘If you go out into the sticks where our cottage is you find young people do need to use cars because there isn’t an alternative.’
The 56-year-old presenter’s comments come after Jeremy, 59, hit out at Greta, and claimed school pupils are taught that vehicles are ‘evil’.
He recently said: ‘…Greta Thunberg has killed the car show. They’re taught at school, before they say “Mummy and Daddy”, that cars are evil, and it’s in their heads.’
The duo’s Grand Tour co-host Richard Hammond agreed, as he added: ‘I hate to say it, but I think Jeremy is right. Young people don’t care about cars.
‘How many kids now are growing up with posters of cars on their bedroom wall?’
Greta made news in 2018 when she inspired international youth climate strikes and later sailed across the Atlantic in a ‘zero carbon’ yacht to attend the UN climate action summit in August 2019.
Jeremy previously called Greta a ‘spoilt brat’ after he took umbrage at the activist’s efforts to get world leaders to tackle climate change. He then stepped up the offensive, telling Greta to ‘shut up’ and go back to school.
The former Top Gear host said: ‘She’s mad and she’s dangerous and she’s causing young children sleepless nights with her idiocy.
‘No, I think she needs to go back to school and shut up.’
James May: Our Man In Japan is available on Amazon Prime Video from Friday 3 January.
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