Prince William at the controls of an RAF Sea King. Photo: Flight Sergeant Andy Carnall/MoD

Prince William at the controls of an RAF Sea King. Photo: Flight Sergeant Andy Carnall/MoD

Mister Popularity Jeremy Clarkson, already distinctly unwelcome in the homes of public-sector workers, may have lost any fans had among the hillwalking community.

After upsetting the families of suicide victims, calling people who kill themselves on railway lines Johnny Suicide, and saying striking nurses, teachers and ambulance staff should be shot in front of their families, the Top Gear presenter turned his attention to mountain rescue.

As journalist Ed Douglas reports, the man credited with making denim jeans unfashionable has had a pop at the Duke of Cambridge and the injured walkers he helps pluck from mountainsides in his RAF Sea King.

Responding to the news that the coalition Government was planning to privatise the UK’s search and rescue helicopters and end the role of the Royal Navy and RAF in the operation, the Yorkshire-born broadcaster said: “’I'm not really surprised to hear that the navy and RAF’s rescue services will soon come to an end.

“Politicians say we can’t afford them. Military bigwigs say neither service was set up to rescue Janet Street-Porter if she trips us and gets a hurty ankle.

“I’m afraid I have an objection, too. I don’t mind paying for schools and hospitals because a civilised country must help those who cannot afford to help themselves.

“But why should I fund the rescue of a rambler?

“He or she chose to go out there in the mountains. He or she knew the risks. And I’m sorry but if they fall over and get gangrene, they can’t furtle around in my wallet for assistance.”

As Douglas points out, as a near-neighbour and friend of Prime Minister David Cameron, Clarkson, who took part in a National Union of Journalists strike when he was a journalist on the Rotherham Advertiser, should know that mountain rescue is a fine example of what Mr Cameron coined The Big Society.

Thousands of volunteers turn out hundreds of times each year in all weathers to help lost, injured and cragfast walkers and climbers, and call upon the military and Coastguard helicopters to help them if they consider it necessary.

Hillwalkers can now join a large band of offended groups who have been the targets of Clarkson’s sharp tongue including caravanners, the residents of Norfolk, Rover car owners, the Welsh, gay people and Gordon Brown, though his recent comments on railway suicides probably trumps most of them.

Describing victims as selfish, he wrote in The Sun: “The train cannot be removed nor the line reopened until all of the victim’s body has been recovered.

“And sometimes the head can be half a mile away from the feet.

“Change the driver, pick up the big bits of what’s left of the victim, get the train moving as quickly as possible and let foxy woxy and the birds nibble away at the smaller, gooey parts that are far away or hard to find.”

The presenter and journalist has a new DVD in the shops.

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