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Jeremy Clarkson’s quote on Nelson Mandela:

“I simply don't understand why the Nobel academy gave him a peace prize or why Charlie Dimmock and Alan Titchmarsh gave him a new garden. And I don't see why he should be given a statue in Trafalgar Square, either. If we're after someone who stands up for the oppressed, what about Jesus? I feel fairly sure he never blew up a train.”

Jeremy Clarkson’s quote on socialized medicine:

“Nothing can prepare you for the yawning chasm of time that passes in Canada before the healthcare system actually does any healthcare.”

Jeremy Clarkson’s quote on Peter Mandelson – Far left Labor Party politician and present Commissioner of the European Union for Trade issues:

“I think it’s a good idea to tie Peter Mandelson to a van. Such an act would be cruel and barbaric and inhuman. But it would at least cheer everyone up a bit.”

And here is what I could find of the “Flood That Released America’s Demons” piece when taken in its full context, while I as an American find a bit over the top and offensive and wrong on many points, it makes a bit more sense; and some of what Clarkson says here, I actually agree with.

In the last couple of weeks, everyone has been asking how on earth the greatest and most powerful nation on earth could be so crippled by a bit of wind and rain.

The rest of the world has natural disasters without the whole of society falling to pieces. So why is it different in America?

Well, if you stop and think about it, the answer is obvious. America may have given the world the space shuttle and, err, condensed milk, but behind the veneer of civilisation most Americans barely have the brains to walk on their back legs.

It’s scientifically accepted that the stupidest creature on God’s earth is a lobster because it only knows to eat when presented with food and lash out when threatened.

Remind you of anything?

Even the President manages to get completely lost in his own sentences. “I love to bring people to the Oval Office and say, ‘This is where I office.’” He once said. Proving that, in fact, we never mis-underestimated him at all. More recently, we got this little nugget. “Rarely is the question asked: ‘Is our children learning?’ ”

Well, since most of them can’t place their own country on a map, leave alone anyone else’s, the answer is: No, not really. A few days ago, I was told by a cheerily daft Florida policeman that you don’t need common sense when you got rules. And he absolutely could not see he’d got that completely the wrong way around.

Later on the same trip I was told on a plane in Dallas to uncross my legs for take-off. “It’s a federal requirement,” said the stewardess, who had plainly never thought what possible difference the position of a passenger’s legs could make if the jet crashed into something solid at 520mph.

Then there was the time when, in a Reno shopping mall, I was told to put my shoes back on. “It’s a state law,” said the guard.

I see, so someone raised this at a meeting. It was discussed. There was a vote. And now it’s on a stature book. That people must wear shoes while shopping in Nevada. Sounds a bit far-fetched to me. But then in New Mexico you can’t have a beer by a hotel swimming pool at three in the afternoon. There’s a state law about that too.

Mind you, for real insanity, try this for size. I was once given official permission to film in Wall Street. Only to find that none of the buildings could appear in the back of the shot – which is tricky when they’re all 5,000ft tall.

Equally mad was the security guard in Washington last year who said I could not hand a television camera to the cameraman inside that particular part of the terminal. Strangely, however, I was allowed to hand it to him after I’d moved 4ft away.

This is the problem. These people are told rules exist and they should not use common sense to question them.

So, when the rules and everything else were washed out of New Orleans, everyone went to the default setting of the terminally stupid: Violence.

I’m not talking about the armed gangs now. I’m talking about the authorities who, rather than try to feed the poor and needy, summoned the Marines and started acting like they were in a Hollywood film.

“They’ve got M16s which are locked and loaded,” said one official. And I bet she hadn’t the first idea what “locked and loaded” meant. She’d just heard Bruce Willis say it at some point and figured it sounded good.

Hollywood has taught America that the military can solve anything. It’s full of chisel-jawed heroes who never leave a man on the field and never fail to get the job done. So they’d have New Orleans sorted out in a jiffy.

Unfortunately, on the streets you’ve got some poor, starving soul helping themselves to a packet of food from a ruined, deserted supermarket. And as a result, finding themselves being blown to pieces by a helicopter gunship. With the none-too-bright soldiers urged on by their illiterate political masters, the poor and needy never stood a chance. It’s easier and much more fun to shoot someone than make a cup of tea.

Especially if they’re black. Aha. You thought I wouldn’t bring this up. Well, I’m sorry but I was once filming with a big crew at a major US landmark.

The guard said a cheery hello to all of us, except Adam, who was black. Adam got a scowl. And that was the nicest welcome on his whole three-week trip.

You think Americans could give a stuff about the people of New Orleans? Well, the white ones maybe.

Hurricane Katrina didn’t knock a few bricks from the fabric of a levee. More importantly, it knocked a few bricks also from the notion that America is a shining beacon of hope for a troubled world.

It isn’t. It’s a house of straw. With no education to glue the straw together. And guess where I shall be while you’re reading this?

Yup, I’ll be in America, probably in jail for having smoked while my legs were crossed. In a no-loading zone.

I think what Clarkson was perhaps trying to point out is that when people are taught to believe that arcane laws should never be questioned, when uneducated people think the government is going to be there to save them instead of using common sense to save themselves, what they will get is a militarized force more interested in shooting first and asking questions later. Of course what Clarkson fails to understand is that is what the military is trained to do, not dole out tea and sympathy and they were there to keep some semblance of law and order New Orleans. That being said, the government response was abysmal from the local all the way up to the state and federal. And there were those folks down there, who were not looting and doing nothing more than trying to secure and protect their own homes who had armed cops and military threatening to shoot them rather than protect them from the actual looters.