Jeremy Clarkson vs. The European UnionS

Our jet-setting guest physicist travels to Brussels and returns with photographic evidence that somewhere in the bowels of the EU, bureaucrats are obsessed with a certain libertarian TV host. —Ed. note

I have no doubt that the single most powerful entity in the world is Jeremy Clarkson. And this has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he drives the worlds most noteworthy cars every week, nor that he forces celebrities to sit in a reasonably priced car and race against the clock (and each other) on the test track and finally fries anybody who misses a turn or has an abysmal lap time. This is definitely cool but still is not a sign of immense power.

The real catharsis comes when you go to Brussels, the de facto capital of the European Union and the continent, and you realize that the whole thing is concocted with the sole purpose of proving Jeremy Clarkson wrong and thus defeating him. Obvious, this would be their best interest, Clarkson being one of the most pronounced critics of big government, nanny state and their projects. Thus, most probably all members of the European Parliament and all the bureaucrats have this not-so-widely-communicated item at the top of their agenda.

The evidence for this is in plain sight at Brussels Airport. In the Intra-European transit area, at Pier A (which has a cross-section similar to that of a wing, given by a Joukowski-transform) you will see a giant poster over a gate, advertising a community-funded research project in the field of car electronics, a topic closely related to the core competence of Clarkson, challenging explicitly him:

Jeremy Clarkson vs. The European UnionS

Jeremy Clarkson vs. The European Union


Photo Credit: Hannah Johnston/Getty Images and Miklós Tallián. Photo of the author by Dr. Sándor Fehér.