Springwatch presenter wants Jeremy Clarkson jailed for Meghan Markle rant

Springwatch presenter Chris Packham wants ex-Top Gear hostJeremy Clarkson to be put in jail for his column in which he said he "hated" Meghan Markle.

In his since-deleted column for The Sun, Clarkson said he hated the Duchess of Sussex "on a cellular level."

"At night, I'm unable to sleep as I lie there, grinding my teeth and dreaming of the day when she is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant, 'Shame!' and throw lumps of excrement at her," he wrote.

The Independent Press News Standards Organisation (Ipso) received around 17,500 complaints about Clarkson's column.

People on the internet slammed Clarkson for his sentiments. So, he took to Twitter to apologise for causing "so much hurt."

He explained that he shared a "clumsy reference" to a Game of Thrones scene, but it didn't resonate with many people.

"I'm horrified to have caused so much hurt, and I shall be more careful in future," he tweeted, in part.

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In response to Clarkson's post, Peckham said the column was a "hate crime."

"If there were any sort of justice, there would be laws that would jail him. And shut down the publisher," he wrote.

Although people agreed with Peckham that the column was in poor taste, they thought the jail bit was going a bit too far.

"Jail him and shut down the publisher?! I think you need to take a deep breath.

"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." – George Orwell," one person wrote.

Another person brought up the issue of getting rid of free speech.

"Not really offering a defence of the column, but 'throw the author in jail' is an extremely authoritarian response with terrible implications for the country, when you think about the extent of the powers such a law would give the government," they wrote.

A thief wrote: "What do you think the prison system would be like if anyone who said something nasty was jailed, Chris?"

Clarkson's column was criticised by many people, including his own daughter, Emily.

"I want to make it very clear that I stand against everything that my dad wrote about Meghan Markle and I remain standing in support of those targeted with online hatred," she wrote in her Instagram Stories.

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