Fresh from a controversial exhortation to “execute strikers”, speak before you think TV motorhead Jeremy Clarkson has chosen to pontificate on the thorny issue of suicide – with predictably outrageous results.

The Sun columnist described people who throw themselves under trains as “selfish” in his latest musings for the tabloid, because such suicides caused “immense” disruption for commuters.
Mental health charities were quick to criticise the remarks however for “trivialising” the issue.

Paul Farmer, chief executive of Mind, said: “People will feel like he is trivialising the subject and dismissing people who have taken their own lives. I think it's extraordinarily tasteless. This is a man who really doesn't understand what he is talking about."

Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the mental health charity Sane, echoed: “People will feel like he is trivialising the subject and dismissing people who have taken their own lives. I think it's extraordinarily tasteless. This is a man who really doesn't understand what he is talking about."

Clarkson added that trains should be allowed to resume their journeys immediately after any suicide and body parts left for scavenging animals.