Clarkson is great - for my money just about the funniest writer writing today and worth the price of The Sunday Times on his own.
He is deliberately controversial often using laugh out loud comic hyperbole, metaphors and similies - that's what he does - and therefore anybody who gets upset by it is, frankly, a bit of an idiot.
The Speciale Needs and George Michael quotes in sp's link are excellent examples of Clarkson's style - and both, for my money, are extremely funny.
It seems to be fashionable to dislike Clarkson, which is fine - he isn't everybody's cup of tea - but what I don't understand is that the dislike is usually along the lines of "Clarkson is a C**t" or similar, and I find that a bit, well, odd.
I can't stand Toynbee, because I don't like her politics, but that doesn't make her a tw*t.