Jeremy Clarkson wants to be UK Prime Minister?

Jeremy Clarkson, the gruff and opinionated presenter of Top Gear, a program about cars watched by 350 million people, is the subject of an online campaign being waged in the very heart of British government. A petition, posted on the official Web site of Prime Minister Gordon Brown (www.pm.gov.uk), calls for Brown to step down and make Clarkson, 47, prime minister instead.

As of Friday, 30,311 people had signed the petition, making it the sixth most popular posted on the site, which since November 2006 has allowed any citizen to make a proposal and try to garner popular support via online signatures.

The campaign for Clarkson, submitted by someone called Joseph Dark, now outranks arguably more pressing issues such as "Reduce the rate of fuel duty" and "Reverse the decision to cut vital UK contributions to Particle Physics and Astronomy," which have 11,700 and 10,050 signatures respectively.

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to make Jeremy Clarkson Prime Minister" reads Dark’s submission, which has nearly four months to run before it closes on April 17.