What Jeremy Clarkson said was what any one of you would have said in the same situation. That is as a passenger who has little or no knowledge of what goes on at the sharp end (and why should you?) and having been kept waiting with no explanation in a foreign airport with little to do.
When the (tactless) explanation is given as the pilot being late due to the M11 how else would an ordinary passenger react? The subsequent lack of communication from the flight deck would only reinforce that opinion.