James Delingpole's Blog, page 24

If David Starkey is racist then so is everybody

Driving back from my holiday in Wales, yesterday, I realised what a lucky escape I'd had. As I exited the hills and finally got my mobile phone reception back, there was an old message from Friday inviting me to appear on that evening's Newsnight to talk about the riots. So it could have been me that fell into the BBC's "raaaacist" trap instead of poor old David Starkey.

And make no mistake it was a trap. Starkey's debating opponent was Owen Jones, the BBC's new pet angry young socialist whose default position is perpetual umbrage and righteous rage on behalf of the poor, working class, oppressed and – since Friday, apparently – black people. It's a cheap trick but one that goes down very well at the BBC, which is why they…

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What will happen to the convicted rioters

Read this and weep:

"Now, just what will these consequences be you may ask? Well, for those over eighteen whatever custodial sentences they do receive, if any, they will no doubt serve just a fraction of their sentences as is common for most criminals in the UK. However, in what will clearly be a perversion of justice, those rioters under eighteen will be treated as if they too are the victims of the very crimes they have commited, as this is the ethos at the heart of the youth justice system. I know this from having worked alongside and in the Youth Offending Service. Within a few weeks many of these rioters that you are now watching loot, burn and terrorise on a twenty four news channel will be on an Intensive Surveillance and Supervision Programme, where they will…"

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If the police aren't able to defend people and property, what exactly are they for?

In the Sunday Telegraph last weekend we learned that plans to improve London's systematically useless police force the Metropolitan Police by appointing US supercop Bill Bratton to take it over and revamp it had been blocked by a woman called Theresa May.

By spooky coincidence, a woman also called Theresa May hit the headlines again more recently when she refused to give permission for young, unarmed, outnumbered policemen struggling – and mostly failing – to contain some of the worst riots in British history to use water cannon.

Is this Theresa May person really Home Secretary of one of the world's leading economies? And if so, please can we have a new one, sharpish?

Sure, one can see why Theresa May was so keen to be seen ruling out the use of water cannon. Tripping around her pretty little head – as I'm sure it does in the pretty little heads of…

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Are lefties incredibly stupid or just plain evil?

You know me. Never one to give a blog post a provocative headline unless I absolutely have to. And here I am doing no more than faithfully report on an important debate currently raging between two of my favourite Fox news stalwarts Bill O'Reilly and Charles Krauthammer.

In the aftermath of the debt ceiling deal struck between congressional Republicans, congressional Democrats and the White House, concessions made by Democrats have caused some on the left to lash out at the Tea Party. But where is this show of anger — with epithets like "hostage takers," "terrorists" and "thugs" flying around — coming from?

On Tuesday's "The O'Reilly Factor," Bill O'Reilly suggested it was a concerted…

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Power and influence

Hold on to your seats, everyone, and grab yourselves a stiff drink. I've got a story gleaned from this week's Dispatches: How Murdoch Ran Britain (Channel 4, Monday) so shocking that it will completely change your views on government, the media, everything.

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Seven types of troll: a spotter's guide

As we all know just because you're away on holiday doesn't mean you have to stop thinking about the nasty things in life. That's why I'm dedicating this post to the menagerie – or, if you will, infestation – of trolls which lurk below this blog and who seem to have grown even more active in my absence.

There's an argument which goes that we bloggers need our pet trolls almost as much as they need us. I'm not sure I value them that highly myself but I do find them a fascinating case study. What intrigues me is their psychopathology. I mean, it takes a certain sort of mentality actively to seek out columnists with whom you disagree and lurk below their blog being spiteful and angry and disruptive….

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Polarbeargate?

This is too good a story not to repeat, not least for the headline it invites: (H/T Ed West; Julian Morris)

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A federal wildlife biologist whose observation in 2004 of presumably drowned polar bears in the Arctic helped to galvanize the global warming movement has been placed on administrative leave and is being investigated for scientific misconduct, possibly over the veracity of that article.

Charles Monnett, an Anchorage-based scientist with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, or BOEMRE, was told July 18 that he was being put on leave, pending results of an investigation into "integrity issues."

Something about this story is very odd. Surely, under the…

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How 'Right-wing' was Anders Breivik?

Apparently it was all the fault of Right-wing bloggers and Right-wingness generally. We know this because an important, symbolic, portentous cartoon by Martin Rowson tells us so in the Guardian. And so does the New York Times.

More broadly, the mass killings in Norway, with their echo of the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City by an antigovernment militant, have focused new attention around the world on the subculture of anti-Muslim bloggers and right-wing activists and renewed a debate over the focus of counterterrorism efforts.

Damn. What fools we were. There we were deluding ourselves after the USS Cole, and the Nairobi and Dar Es Salaam bombings, and the Madrid train bombings, and 7/7,…

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Are music festivals better with children?

'Dad, later, shall we go and see the Vaccines?' says Boy.

'Yeah, er, sure,' I say, trying not to sound as enthusiastic I feel. It's not the Vaccines I'm interested in; all their songs sound the same, a louder variant on the three chords which open Blondie's 'Denis' (Denee). Rather it's the joy of realising that, at 12, Boy is still young enough — just — not to feel totally embarrassed at being seen to enjoy rock music in the company of his lame old dad.

We've come to the Latitude Festival at Henham Park in Suffolk, me, the Fawn, Boy, Girl and a whole posse of friends, and it's a very exciting moment for all of us.

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'BBC's biased climate science reporting isn't biased enough' claims report

Before commenting on the BBC Trust's report into the BBC's science coverage, I thought I'd take the trouble of reading the actual document rather than the press previews. I'm very glad I waited because the finished product is an absolute corker. Let me take you through some of my favourite moments.

The report, as you may be aware, was written by my fellow Telegraph columnist Steve Jones. Besides being a fine and engaging writer, Dr Jones is a geneticist of distinction and I would certainly never dream of questioning his judgement in his fields of expertise (notably Drosophila and snails). Fortunately, as becomes quite clear reading the report, climate science isn't one of them.

Dr Jones sets out his ideological position fairly early on when he strives to bracket global warming…

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