James Delingpole's Blog, page 25

The Murdochalypse: bread and circuses

Look, I'm enjoying the Murdochalypse (TM T Young Enterprises) as much as the next jaded sadist with a chip on his shoulder and a pathological jealousy of anyone richer and more successful than himself. But for once, I find myself in full agreement with David Cameron, who said yesterday: "I think it is important for the British Prime Minister to get on with those things that really matter for Britain."

Of course there are some of us – most of us, in this parish, I suspect – who would very much prefer it if the Prime Minister in question wasn't called David Cameron. But do any of us, even his worst enemies, really believe this is the right moment for his defenestration? Surely if David Cameron is to go, it should be…

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Christine Rice: your new favourite mezzo soprano

This column isn't just for the nasty things in life. That's why, this morning, while we're still a bit monged from Latitude and constructing our next proper blog post, we should like to pay tribute to the wondrous, divine, gorgeous and clearly enormously perceptive and bright mezzo soprano Christine Rice. Why? Because of what she said the other day on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour in an interview with Jenni Murray. (H/T Fay Kelly-Tuncay; Biased BBC)

Murray asked Rice about her early career as a scientist researching "global warming." Rice replied:

I was amazed really by the inadequacy of what we had, because we're talking about climate change which is over tens of thousands of years as opposed to the twenty years of data that we had. So in a way we were putting out a lot of ideas and…

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Who would spend so much on a loaf? The NHS, of course.

HAVE you heard about the amazing bread the NHS hands out on prescription to gluten allergy sufferers in Wales?

It's made of fairy-dust-sprinkled hypoallergenic wheat harvested by pixies at dawn, hand-ground by hedge-fund managers and then baked to perfection by Parisian masterchefs in ovens made of pure gold!

Well that's one explanation for the £984,185 the NHS in Wales (where prescriptions are free) blew last year buying 47,684 gluten-free loaves at £20.64 a pop when, in a supermarket, you can get them for a 10th of the price. The other is more prosaic…

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Australia counts the cost of environmental lunacy – and plots its sweet revenge

Gosh I'm looking forward to visiting Australia later this year. And the reason I'm so excited – apart from the fact that I've never been before to the Land of the Taipan, the Sydney Funnel Web, the Box Jellyfish, the Saltwater Crocodile, and the Great White Shark – is that I know I'm going to be given a hero's welcome.

After all, by the time I arrive in Oz sometime in November to promote the Aussie edition of Watermelons (Connor Court), the Australians will have had a good three months to reflect on the disasters which have been inflicted on their economy in the name of "combating climate change." They'll have noticed the $25 billion shaved off the share markets in a spectacular…

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David Cameron's worst nightmare

Today David Cameron finds himself in the "awkward" position of having to back a Labour motion calling for Murdoch's News Corporation to drop its bid for BSKyB. Of course in the current climate of almost Death-of-Diana outrage (so brilliantly orchestrated by the BBC and the Guardian), there is probably not much wriggle room for doing otherwise. But in fact it all suits him very nicely for the very last thing our pathologically Heathite prime minister really wants is for the BSkyB to go through.

Why? Because the purpose of Murdoch's BSkyB bid is essentially so that he can set up a UK version of America's most popular news channel Fox News. Fox News acts as the conscience of the right in the US: it's one of the things which made the Tea Party possible. A British version would achieve the same over…

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The BBC is at least a thousand times more evil and dangerous than Rupert Murdoch

Britain has gone completely mad over the Rupert Murdoch/News of the World hacking affair and the contagion is spreading to America fast.

I knew things were bad when I spoke yesterday to a normally reliably conservative US talk radio show. "But they say they may even have hacked into the phones of 9/11 victims," said the appalled female co-host, as if this were the ne plus ultra of round, unvarnished evil.

Some perspective, please. I too respect and am moved by the plight of the 9/11 dead and their families. And of the murdered English schoolgirl Milly Dowler and of the servicemen who died in the Iraq war. (They too, apparently, may – and let's stress that word "may" – have been targets of phone hacking by the now-disbanded Murdoch-owned tabloid newspaper the News of the World).

But then, so do you. So does everybody. No one in the world right now is sitting there rubbing his or her hands in glee and going: "Heh heh. 9/11 victims. Murdered schoolgirls. Dead Iraq servicemen. I'm so glad their mobile phones were hacked into by the News of the World."

Yet you'd never guess this from…

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There are few things quite so emetic as the liberal-left on its high horse

Perhaps the least edifying aspect of the News of the World saga has been the sanctimonious fervour of the liberal-left wallowing in a stew of its own self-righteousness. We've had more than a whiff of this putrescent cant here at Telegraph blogs.

Two days ago my colleague David Hughes made the perfectly unexceptionable – and indeed true – point that the media campaign had been orchestrated to a frenzied pitch by the BBC and the Guardian, partly to have a go at David Cameron, partly to have a dig at their Murdoch nemesis. To read some of the comments below you'd think he'd called for the beatification of Uday Hussain.

It was the same yesterday when Toby Young wrote a thoughtful piece in defence of tabloid journalism. Having acknowledged…

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A speech, a radio interview, and the strongest cannabis I've had for 15 years

'Would you like a smoke?' says the dude with the ponytail.

'Well, um, no, um, maybe,' I say, checking the time.

11 a.m. Six hours to go before the speech. Five-and-a-half if you count the radio interview with the ex-mayor of San Diego, which I suppose I could cancel if things get messy.

'How strong is it?'

'Oh, it's fine.'

Yeah, yeah, I've heard that one before. On the other hand, this is California. Where the weed is now near as damn it legal, so long as it's for 'medicinal' purposes. And this scenario does kind of qualify me, I think: stress due to excess travel; pre-speech nerves. Plus, of course, as a journalist I consider it a sacred duty to immerse myself wherever possible in the local customs.

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UN reveals its master plan for destruction of global economy

Former US secretary to the United Nations John Bolton once famously said: "The [UN] Secretariat building in New York has 38 stories. If it lost ten stories it wouldn't make a bit of difference." (H/T Milo)

But I'd say Bolton was being too modest in his aspirations. Far too modest. I'd suggest that if we lost all 38 stories the benefits to mankind would be almost incalculable. Right now, indeed, it's likely that the United Nations poses a far greater threat to Western Civilisation and the world's economic future than Al Qaeda does. Have a glance at its latest report World Economic And Social Survey 2011 – and you'll see what I mean.

The report argues that over the next 40 years our governments must spend an annual minimum of $1.9 trillion…

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Sorry, but wind farms are useless even against vampires

"Flyers! The wind turbines have broken down. Again!" said Caleb.

Alicia tested the blade on her throwing knife, which she could throw faster and more accurately than any man on the Watch, because that was the kind of woman she was. A strong woman. A fearless woman. Honed and lithe and taut and brilliant at rescuing you from the vampire-infested Mall on horseback with her special riding skills when all seemed lost though God knows what they were doing going into that Mall in the first place – something to do with a room full of dead children which some other character in the book had been perversely attracted to, what kind of weird reason was that? The kind of strong female character, in fact, who's absolutely de rigueur for you to create if you're an English professor at Rice University in Texa…

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