James Delingpole's Blog, page 44

Big, hot, shiny orb in sky caused by 'climate change' says UK Met Office

Is "climate change" to blame for the smog in Moscow and the peat fires which have swept across Russia and devastated 30 per cent of its wheat harvest?

But of course, says a man from the Met Office, as reported in a BBC bulletin so predictably skewed towards AGW alarmism it might just as well have been taken from a press release by the World Worldlife Fund.

(to read more, click here)

Anyone up for a spot of red kite shooting?

Though I'm aware that taking pot shots at birds of prey is generally considered unsporting, there are so many in the part of mid-Wales I'm staying right now that I think they almost qualify as a pest. Plus, of course, it would really, really, REALLY annoy the RSPB. And annoying the RSPB, to my mind, is such a noble and worthwhile task it's kind of the modern equivalent of being a medieval peasant and doing the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella or dying of dysentry on the Crusades: it...

So I was right about the BP oil spill…

"There's nothing the greens like more than a nice, juicy oil spill disaster", I wrote seven weeks ago, in a blog arguing that the environmental damage caused by the Deepwater Horizon disaster was being talked up by green activists like Barack Obama in order to advance an eco-fascist agenda and that really, in the great scheme of things, this spill was as nothing compared to, say, the quantities of oil pumped into the oceans during World War II every time an oil tanker was torpedoed.

(to read m...

I'm learning to fight my demons: One man's struggle with depression

Some years ago, I went to see an acupuncturist. I told him my woes, of which, as usual, there were many, and he was quite aghast at what he heard.

'It's not acupuncture you need,' he said with impressive honesty. 'It's therapy. You strike me as someone who has everything going for him. You have a nice home, a happy marriage, you love your children, you enjoy your work, yet all you seem to want to do is wallow in a swamp of misery and imagine you're a failure.'

'OK, I'll try therapy,' I said...

Religious conversion

The other week Simon Hoggart had a go at Rev — the new comedy about an inner city vicar played by Tom Hollander (BBC2, Monday) — and I don't blame him. We had a similar reaction in our household when we watched about ten minutes of the first episode before deciding it wasn't for us and switching off.

(to read more, click here)

Is Prince Charles ill-advised, or merely idiotic?

I do wish the Prince of Wales weren't such a terrible prat because then I wouldn't have to say it in print and quite ruin my chances of a knighthood. But he is a prat. A dangerous prat at that — as he reminded us yet again just the other day in a speech he gave to 'business leaders' at St James's Palace about what he thinks is happening with 'climate change'.

(to read more, click here)

We need to talk about wind farms…

"Energy prices may rise by a third," says our disastrous secretary of state of energy and climate change Chris Huhne. Rubbish. They're going to rise by a hell of a lot more than that before he is finished. Alternative energy, let us never forget, is just that: an alternative to energy. Wind power and solar power are so risibly inefficient that the only way they can ever be economically viable is with lashings and lashings of taxpayer subsidy. Nuclear power would be much more effective but...

Lefties have got away with feeling superior for too long — let the fightback begin

I was at a debate at the Institute of Economic Affairs last week when the speaker next to me — a preening, prickly chap with a moustache and hugely self-important manner — took it upon himself to apprise the assembled throng of the most extraordinary fact: apparently, James Delingpole is nowhere near as good at delivering Ronald Reagan quotes as Ronald Reagan was.

'As I can testify from experience,' he added, impressively, 'having heard Reagan speak on several occasions.'

'Gosh!' I thought to m...

Cameron's dream comes true: Prince of Darkness officially anoints him 'Heir to Blair'

Just picture the scene at 10 Downing Street this morning. Rivulets of proud tears dripping off the breakfast table; Sam Cam giving Dave a great big congratulatory hug and "You've DONE it, honeybun. You've finally done it!"; calls flooding in from Ken Clarke and Steve Hilton and Nick Boles…

And all because of a couple of paragraphs buried in today's brilliant Telegraph interview with Lord Mandelson by Matthew Norman.

(to read more, click here)

North reports the Press Complaints Commission to the Press Complaints Commission

Is this a first? Blogger extraordinaire Dr Richard North has made a detailed complaint to the Press Complaints Commission, lambasting it for acting in breach of Section 1 of its Editors Code of Practice.

(to read more, click here)