James Delingpole's Blog, page 51

Official: Icelandic volcano with unpronounceable name was caused by Man Made Global Warming

You were getting worried weren't you? 100,000 British tourists unable to get home from their Easter hols in the Med – possibly stuck there for as long as 10 days. The longest no-fly-zone over British skies since the days of Alcock and Brown. A terrifying plume of volcanic dust which swats aeroplanes from the sky like some cashmere-sweater-owner having a go at clothes moths. But still no sign of anyone prepared to tell us what we were all yearning to hear: that it's all the fault of yummy...

'Climategate scientists should be immediately beatified in preparation for full sainthood by 2011′ says latest official enquiry

Go on then. Have a guess what the latest official Climategate enquiry – headed by the rigorous, utterly unbiased, totally impartial, and fanatically unpartisan Lord Oxburgh – has decided.

Yes, that's right. They're all totally innocent!

"We found a small group of dedicated if slightly disorganised researchers who were ill-prepared for being the focus of public attention," concludes the report, confirming what many of us have long suspected: if only Professor St Phil Jones had had proper media t...

My excitement over the Conservatives' manifesto…

… is no doubt as great as yours. I can imagine that few of you will be able to sleep a wink tonight as you excitedly contemplate Dave Cameron's commitment to reducing carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 and his promise that Britain will NEVER enter the euro.

Here are a few more proposals in a similar vein from the 28,000 word manifesto which really caught my eye and made me want to send out excitable Louise-Bagshawe-type Tweets enthusing about the bright new future Britain will soon be...

Trouble Upriver

Three reasons why I hardly ever review TV drama: 1) the length, 2) the politics, 3) sheer bloody laziness. I suppose the last one is the main reason but the others aren't just excuses. It really is too depressing when, three hours into one of those Sunday and Monday two-part dramas, you suddenly realise that you've already wasted one evening and you're about to waste another, but that you can't bail out now because you're in too deep — and what if something good and exciting suddenly...

If I could go back in time to my Oxford days, I'd warn myself against idolising Cameron

How odd to think that there was a time when I looked up to David Cameron. From the moment we were introduced at the beginning of my second year at Oxford, I remember being mesmerised by his confidence, his charisma, his looks, that amused plummy accent and — yes — perhaps, also, that slight vibe so many Etonians projected in those days that if you hadn't been to 'School' you really weren't quite the thing. It all made you want to get to know him better. Which I did. And I very much liked...

General Election 2010: My mate Dave…

Dave and his wife Sam meet supporters in London today (Photo: Reuters)

"Every time a friend succeeds I die a little," said Gore Vidal.

Not a problem I'm going to be having any time soon with my old Oxford chum David Cameron, as you'll see from my You Know It Makes Sense column in this week's Spectator.

Here is a guy who had the chance of a lifetime: he could have gone down in history as the man who saved Britain from its greatest crisis since the second world war. He could have rescued our...

Greenpeace goes postal

Greenpeace has just landed itself in hot water, courtesy of this spectacularly misjudged outburst on its Climate Rescue weblog by one "Gene from Greenpeace, India". (Hat tip: Nick Mabbs, et al)

The proper channels have failed. It's time for mass civil disobedience to cut off the financial oxygen from denial and skepticism.

If you're one of those who believe that this is not just necessary but also possible, speak to us. Let's talk about what that mass civil disobedience is going to look like.

If...

When the Germans give up on AGW you really do know it's all over…

No people on earth are more righteously Green than the Germans. They built the foundations and set the tone of the modern Green movement in, ahem, the 1930s. They invented the phrase Atomkraft Nein Danke. They were the first country to allow nasty, dangerous Sixties eco-radicals to reinvent themselves as respectable politicians. They were the first place to buy, wholesale, into the solar power con, which is why so many of their rooves – especially on churches – shimmer and glow like...

'Only global fascist tyranny can save us now' says nice old man

The kindly, distinguished inventor of the Gaia hypothesis (Photo: Getty)

Is anyone else as baffled as I am by the crazy, crazy world of James Lovelock? (Hat tip: Ed West)

Here is the kindly, distinguished inventor of the Gaia hypothesis interviewed in the Guardian, when asked how humans will ever manage to tackle 'climate change'.

We need a more authoritative world. We've become a sort of cheeky, egalitarian world where everyone can have their say. It's all very well, but there are certain...

Making a difference

Many years ago, when I decided to 'become' a novelist, I shipped myself off to a village in south-west France called St Jean de Fos for three months, banned myself from reading any novels in English (lest they corrupt my style) and became an obsessive maker of French dishes like cassoulet because my first book was about a restaurant critic and I wanted to make it perfectly authentic.

Now that I am older and wiser, I look back on that era and think, 'Poor naive young fool.' I honestly doubt...