James Delingpole's Blog, page 55
February 17, 2010
Why I'm cancelling my kids' subscription to The Beano
Earlier this week Bryony Gordon reported on how Dennis the Menace had been given a PC makeover.
But kids aren't stupid. They get it. Witness eight-year-old Jacob Rush, from Ipswich, who noticed that Dennis the Menace now looks more like that sweet little swimmer Tom Daley. He's slimmed down, his hair has softened, he's smiling. He doesn't bully Walter the Softy, who now has a girlfriend, as opposed to that pink poodle Foo Foo. Dennis no longer fires his catapult or his pea-shooter. Gnasher...
Broken Britain
I've got another brilliant idea for a TV series. It's called MPs Walled Up in Scorpion-Filled, Ebola-Ridden, Plague-Rat-Infested, Acid-Drenched, Radioactive Tower Block of Slow Hellish Screaming Death. All right, so the title does give away the premise, slightly, but I'd still watch it, wouldn't you? 24/7. Done right — with special feature-length episodes devoted to Ed Balls, Harriet Harman, and the Milibands — I reckon it would be more satisfying than Band of Brothers, The Sopranos, Das...
I hate weddings; funerals are almost invariably better in every way
If I'd written the film it would have been called Four Funerals and a Wedding, because personally I find funerals much more fun. Not all funerals, obviously. But the funeral of someone who's not a close relative and who's had a good innings can be a very splendid occasion — as I was reminded the other week when I went to Tisbury, Wiltshire, to bid farewell to my old friend John Clanwilliam.
John, you may remember, was the earl I killed last summer during a game of human Cluedo. At Christmas...
February 15, 2010
Husky Rescue, Massive, Midlake
Husky Rescue – Ship of Light (Catskills)
I loved their last album Ghost Is Not Real, too, but with their third and latest offering Helsinki's Husky Rescue have really plumbed the depths and reached the highest heights of exquisite bitter-sweet perfect misery pop. The secret lies in their ingenious combination of Finnish chilliness and melancholy (especially Reeta-Leena Korhola's frail, beautiful vocals, a curious mix of tenderness and icy...
Four Tet, Owl City, Hot Chip
And the spate of brilliant, must-buy CDs continues. Kieran (Four Tet) Hebden is a contrary so-and-so. His last proper album Everything Ecstatic was hateful and the only time I've seen him DJ, it felt like he was largely there to bring us down and make our ears bleed. His latest, though, marks a return the form we last properly heard on his 2003 Rounds album. What he specialises in mainly is cerebral, slightly chilly and remote electro boffinry in t...
Charlotte Gainsbourg, Firstaid, Tindersticks
Five stars: you'll perhaps be expecting fireworks but what you actually get is a sultry, understated, modest affair – sweetly folkie and Francoise Hardy in places, lightly industrial and post-rave in others – with a slightly messy, small-hours feel to it. That'll be the influence of Beck who produced and co-wrote the songs, based on fragmentary lyrics suggested by Gainsbourg. They've worked together brilliantly. I'm particularly smitten with...
February 13, 2010
Climategate: the official cover-up continues
If there's one thing that stinks even more than Climategate, it's the attempts we're seeing everywhere from the IPCC and Penn State University to the BBC to pretend that nothing seriously bad has happened, that "the science" is still "settled", and that it's perfectly OK for the authorities go on throwing loads more of our money at a problem that doesn't exist.
The latest example of this noisome phenomenon is Sir Muir Russell's official whitewash – sorry "independent inquiry" into the...
February 11, 2010
Great news: the people responsible for Amazongate, Glaciergate, and Africagate trousered £3 million of your tax money
Our old friend Jo Abbess BSc is back. And she's got some searching, pertinent questions which could put paid to my AGW-denying antics once and for all!
Dear James,
I am researching a short article on the possible relationships between financial investments and politics in the Media.
It occurs to me that not only do journalists follow the whims and wiles of their editors, who follow the foibles and fetishes of those who own their media vehicle, and those who advertise in their media; but that...
IPCC Fourth Assessment Report is rubbish – says yet another expert
Bishop Hill has unearthed a jaw-dropping critique of the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report. His post's so delightful there's no need for embellishment. Here it is in full: (Hat tip: R. Campbell/P.Keane)
While perusing some of the review comments to the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report, I came across the contributions of Andrew Lacis, a colleague of James Hansen's at GISS. Lacis's is not a name I've come across before but some of what he has to say about Chapter 9 of the IPCC's report is simply...
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