James Delingpole's Blog, page 76

Tony Benn: kindly, old, contemptible.

Normally I'm against capital punishment. But I do sometimes wonder whether we should make an exception for MPs. Especially when I'm reading interviews with Tony Benn.

There was yet another one with the tiresome class traitor this weekend by the excellent Nigel Farndale. In it, Benn declared: "I am kindly and old. But I am not harmless." Quite. This apparently amiable, charming, and well-preserved pipe smoker has been a menace to society for well over half a century. So why do so many fruitcakes g

Sixto Rodriguez: the rock'n'roll Lord Lucan

The 'rags to rags' story of Sixto Rodriguez, the 'Latin Bob Dylan' who is back in the spotlight after 40 years in the wilderness

 

No one in the half-empty bar of the London business hotel gives a second glance to the man with the long black hair, heavy Roy Orbison shades and leathery orange features like an Apache Indian. But in the parallel universe I can so easily imagine, things look very different indeed.

Instead of the sweet looking girl – his daughter Regan – to mind him, this man is surroun

When are we going to stop blaming private schools, universities and 'elitism' for the failures of state education?

"State school pupils put off applying for Oxford and Cambridge because their teachers are reluctant to promote elitism," claims the latest report from the achingly worthy Sutton Trust.

Hmm, yes. I'm sure there's the odd case where this is quite possibly true. And I expect if you went looking hard enough among Britain's veritable cornucopia of sink comprehensives, you might also manage to trawl up all sorts of other similarly compelling excuses as to why so relatively-few State-educated kids are g

Wind Farms: Will Paxo ride to his brother's rescue?

On telly Jeremy Paxman is a terrifying figure: combative, irascible, impatient, contemptuous and ungenerous. (For an example of the latter, do check out how he begins his interview with right wing US commentator Ann Coulter - who promptly wipes the floor with him). But in real life he is an absolutely sweetheart. On several occasions I've watched him compere charity quizzes and prove himself to be such a cuddly, good-natured, double-cheek-kissing, borderline luvvie I wondered whether perhaps he

Headfirst, sometimes sideways, I was swept down a treacherous, rain-swollen river

'Father of three drowns in Welsh holiday tragedy'. This was the news-in-brief headline you nearly read last week. The father in question would have been me. Like all such incidents it came completely out of the blue. This is a thing I've noticed: you never wake up that morning with a spooky feeling of impending doom. One minute you're carrying on as most of us do: as if we're immortal or, at the very least, guaranteed to live to a very ripe old age. And the next: 'Whooah! If it isn't the Grim Re

Get a grip

Being a right-wing columnist under New Labour's liberal fascist tyranny is a bit like being a South Wales Borderer at Rorke's Drift: so many targets, so little time. And just when you think you've got 'em all covered — Harriet Harman, 'Dame' 'Suzi' 'Leather', windfarms, George Monbiot, dumbing down, Mary Seacole studies — another one pops up unbidden from the veldt to torment you with his bloody assegai.

Take this new Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) epidemic. Did you know there was an epide

Build Wind Farms in National Parks? Now we've REALLY lost the plot

Did you ever read a madder headline in your life?

Sure, Natural England isn't nearly as nature-loving as it sounds. It's just another of those pointless Quangos which David Cameron may yet attempt to justify his existence by banning. Even so,  building 300 foot high turbines in what's left of Britain's unspoilt landscape  does rather go against Natural England's supposed mission objective, viz (or so it says on its website):

<><>"Natural England is here to conserve and enhance the natural environment,</></>

Is George 'Jello' Monbiot too chicken to debate 'Global Warming' with an expert?

A couple of weeks ago, you may have seen, I wrote a piece in the Spectator which drove the  global warming alarmists almost insane with frothing indignation. It was an interview with the Aussie geology professor Ian Plimer whose bestselling book - Heaven And Earth - is being hailed as the great turning point in the debate on anthropogenic global warming.

<>Methodically, rigorously and above all scientifically, it carefully demonstrates to the lay reader truths that to large swathes of the scientifi</>

Since when was racist bullying the only 'wrong' form of bullying?

Which is worse: bullying a child because they're a) black, b) pretty, c) clever or d) they have big blubbery lips?

Before you answer, have a look at Bullyonline - a web site devoted to the dozens of children who have died, or nearly died, as a result of bullying by their peers. Here is 13-year old Salvation Army girl Kelly Yeomans, who took a fatal overdose. There is Alistair Hunter, 12, who hanged himself after being spat on by bullies who used to urinate in his sports bag.

<>Perhaps some of the ch</>

The officers who played fireball hockey with me have been scandalously betrayed

<>Have you ever played fireball hockey? God, what a fantastic game! You wrap a bog roll in chicken wire, douse it in paraffin, set fire to it and then play hockey with it — preferably while drunk and wearing black tie, as I was lucky enough to do myself three years ago in front of the officers' mess at the Norfolk HQ of the Light Dragoons. I'd been invited by their then CO, Lt Col Robin Matthews, who'd liked my book How To Be Right and wanted me to give his officers a pep talk. He explained: 'A lo</>