Rod Liddle is associate editor of The Spectator.
Imagine, for a moment, the following scenario. In 2017 Britain votes narrowly to remain within the European Union, despite the Prime Minister having achieved little in attempting to renegotiate the terms of our membership. The ‘out’ campaign — which after 2016 was no longer led by a marginal party, Ukip, but by the majority of
Tomorrow sees the start of the Special Olympic World Games in Los Angeles. I’m sure you’ll be watching with great interest. Just one question: what does the word ‘special’, as used by the event organisers, mean, exactly? Is it to alert us to the possibility that the athletes taking part are even better than those
I wonder who will win the battle for Tim Farron’s soul — the Guardianistas or God? This is assuming that God gives a monkey’s either way. I know that He is supposed to care very deeply about all of our souls, but this is the leader of the Liberal Democrats we’re talking about. ‘Eight seats?
I suppose I should cease carping. We got a Blue Labour budget (except for the ludicrous stuff on inheritance tax), and far better than anything we would have got under my party, Labour. And at least the Prime Minister is addressing the issue of Islamic ‘extremism’. Yes, I suppose, I would concur that taking away
Another conflict of interest and indeed of my mental state. I can think of no journalist I enjoy reading more than Jon Ronson. He is, I think, unequivocally brilliant and my only complaint is that I do not get to read him in the papers more often. His books are very good, too. But this
I should declare an interest – because I work for the Sun. But even so, I cannot quite see what the Royal family’s objections are. It does no harm to remind the nation that Edward VIII had a sort of juvenile admiration for Hitler and that the Windsors are, in general, to the right of
I am getting heartily sick of being subjected to low-level racist and Islamophobic abuse whenever I go out wearing my black Islamic State flag. It is a very beautiful flag, symbolic of freedom and love and bears the legend: ‘There is no God but Allah and Muhammed is His Messenger’, which I hand-painted in Arabic
I think it is time to put into effect my plan for the re-shaping of the European Union. A somewhat scaled-down European Union: Greece wouldn’t be in it, for a start. Nor Portugal or Spain or France or indeed Italy south of a line which I have just drawn on my Times Atlas of the
Here’s the headline from the Daily Mail: Family of 12 from Luton – including a baby and two grandparents who are suffering from diabetes and cancer – feared to have joined ISIS It undoubtedly says something about me that my first reaction upon reading the story was: yay – result! That’s saved us all quite
At last, British politicians have been galvanised into action by the appalling events last weekend in the Tunisian resort of Sousse, in which 38 people were murdered by an Islamist terrorist. Yes, yes, about time, you might be muttering to yourself — but credit where it’s due, please. They may be a little late to
I’ve just watched a rather good DVD. This happens so rarely that I thought I’d share the fact with you. It was a film called The Man Who Saved The World, by the Danish director Peter Anthony, premiered last year and has presumably gone straight to DVD. It tells the story of Stanislav Petrov, formerly
Just a thought – but might now be a good time to revisit our policy of using the Royal Navy to ferry large numbers of people from the North African coast to Europe? At what point do we start to take our own security seriously, rather than playing to the gallery with a pointless ‘humanitarian’
Tesco is in trouble for religious insensitivity. A store in east London had a special Ramadan promotion. Prominently positioned within its offers were Smokey Bacon Flavour Pringles © – and of course, hackles have consequently been raised. It matters not a jot that the re-constituted and hydrogenised potato snack contain no pork products whatsoever – the
There was a remarkable scene in one BBC Today programme morning meeting in about 1995, as all the producers gathered together to discuss what stories would be on the following day’s show. The big story was the European Union; the splits occasioned by the EU within the Tory party and the battle, on the part
Where would you rather live, Dewsbury or Bradford? I ask because it seems that there are probably some good property deals to be had in this particular corner of West Yorkshire right now, as a consequence of half the population decamping to Syria in order to blow themselves up. I mean, property was pretty cheap
I daresay some of you lot are amusing yourselves by joining the Labour Party for three quid so as to vote for Jeremy Corbyn in the forthcoming leadership election. Can’t say I blame you – it would be a hoot to watch. That being said, he is not the worst candidate on the list. At
If you ever doubted it was the case, here’s the final proof that in the UK, Health and Safety legislation trumps everything. Tamanna Begum, a Sunni Muslim nursery school ‘teacher’ in Essex, has just lost an employment appeal tribunal. She wanted to wear a full head to toe Darth Vader style jilbab to work. Her employer
I have spent the last few days posing with a tampon as part of an international campaign to demystify the important issue of menstruation. I do not usually menstruate myself, although out of a wish to show solidarity with those who do I set aside five or six days each month to behave in a
There is a genuine madness in our current operation to ferry as many asylum seekers as possible from North Africa to, eventually, the UK. As I mentioned at the time we dispatched the Royal Navy to the southern Med, we will only encourage more and more people to set sail in upturned bath-tubs and patched-up
My favourite moment in the crisis engulfing football’s governing body, Fifa, came with the intervention of a man called Manuel Nascimento Lopes. Manuel is the Fifa delegate from Guinea-Bissau, an African country which occupies 130th place in the Fifa world rankings but which, far more importantly in this context, punches well above its weight when
