Rod Liddle is associate editor of The Spectator.
An interesting case, the issue of Midsomer Murders and the producer (and creator) of the show, Brian True-May, who has been suspended for saying he deliberately kept ethnic minorities out of it to preserve its sense of “Englishness”. I wonder if the real reason he kept them out is that the point of the programme
Any suggestions as to what I can do about my mother-in-law? She’s an “End-Time” Christian and with the advent of 24 hour news and social networking sites telling us stuff we would never have heard about before or not got too worked up about – shoals of dead fish in Alabama, frogs raining from the
I hope the Japanese authorities are telling the truth about the nuclear reactor building which exploded as a consequence of the earthquake. We are told that while the outer shell at the Fukushima plant did indeed explode (as seen on YouTube), the inner core, within its steel cradle, remained apparently unimpaired. In which case, why
What a pleasure to welcome back into our newspapers that grasping porcine ginger trollop, Sarah Ferguson. It is money, of course, which has seen her return to media prominence; perpetually skint as a consequence of her fabulously extravagant lifestyle and sense of entitlement, she allowed her incalculably thick ex-husband, Prince Andrew, to fix up a
The various revolutions popping up, like boils, in the Middle East (or “North Africa”, as the BBC likes to call it) seem to be going much the way this magazine predicted a bunch of weeks ago. The liberal, freedom-lovin’ ordinary people of Egypt, for example, have now begun their persecution of the Christian minority, setting
Ah, what it is to have the gift of self-awareness, and how we pity those without it. Tony Blair got off the phone to his friend Muammar Gaddafi and reported that the Libyan leader was delusional and could not face reality. He did not understand that the people had put up with him for long
Some interesting statistics buried away in the excellent Populus survey carried out for the Searchlight Educational Trust (and which received a lot of press attention last week). The headline figure was that 60 per cent of British people (including first, second and third generation immigrants) think that immigration has been a “bad thing” for the
How should we deal with the new leaders of the Middle East, when eventually they emerge into the light? When the Tweets have changed from injunctions to rise up and establish democracy to something more along the lines of “Lock up the women shoot the poofs bomb the Jews lol”. Whatever we do will be
I was up in your neck of the woods last week – frankly, I expected you to put a bit of a spread on, but there we are. This was a brief break designed to convince the missus that we should move to Northumberland and that, contrary to what she believes, you really can buy
I hate to sound mean-spirited, but does anyone else feel as bereft of sympathy for the British ex pats whining about how ghastly it was in Libya and how useless was our government in getting them out of the place? One hugely annoying woman, a teacher, explained to the news crews how she had suddenly
I wonder what happened to Edward Nkoloso? And, for that matter, the pouting, pneumatic Ms Matha Mwamba? They were last heard of in the early winter of 1964, when reporters descended upon a disused farmhouse on the outskirts of Lusaka to watch the intensive preparations for the exciting Zambian space programme. Edward was the boss
Good stuff from Ross Clark in last week’s magazine about the extraordinary amounts of money wasted by our local councils, largely – as every newspaper has subsequently reported – on themselves. In a sense while the humungous salaries of the chief executives are indeed infuriating, it is the massive increase in salaries lower down the
Do Hindus drink cow piss? I know one or two and I’ve never seen them do it, but I suppose it could be the sort of thing they do in private so as to avoid attracting opprobrium. The Channel Four film Dispatches sent an undercover reporter into a Muslim school in Birmingham where it was
Which do you prefer as a leisure pursuit — taking ecstasy or riding on a horse? I have done both and am slightly inclined towards the former, although not by much. Which do you prefer as a leisure pursuit — taking ecstasy or riding on a horse? I have done both and am slightly inclined
Great news – Radio Four is to employ a bunch of young black working class presenters, to replace all those old middle class white ones. Or at least I assume it is. The BBC Trust has decided that Radio Four is not adequately representing the population as a whole; it is too elderly, and too
So, does the chairman of the Conservative Party, Baroness Warsi, agree with David Cameron’s statement that British Muslims should do more to weed out extremists from their midst (and therefore with the direct implication that they are not doing enough at the moment)? And does she agree that multiculturalism is a failed experiment and that
Sunday was a fairly dismal time for me, as a kid — and indeed for our dog, Skipper. Sunday was a fairly dismal time for me, as a kid — and indeed for our dog, Skipper. Church I could just about put up with, but Sunday school was an embarrassment too far: I would scurry
There was a fabulously daft and self regarding woman called Marina something or other talking about Egypt on Question Time last night. In a prize for the Most Useless Woman Ever to Appear On Question Time she would certainly be in the top five, although probably below Katie Hopkins. I was supposed to be on
I don’t know who is editing the BBC’s PM programme these days – I’ve lost touch with my old corporation mates – but whoever it was deserves a word of praise for the manner in which the show covered the death of the composer John Barry. A long montage of the man’s most gilded, and
When you have guests over for dinner — Tuscan lamb with truffled polenta, perhaps, followed by pear tarte tatin — at what time do you raise your hand, or bang a knife upon a glass and say. When you have guests over for dinner — Tuscan lamb with truffled polenta, perhaps, followed by pear tarte
