Rod Liddle

Rod Liddle

Rod Liddle is associate editor of The Spectator.

What is the racial composition of a hobbit?

What colour are hobbits, do you suppose? When I read J.R.R. Tolkien’s book, as a child, I gathered that they were very short, hirsute, quite swarthy and fairly stupid — so probably Portuguese, or at a pinch Galician. They didn’t seem to be, from the descriptions of their behaviour and living arrangements, quite — you

Another double standard

If that had been Millwall supporters fighting with police, invading the pitch and firing flares at the opposition fans, there would have been demands to have the ground closed, points deductions, fines, statements in parliament and the involvement of the UN and almost certainly the Equality and Human Rights Commission. But it wasn’t, it was

Help!

Anyone got a shovel? We’re cut off from the world, here in north Kent, a foot and a half of snow in the garden, the lanes impassable and no sign of respite. The only answer is to get pissed, I suppose. That’s usually the answer. But sooner or later I will have to walk four

Wikileaks: bang on the money

1. Prince Andrew is an arrogant berk. 2. Vladimir Putin is an “alpha dog” 3. Medvedev is his puppet. 4. David Cameron is lightweight. 5. Prince Charles commands next to no respect. 6. Angela Merkel is the only strong European leader. 7. Berlusconi is feckless, vain and ineffective and likes parties. 8. That Argie babe,

Round objects

Just a quick word about our huge contribution to the bailout of Ireland, and the intimations from the government that this loan is a singularity because of our exceptional trading relations with Ireland. That word is “balls”. Ireland is only our fifth most important country for exports and our eighth most important country for imports.

MPs can’t speak their minds anymore

Howard Flight was made a peer fairly recently, presumably because there is no place in parliament for someone who has a tendency to speak his mind. Back in 2005, whilst being Chief Secretary to the Treasury and MP for Arundel, he made the revolutionary suggestion that the Tory Party might, some day, a lot further

In celebration of Gordo

I know most of you are very glad to see the back of him, but as we watch the EU crumble before our eyes, we all have reason to be grateful to Gordon Brown. Joining the Euro was Tony Blair’s supposed “big project” of his second term but he was thwarted at every step of

The Twitter martyrs are true subversives

‘Crap! Robin Hood Airport is closed. You’ve got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high.’ — Paul Chambers, on Twitter. ‘Can someone please stone Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to death. I shan’t tell Amnesty if you don’t. It would be a blessing.’ — Gareth Compton, on Twitter.

Months of vapid, pointless shit

I had just got to the stage where I quite like the Royal Family. Especially Phil. It’s been a gradual thing, over the last fifteen years or so. I sort of ideologically don’t approve but they annoy so many awful people that it seems churlish not to give them one’s support. And it is true

I think they meant well…

Remembrance Sunday was observed scrupulously at football grounds across Britain, except of course at horrible Celtic, where the fans did their usual anti-British spite and venom and held aloft banners saying that we “shamed devils in hell,” etc. And then there’s Airdrie. A mate spotted their programme for the weekend’s home fixture against Livingston. I

At last, a new approach to international aid

Did the government pay money for the release of the poor Chandlers, that elderly couple who decided to do a spot of yachting off the coast of Somalia? Indirectly, without question. What passes for a government over there, the Somali Federal Republic, has confirmed that some of the £30m aid we bunged the country recently

The stupidity of Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

The Yasmin Alibhai-Brown business is quite remarkable, isn’t it? She takes herself on to Radio Five Live to make her usual sententious and ill-thought out views on the stoning of Muslim women. Western politicians are not morally qualified to condemn such stonings, she said, because they’ve killed lots of Muslim women with bombs etc. Now,

Rod Liddle

Why not make the children of the unemployed work, too?

I suppose I am past the point in life where, as Gore Vidal put it, litigation takes the place of sex. I have consulted lawyers at least 12 times so far this year, which easily exceeds the amount of times I have engaged in mutual sexual activity. Even on my birthday I rang a lawyer

The revolution will not be banned

If you fancy a laugh, and have the time to spare, check out the website for REVOLUTION, aka Permanent Revolution, the Trot group some of whose members smashed up Conservative Central Office this week. You might also check out Workers’ Power, the Trot group from which REVOLUTION split a year or two back for the

Endemic human rights abuse 

Of course China is not the only country in the world to which we apply duplicitous standards when it comes to human rights. Saudi Arabia springs to mind, for example. And then there is Pakistan. Yesterday in Lahore a 45 year old Christian mother of five was sentenced to death for the supposed crime of

Reconnecting with a left hook

At last the Labour Party is reconnecting with its core working class vote, and this time in an engagingly direct manner. Paul Farrelly, the MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme punched a newspaper seller in the sports and social club of the House of Commons, leaving him with blood pouring down his face. They also grappled on the

My sympathies are with the Meedhuffushi One

It is time we started a campaign to free the Meedhuffushi One, a victim of government persecution. Hussein Didi was arrested and faces prosecution for the crime of having officiated at a hotel ‘wedding’ ceremony on the tiny island of Meedhuffushi in the Maldives. You may have read about his unorthodox benediction to the Swiss

Harriet redux – for Mr Nonvexatious

Sorry – been away, up in Middlesbrough working on a feature and haven’t had time for the usual bloggin’, scurrying between dole office and lovely North York Moors. A brief return to last week’s story about Harman and the gingers. Nonvexatious, in the thread below, insists that there have been no reported cases of red

Harriet – bang ‘er up

Has Harman not fallen foul of her own legislation, the Equality Act 2010 which this government cravenly enacted almost in full? She has disparaged a colleague on account of his appearance and parentage. This certainly contravenes the section of her fabulously fatuous legislation which outlaws discrimination against colleagues through “association or perception”. Danny Alexander is