Rod Liddle is associate editor of The Spectator.
Apologies for the absence: hope you’re enjoying the weather. Thought I’d draw your attention to an article in the Daily Mail by a former colleague of mine, Barnie Choudhury. Barnie’s a Hindu, and his piece is pegged to that new report which suggests that Hindus and Sikhs are, more than ever, part of the bedrock
The kids are all asleep, the wife is in bed reading feminist propaganda, from outside in the darkness I hear the shocked keewick of a Little Owl. Otherwise, all is silent and at rest. This is the time of evening when I make my way very quietly to my study with a glass of wine
Have to say, I’m getting a little weary of watching Ken Clarke smirking at various bunches of skaghead offenders and telling them he wants them out of prison, pronto, so that they can stab your wife and crap on your living room carpet. The latest of Ken’s media events inside a nick involved him hearing
You can’t trust traitors, any of them. And some of us have long memories. Mike Hancock was once a Labour MP but defected, along with a bunch of other opportunistic monkeys, to the SDP. He is now a Liberal Democrat. It is Mike who hired a young, leggy, blonde Russian babe as a parliamentary researcher,
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
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
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
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,
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.
My problem with condoms was always a very different confusion from that which apparently afflicts the Pope. It was simply that I felt sure they would be far too large, like putting a tea cosy on a soft-boiled egg. And so I never used them, to spare the embarrassment. Also, I was never entirely certain
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
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
‘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.
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
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
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 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,
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
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
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
