Rod Liddle is associate editor of The Spectator.
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
Magnificent schadenfreude being shown by all and sundry over the case of Sky Sports presenters Richard Keys and Andy Gray and their off-mic comments about how useless woman are. This is at least partly because Keys and Gray are genuinely awful and nobody liked them very much anyway. And their off-mic comments were precisely what
When Tony Blair talks about the invasion of Iraq he tends to preface his comments with the following sentiment: “Look, we can argue about whether or not it was right to invade, and that’s a respectable argument. But what you cannot do is argue that it was undertaken in bad faith, that there was some
There was a stupid woman on the television news the other night, interviewed the day after she and her family had arrived for their holiday in — yes — Tunisia. There was a stupid woman on the television news the other night, interviewed the day after she and her family had arrived for their holiday
The more you read, the more you discover that it was Blair – entirely alone in the country – who wished to invade Iraq in 2003. The cabinet didn’t want to, even Blair’s cabal didn’t want to. Even Alastair Campbell had grave reservations. Everyone around him thought it wrong, or illegal, or both. And watching
This post is not about one of the crucial issues of the day, so if you’re hungry for controversy, please move on. This is a trivial personal thing and I wondered if you might help. A couple of months ago I started to read a new novel by one of our esteemed highbrow-ish writers. I
One of the reasons I don’t run a bed and breakfast establishment is that I cannot imagine approving of any of the sort of people who would stay in it. I would sit downstairs in the kitchen seething knowing that upstairs fundamentalist Christians, or homosexuals, or cabinet ministers and their secretaries, estate agents or people
There have been some strange responses to the Oldham by election. Right wingers such as Harry Phibbs and Toby Young saying it spells trouble for Labour, lefties insisting its disastrous for Cameron, the likes of Danny Finkelstein suggesting that underneath the big trouble lies in wait for Clegg. Of them all I think Finkelstein is
The Chinese are doing their panda thing again, buying international goodwill by depositing one of these doomed and slightly sinister creatures with any country which might otherwise have an objection to their foreign or domestic policy. Worried about human rights and prisoners of conscience? ‘Ere you go, mate, have a panda and shut your gob.
