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James Delingpole | |
|---|---|
 Delingpole in 2012 | |
| Born | James Mark Court Delingpole (1965-08-06)6 August 1965 (age 60) Alvechurch,Worcestershire, England |
| Education | Malvern College |
| Alma mater | Christ Church, Oxford (BA) |
| Occupation(s) | Journalist columnist novelist |
| Organization | Breitbart News |
| Movement | Libertarian conservatism |
| Website | www |
James Mark Court Delingpole (born 6 August 1965) is an English writer, journalist, and columnist who has written for a number of publications, including theDaily Mail, theDaily Express,The Times,The Daily Telegraph, andThe Spectator. He is a former executive editor forBreitbart London,[1][2] and has published several novels and four political books. He describes himself as alibertarian conservative.[3] He has frequently published articles promotingclimate change denial[4][5][6] and expressing opposition towind power.[7][8][9]
Delingpole grew up nearBromsgrove, Worcestershire, the son of a businessman.[10] He attendedMalvern College from 1978 to 1983, anindependent school for boys,[11] followed byChrist Church, Oxford (1983–1986),[12] where he studied English language and literature.[13]
In addition to writing articles and commentary for theDaily Mail, theDaily Express,[14]The Times,[15]The Daily Telegraph,[16] andThe Spectator,[17] Delingpole has published four political books including:How to be Right: The Essential Guide to Making Lefty Liberals History,Welcome to Obamaland: I Have Seen Your Future and It Doesn't Work,[18] and365 Ways to Drive a Liberal Crazy.[19]
Delingpole is the author of several novels includingFin andThinly Disguised Autobiography.[20] In August 2007,Bloomsbury published his first novel of the "Coward" series,Coward on the Beach, which tells the story of a man's reluctant quest for military glory and is set on the beaches of Normandy during theD-Day landings. In June 2009 the second novel of the series,Coward at the Bridge (set duringOperation Market Garden in September 1944), was published.[20][21]
In 2005, Delingpole presented theChannel 4 documentaryThe British Upper Class, which was part of a series of three documentaries on the class system in Britain.[22][23] Writing inThe Guardian, the television reviewerCharlie Brooker concludes that "Delingpole succeeds in improving the image of the upper classes. Whenever he opens his mouth to defend them, they magically become 50 times less irritating. Than him."[24]
Delingpole has been highly critical of wind farms. He has called wind turbines "environmentally damaging" and suggested that they deface the countryside.[7]
In 2012, Delingpole beganBogpaper, a satirical blog, with Jan Skoyles.[25][26][27] In 2013, Delingpole apologised after describing an article by a fellow journalist, which attacked the views of columnistSuzanne Moore, as giving her "such a seeing-to, she'll be walking bow-legged for weeks."[28]
In 2015, Delingpole was named as a source forLord Ashcroft'sunauthorised biography ofDavid Cameron (co-authored with journalistIsabel Oakeshott),Call Me Dave, about Cameron's time at university, in which Delingpole claims to have smoked cannabis with the future PM.[29]
Delingpole has repeatedly promotedclimate change denial.[4][30][31] In September 2009 he used hisDaily Telegraph blog to join other denial bloggers in spreading and amplifying allegations made bySteve McIntyre on hisClimate Audit blog, falsely accusing theClimatic Research Unittree-ring climatologistKeith Briffa of wrongly selecting a particular tree-ring data series.[32] Delingpole blogged "How the global warming industry is based on one MASSIVE lie",[33] arguing that this discredited the 1998hockey stick graph, though in fact that study did not use any of the data in question. He also alleged that this discredited the scene inAn Inconvenient Truth in whichAl Gore walks beside a graph relating past temperatures to CO2, then has to use aplatform lift to reach the projected future curve. However, that graph was based onLonnie Thompson'sice core data, not tree rings, and the projected curve was for CO2 levels, not temperature.[32][34]
In a November 2009Telegraph blog post titled "Climategate: The Final Nail in the Coffin of 'Anthropogenic Global Warming'?", Delingpole popularised the term "Climategate" referring to theClimatic Research Unit email controversy. He also said that he does not have a science degree, but is "a believer in empiricism and not spending taxpayers' money on a problem that may well not exist."[8] In May 2010, he gave a 15-minute talk toThe Heartland Institute'sconference and said that it reused a term he had seen in a follow-up comment to theWatts Up With That? blog. He quipped that "Climategate" was "the story that would change my life and, quite possibly, save Western civilisation from the greatest threat it has ever known".[35]Subsequent investigations have cleared the scientists involved of any wrongdoing.[36]
At various times Delingpole has said that he does not dispute that global warming has occurred, but doubts the extent to which it is man-made ("anthropogenic") or catastrophic.[37][38][39][40]
In theBBCHorizon documentary "Science under Attack", broadcast in January 2011,Paul Nurse interviewed scientists and examples of those disputing their work. Delingpole dismissed thescientific consensus on global warming andscientific consensus in general, saying science has never been about consensus. When Nurse posed an analogy with a patient dismissing the consensus of anoncology team and choosing their own treatment, Delingpole resented the comparison withquackery. The programme also interviewed a man who takes yogurt to treatHIV. In response to Nurse's question as to whether he readpeer reviewed papers, Delingpole maintained that as a journalist "it is not my job" to read these, as he simply had neither the time nor the expertise, but instead read internet posts and was "an interpreter of interpretations".[41] In theRoutledge Handbook of Environmental Journalism, this is described as showing Delingpole "detached from reality".[4]
In 2012, Delingpole wrote an article inThe Australian titled "Wind Farm Scam a Huge Cover-Up"[42] containing controversial issues and tone, which was ultimately censured. Three complaints were made, and theAustralian Press Council upheld three aspects of the complaints, commenting on the "offensiveness" of the comment made by a New South Wales sheep farmer, which Delingpole quoted, that made an analogy between advocates of wind farms and paedophiles.[43]
On 10 January 2013, the UKMet Office responded to Delingpole'sDaily Mail article published earlier that day, 'The crazy climate change obsession that's made the Met Office a menace', with a blog rebutting "a series of factual inaccuracies" in the piece, which included repetition of a falsehood which theTelegraph had withdrawn in 2012 following aPress Complaints Commission ruling. The Met Office refuted an assertion attributed toGlobal Warming Policy Foundation member David Whitehouse, but agreed with Whitehouse's statement that "when it comes to four or five day weather forecasting, the Met Office is the best in the world".[44][45]
Delingpole has repeatedly incited violence against named scientists and climate campaigners.[4] In 2013, he published an article inThe Spectator, asking the question whether climate scientists likeMichael E. Mann, natural scientistTim Flannery and journalistGeorge Monbiot should be "given the electric chair", "hanged" or "fed to the crocodiles" for speaking out on anthropogenic global warming, stating that his answer "is – *regretful sigh* – no." He said that "extreme authoritarianism and capital penalties" wouldn't be his "bag" and "perhaps more importantly, it would be counterproductive, ugly, excessive and deeply unsatisfying. The last thing I would want is for Monbiot, Mann, Flannery, Jones, Hansen and the rest of the Climate rogues' gallery to be granted the mercy of quick release. [...] But hanging? Hell no. Hanging is far too good for such ineffable toerags." He also wished to establishNuremberg trials for climate scientists and activists, stating this is meant as a metaphor.[46][47]
Delingpole has described himself "as a member of probably the most discriminated-against subsection in the whole of British society—the white, middle-aged, public-school-and-Oxbridge educated middle-class male."[48]
Delingpole supported Tony Blair's position on the Iraq War. In February 2009 on Book TV Delingpole said "you will not find me disagreeing with Tony Blair's stance on the War on Terror. It was the one principled thing the man did in his political career."[49]
On 6 September 2012, Delingpole announced that he would stand in the upcomingCorby by-election on an anti-wind farms platform.[50] He withdrew, saying his campaign against wind farms had been "stunningly successful" before a vote was cast.[51] AGreenpeace investigation said that Delingpole's campaign was supported by theConservative Party's campaign manager for the Corby by-election,Chris Heaton-Harris. Heaton-Harris said that Delingpole had announced his candidacy as part of a "plan" to "cause some hassle" and drive the issue of wind farms up the political agenda.[52]
In a 2013 article inThe Spectator he stated that for some time "I've held dual political nationality: my heart with UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party), my head with the Tories", going on to praise the latter as "the natural party of government in a brave new world where politicians are the people's servants, not their masters."[53]
In 2005 Delingpole was awarded theCharles Douglas-Home Memorial Trust Award for his essay "What are museums for?"[54]
In 2010 Delingpole won theBastiat Prize for Online Journalism for hisTelegraph blog, a $3,000 prize awarded by the free-marketInternational Policy Network for "work that promotes 'the principles and institutions of the free society'";Damian Thompson, theTelegraph's blog editor, linked receipt of the award to the impact of Delingpole's posts on theClimatic Research Unit email controversy.[55][56]
Delingpole is married to Tiffany Daneff, a gardening journalist. They have three children.[59]
The extent to which these individuals are detached from reality was shown in a BBC Horizon documentary, Science under attack in 2011, in which Sir Paul Nurse of the UK Royal Society attempted to tease out the roots of Delingpole's skeptical position. Asked if he ever read journal papers, Delingpole replied that as a journalist it is "not my job" to read peer-reviewed papers, but to be "an interpreter of interpretations." Delingpole is among a number of climate deniers who have repeatedly incited physical violence against named journalists and scientists who speak publicly on climate issues
The conspiracy behind the Anthropogenic Global Warming myth (aka AGW; aka ManBearPig) has been suddenly, brutally and quite deliciously exposed", and "A contretemps with a Climate Bully who wonders whether I have a science degree. (No I don't. I just happen to be a believer in empiricism and not spending taxpayers' money on a problem that may well not exist).
rude, controversial, merciless, outspoken, sometimes mildly amusing [introductory self description, 0:55–1:07] … the story that would change my life and, quite possibly, save Western civilisation from the greatest threat it has ever known [reference to Climategate story, 2:28–2:36] … I wasn't the first person to use the word Climategate. Actually what happened was, I was reading theWhat's Up With That? blog, and I was looking at the comments below. And the Commentor called Bulldust had said, 'I wonder how long it will be before somebody calls this story Climategate'… So I was the second person to use the word Climategate. [2:48–3:10]
Report is the latest independent analysis to clear climate scientists of allegations of mishandling of climate information.
Subtitle: The government's energy policy gets mired in politics.
We know it's getting warmer. That's not the point. 'The planet has been warming,' says a new study of temperature records, conducted by Berkeley professor Richard Muller. I wonder what he'll be telling us next: that night follows day? That water is wet? That great white sharks have nasty pointy teeth? That sheep go "baaaa"? / No, the only surprising part of the results of the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature Project is the good professor's chutzpah in trying to present them as new or surprising – let alone any kind of blow to the people he calls 'skeptics' (or, when speaking to his friends at The Guardian, 'deniers').
It's not climate change we sceptics doubt. What we question is (a) the degree to which it is man-made, (b) the extent to which recent climate change is in any way catastrophic or unprecedented, and (c) whether the measures we are taking to stop it are either helpful or desirable.
Nobel Prize winner Sir Paul Nurse examines why science appears to be under attack, and why public trust in key scientific theories has been eroded - from the theory that man-made climate change is warming our planet, to the safety of GM food, or that HIV causes AIDS. He interviews scientists and campaigners from both sides of the climate change debate, and travels to New York to meet Tony, who has HIV but doesn't believe that that the virus is responsible for AIDS. .. [broadcast] Mon 24 Jan 2011, 21:00Video See alsoDowling, Tim (25 January 2011)."Horizon: Science Under Attack and Tool Academy".The Guardian.
Subtitle: The Australian Press Council has released the following adjudication.
Delingpole cites "stunningly successful campaign"; others cite desire to avoid losing £500 deposit.
Subtitle: Delingpole beat international competition to take the $3,000 prize, which recognises work that promotes 'the principles and institutions of the free society.' … Freelance writer, journalist and Telegraph blogger James Delingpole has won the online journalism category of the Bastiat Prize for Journalism… It is the second year running in which a Telegraph blogger has taken the online award. In 2009 controversial MEPDaniel Hannan won the prize for his blog for the title.
