British Right-Wing Pundits

The moment the Conservatives start behaving like proper Conservatives again — Eurosceptical, small government, low tax, etc — that’ll be it. Most of the 7 per cent of voters who are currently Ukip’s will be straight back into the Tory fold and we’ll have a proper, Thatcherite government again doing the Lord’s work.

fuck me, where does one begin with this? proper Conservatives = Thatcherite? The current gov is not ultra-Thatcherite? Thatcherite government was small? Low taxes = poll tax?

it's like he makes up everything on the spot without giving it any thought whatsoever!

Low taxes = poll tax?

When these guys say low taxes they only mean low taxes for themselves and their friends and family, and if you can come with a tax that is massively unfair to people poorer than them then all the better!

Rod Liddle had been officially cited for contempt of court after a piece in the Spectator describing the current Lawrence trial as a 'vindictive charade'.

Judge has referred it to the AG.

yes, the "vindictive charade" of wishing to prosecute those who stand accused of a racist murder. PC gorn mad etc. etc.

http://i.imgur.com/2QaIO.jpg

Rod Liddle is being "fearless" again I see.

he writes what others are AFRAID to write (for fear of sounding like an idiot)

Writes what others afraid to read morelikeamirite?

he makes Littlejohn read like Swift.

"Liddle is a member of the Labour Party"

I don't think that prevents him from being right wing.

it's compulsory iirc

"rod liddle is visibly drinking himself to death"

Must fancy a job at Forbes:

Does this mean, then, that Americans are conservative fuddy-duddies while we Brits are bold stylistic adventurers forever at the bleeding edge of trendiness? Up to a point. But the truth is, to paraphrase Stephen Fry, whatever sweeping generalisation you care to make about America, you’ll find the opposite is also true. For example, there’s no doubt that America was glacially slow to pick up on music’s most important development in the past 25 years: dance. In Britain – thanks to acid house and Balearic beats, which soon mutated into warehouse rave and so on – dance music was well under way by 1987. In America, it wasn’t till the mid-Nineties that repetitive beats had begun to penetrate the mainstream.

Part of America’s problem, perhaps, was grunge. The US felt so incredibly chuffed, apparently, to have invented Nirvana (and Pearl Jam and the rest) that it seemed determined to rest on its laurels and go on churning out bouncy, grinding guitar rock for all eternity. The fickle British music scene has never permitted such complacency, not least because of the intense competition between our cities. From Bristol came the dub-heavy trip-hop scene and drum and bass; from Manchester came the dance-rock crossover called Baggy, as well as Oasis; from London, we’ve had everything from the chirpy mockney of Britpop to dubstep. We invent more genres in a decade that the US has managed in its entire musical history.

Nothing more cutting edge than Britpop.

it was lol when Delingpole was namechecking RJD2 in his column a while back

We invent more genres in a decade that the US has managed in its entire musical history.

Of course, because the only genres the US has invented are Dixieland and grunge.

On similar note in today's Telegraph (the printed version, not the website they let Delingpole drool all over):

Eager to endear himself to young voters, Gordon Brown professed himself to be an unlikely fan of the Arctic Monkeys. David Cameron is, however, unlikely to provoke any cruel titters with his more believable choice: Whiskey in the Jar by Thin Lizzy.

“It has one of the best guitar riffs in the history of rock music,” the Prime Minister says, demonstrating some knowledge of the music in question. “I have it on i-tunes or play it when needing a lift.”

Proving that he is a genuinely groovy guy, Cameron is backing Rock the House, a parliamentary music competition founded by my old friend Mike Weatherley.

Jeez, I thought that Gordon Brown being an Arctic Monkeys fan was debunked a long time ago. Still it's best not to let the facts get in the way.

“We live in an increasingly godless society, where Christians are marginalised, sacked and even prosecuted for upholding their beliefs, yet we are urged to ‘Pray 4 Muamba’” sighed Richard Littlejohn of The Daily Mail. “With a dwindling number of people attending church, millions have taken to worshipping footballers and celebrities instead. In the words of G. K. Chesterton: ‘When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing – they believe in anything.’”

otm, man. otm.

pray 4 muamba not pray 2 muamba, surely?

God I'm sick of that Chesterton quote.

i believe he added 2+2 together, not an uncommon littlejohn trait- tho i understand that it's quite unusual for him not to get 5

The Daily Mail, well known for its lofty disdain for footballers and celebrities.

hang on is Littlejohn claiming to be a christian? cos i have questions

shoot

piers morgan claims to be a christian too so i guess anything is possible

if christ were alive today he would smite young black millionaires too, i guess, i dunno

He'd put a stop to all this 'compassionate lefty' business, fako!

God I'm sick of that Chesterton quote.

Have it in my head it's a fake or messed-up one? Could be wrong, cba checking – it does have that authentic Chesterton "a-ha" quality that gets up my nose, esp when he does it four times in a paragraph.

believing in 'anything' isn't qualitatively different from believing in god, at least some of the 'anything' might be true

well said, Fizzles -- the Chesterton line, real or not, is an irritating smug thing that people say but that is not apparently true.

I have never believed in a god, and I don't believe in 'anything' either, supposing that 'anything' here might mean, say (as I think it does when people spout that line): mysticism, tarot, astrology, alternative medicine and other 'superstitions', or even supposing it means (eg) worshipping the royal family or celebrities.

and the same probably goes for most atheists.

ts: "I believe in nothing" vs "I don't believe in nothing"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSpCXUhp2uA

Wikiquote agrees with you: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton#Misattributed

That Littlejohn quote is nuts - as Stevie says, it's praying FOR Muamba, not TO him. I mean, I have problems with the fact that people are suggesting prayers instead of, you know, trained medical assistance, but FFS Littlejohn, you are an ass.

xposts - and yes, the falsely attributed quote is stupid anyway, it's not even attempting to make its conclusion follow logically on from its premises, it's just a piece of dogma.

xps (ty emil.y)

turns out i could be arsed. Not Chesterton, but a critic's paraphrase of this from one of his Father Brown stories:

‘It’s the first effect of not believing in God that you lose your common sense and can’t see things as they are. Anything that anybody talks about, and says there’s a good deal in it, extends itself indefinitely like a vista in a nightmare. And a dog is an omen, and a cat is a mystery, and a pig is a mascot, and a beetle is a scarab, calling up all the menagerie of polytheism from Egypt and old India; Dog Anubis and great green-eyed Pasht and all the holy howling Bulls of Bashan; reeling back to the bestial gods of the beginning, escaping into elephants and snakes and crocodiles; and all because you are frightened of four words: ‘He was made Man’.’

Less snappy that.

‘He was made Man’.’

http://www.thehollywoodnews.com/wp-content/uploads/joe_pesci-237x300.jpg

no, he was not made man, that was problem

It’s the first effect of not believing in God that you lose your common sense and can’t see things as they are

amazing, tbh

what a daft, virtually incomprehensible quotation

the lameness and falsehood of it curiously seems to undermine the 'believe in anything' BS even more than I thought it had already been undermined.

d-Mac correct also.

not to be Cap'n Save-a-Chesterton but i wonder to what extent the outspoken antichristians of his era were on a theosophical tip, you could argue he's tilting at the New Age tendency of redirected faith rather than yr cold hard logical atheists. either way polytheism is way more fun and fulfilling than monotheism, obv

not believing in one thing != being willing to believe in anything. Even Littlejohn should be able to understand that. It's like he doesn't actually believe what he writes, and simply does it for the large wads of cash and to provoke a reaction.

re. Chesterton, he was a fervent Cathlic wasn't he. I would suspect he'd have had problems with any non-Catholic forms of Christianity, let alone Theosophy etc.

Chesterton was a convert iirc which is worse, even. but the Father Brown doesn't feel aimed at atheism in toto

The Man Who Was Thursday is not too keen on "anarchists", and can allegedly be seen as a Christian allegory. As much about the politics of the Edwardian age as religion, though.

The Man Who Was Thursday was pre-conversion iirc? And the Father Brown stories, esp the first two volumes are really good. I'm a fan! I ever quite like his Apologetic book on converting to Catholicism, Orthodoxy. But that 'a-ha!' quality woof mentioned is f'ing annoying - esp. in his journalistic essays, where it's almost a tic.

yeah i like Chesterton's work which is why it feels unfair comparing him to Littlejohn because i'm pretty sure GKC was, at the least, sincere.

it's one thing banging out outrageous opinions for money but if Liljon has read literally anything at all about this and concluded that 'pray 4 Muamba' means that people are treating him as some sort of deity then I can't even