James Delingpole

James Mark Court Delingpole (born 6 August 1965) is an English writer, journalist, and columnist who has written for a number of publications, including the Daily Mail, the Daily Express, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, and The Spectator. He is a former executive editor for Breitbart London,[1][2] and has published several novels and four political books. He describes himself as a libertarian conservative.[3] He promotes various conspiracy theories, including that the Moon landing was faked, 9/11 was faked and that the world is secretly controlled by a shady cabal. [4] He has frequently published articles promoting climate change denial[5][6][7] and expressing opposition to wind power.[8][9][10]

James Delingpole
Delingpole in 2012
Born
James Mark Court Delingpole

(1965-08-06) 6 August 1965
Alvechurch, Worcestershire, England
NationalityBritish
EducationMalvern College
Alma materChrist Church, Oxford (BA)
Occupation(s)Journalist
columnist
novelist
OrganizationBreitbart News
MovementLibertarian conservatism
Websitedelingpoleworld.com

Education and early life

Delingpole grew up near Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, the son of a factory owner.[11] He attended Malvern College from 1978 to 1983, an independent school for boys,[12] followed by Christ Church, Oxford (1983–1986),[13] where he studied English language and literature.[14]

Career

In addition to writing articles and commentary for the Daily Mail, the Daily Express,[15] The Times,[16] The Daily Telegraph,[17] and The Spectator,[18] 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, and 365 Ways to Drive a Liberal Crazy.[19] His writing for the book Welcome to Obamaland has been called an "engaging, witty writing style" and "at least original and amusing" by otherwise critical author John Wright.[20]

Delingpole is the author of several novels including Fin and Thinly Disguised Autobiography.[21] 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 the D-Day landings. In June 2009 the second novel of the series, Coward at the Bridge (set during Operation Market Garden in September 1944), was published.[21][22]

In 2005, Delingpole presented the Channel 4 documentary The British Upper Class, which was part of a series of three documentaries on the class system in Britain.[23][24] Writing in The Guardian, the television reviewer Charlie 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."[25]

Delingpole has been highly critical of wind farms. He has called wind turbines "environmentally damaging" and suggested that they deface the countryside.[8]

In 2012, Delingpole began Bogpaper, a satirical blog, with Jan Skoyles.[26][27][28] In 2013, Delingpole apologised after describing an article by a fellow journalist, which attacked the views of columnist Suzanne Moore, as giving her "such a seeing-to, she'll be walking bow-legged for weeks."[29]

In 2015, Delingpole was named as a source for Lord Ashcroft's unauthorised biography of David Cameron (co-authored with journalist Isabel Oakeshott), Call Me Dave, about Cameron's time at university, in which Delingpole claims to have smoked cannabis with the future PM.[30]

Anthropogenic global warming

Delingpole has repeatedly promoted climate change denial.[5][31][32] In September 2009 he used his Daily Telegraph blog to join other denial bloggers in spreading and amplifying allegations made by Steve McIntyre on his Climate Audit blog, falsely accusing the Climatic Research Unit tree-ring climatologist Keith Briffa of wrongly selecting a particular tree-ring data series.[33] Delingpole blogged "How the global warming industry is based on one MASSIVE lie",[34] arguing that this discredited the 1998 hockey stick graph, though in fact that study did not use any of the data in question. He also alleged that this discredited the scene in An Inconvenient Truth where Al Gore walks beside a graph relating past temperatures to CO2, then has to use a platform lift to reach the projected future curve, but that graph was based on Lonnie Thompson's ice core data, not tree rings, and the projected curve was for CO2 levels, not temperature.[33][35]

In a November 2009 Telegraph blog post titled "Climategate: The Final Nail in the Coffin of 'Anthropogenic Global Warming'?", Delingpole popularised the term "Climategate" referring to the Climatic 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."[9] In May 2010 he gave a 15-minute talk to The Heartland Institute's conference, and said that it reused a term he had seen in a follow-up comment to the Watts 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".[36] Subsequent investigations have cleared the scientists involved of any wrongdoing.[37]

At various times, Delingpole has said he does not dispute that global warming has occurred, but doubts the extent to which it is man-made ("anthropogenic") or catastrophic.[38][39][40][41]

In the BBC Horizon documentary, "Science under Attack", broadcast in January 2011, Paul Nurse interviewed scientists and examples of those disputing their work. Delingpole dismissed the scientific consensus on global warming and scientific consensus in general, saying science has never been about consensus. When Nurse posed an analogy with a patient dismissing the consensus of an oncology team and choosing their own treatment, Delingpole resented the comparison with quackery. The programme also interviewed a man who takes yogurt to treat HIV. In response to Nurse's question as to whether he read peer 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".[42] In the Routledge Handbook of Environmental Journalism, this is described as showing Delingpole "detached from reality".[5]

In 2012 Delingpole wrote an article in The Australian titled "Wind Farm Scam a Huge Cover-Up"[43] containing controversial issues and tone, which was ultimately censured. Three complaints were made, and the Australian 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.[44]

On 10 January 2013 the UK Met Office responded to Delingpole's Daily 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 the Telegraph had withdrawn in 2012 following a Press Complaints Commission ruling. The Met Office refuted an assertion attributed to Global 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".[45][46]

Delingpole has repeatedly incited violence against named scientists and climate campaigners.[5] In 2013 he published an article in The Spectator, asking the question whether climate scientists like Michael E. Mann, natural scientist Tim Flannery and journalist George 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 establish Nuremberg trials for climate scientists and activists, stating this is meant as a metaphor.[47][48]

Politics

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."[49]

On 6 September 2012, Delingpole announced he would stand in the upcoming Corby 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] A Greenpeace investigation said that Delingpole's campaign was supported by the Conservative 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 in The Spectator, he stated that for some time prior "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]

Awards and prizes

In 2005 Delingpole was awarded the Charles Douglas-Home Memorial Trust Award for his essay "What are museums for?"[54]

In 2010 Delingpole won the Bastiat Prize for Online Journalism for his Telegraph blog, a $3,000 prize awarded by the free-market International Policy Network for "work that promotes 'the principles and institutions of the free society'"; Damian Thompson, the Telegraph's blog editor, linked receipt of the award to the impact of Delingpole's posts on the Climatic Research Unit email controversy.[55][56]

Publications
  • — (1997). Fish Show. Penguin. ISBN 978-0140257465.

Personal life and family

Delingpole is married to Tiffany Daneff, a gardening journalist. They have three children.[59]

In April 2021 one of Delingpole's sons, who was at the time a 3rd-year student at Durham University, took the video footage of Sir Keir Starmer in Durham, which triggered the 2022 Beergate controversy that was promoted across the UK's right-wing media.[60]

References and notes
  1. Kaufman, Leslie (2014). "Breitbart News Network Plans Global Expansion". The New York Times (online). No. 16 February. Retrieved 19 February 2014.
  2. "Former Breitbart London Boss Streamed With White Nationalist". Hatewatch. Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
  3. Delingpole, James (2012). "About James Delingpole". Self. Archived from the original on 29 May 2012. Retrieved 27 May 2012.
  4. "A Bridgen Too Far". Hope Not Hate. Hope Not Hate. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  5. Sachsman, D.B.; Valenti, J.A.M. (2020). Routledge Handbook of Environmental Journalism. Routledge Environment and Sustainability Handbooks. Taylor & Francis. p. 225. ISBN 978-1-351-06838-3. Retrieved 15 June 2022. 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
  6. Plait, Phil (26 September 2013). "The Climate Change Denial Machine Is Going Up to 11". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
  7. Hern, Alex. "RSPB: James Delingpole "has not looked into the evidence in a balanced way"". New Statesman. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
  8. Philo, Greg; Happer, Catherine (2013). Communicating Climate Change and Energy Security: New Methods in Understanding Audiences. Routledge. p. 136. ISBN 978-0415835091.
  9. Delingpole, James (2009). "Climategate: The Final Nail in the Coffin of 'Anthropogenic Global Warming'?". The Daily Telegraph (online). London (20 November). Archived from the original on 22 January 2016. Retrieved 21 January 2016. 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).
  10. Appearances on C-SPAN
  11. Leith, William (2003). "A Writer's life: James Delingpole". The Daily Telegraph. London (21 July).
  12. Edwards, Tom (22 September 2015). "Former Malvern College pupil at the centre of David Cameron biography furore". Worcester News.
  13. "My problem with James Delingpole..." The Tab. 24 February 2011. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  14. White, Michael (30 May 2011). "The class war: Why everyone feels insecure". The Guardian.
  15. Delingpole, James (11 July 2018). "If only the Cabinet was more like the England players, says James Delingpole". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  16. Delingpole, James (1 May 2016). "James Delingpole: Next time I nearly die, I'll go private". The Sunday Times. ISSN 0956-1382. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  17. "James Delingpole". The Telegraph. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  18. "Author: James Delingpole | The Spectator". The Spectator. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  19. 365 Ways to Drive a Liberal Crazy, James Delingpole
  20. Wright, John (2010). The Obama Haters: Behind the Right-Wing Campaign of Lies, Innuendo & Racism. Potomac. p. 196. ISBN 978-1597975124.
  21. "James Delingpole | Biteback Publishing". www.bitebackpublishing.com. Archived from the original on 3 September 2018. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  22. "A writer's life: James Delingpole". The Daily Telegraph. 20 July 2003. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  23. Glover, Gillian (2005). "The aristocracy and us". The Scotsman (online). No. 22 July. Edinburgh.
  24. Wollaston, Sam (2005). "Grand designs". The Guardian (online). No. 25 July. London.
  25. Charlie Brooker (2005). "Blue blood on the carpet". The Guardian (online). No. 23 July.
  26. Delingpole, James (2012). James Delingpole Introduces Bogpaper.com (Pt. 1) (self-published video (9 February)) (YouTube). The Bogpaper Channel. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021.
  27. "Why Bogpaper? Why now?". Archived from the original on 24 March 2013. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  28. "James Delingpole talks to Bogpaper". Bogpaper.com. 11 September 2012. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  29. Michael Gove's gang perfect the art of fighting dirty, The Observer, 10 February 2013
  30. Gander, Kashmira (2015). "Lord Ashcroft's Cameron Biography: Source James Delingpole Defends Alleged Cannabis Revelations". The Independent (online). No. 6 October. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  31. "Climate change denial: James Delingpole tells it like it isn't".
  32. "James Delingpole".
  33. Mann 2013, pp. 198–199.
  34. Delingpole, James (29 September 2009). "How the global warming industry is based on one MASSIVE lie – Telegraph Blogs". blogs.telegraph.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2 October 2009. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  35. Pearce, Fred (3 February 2010). "Climate scientists withheld Yamal data despite warnings from senior colleagues | Fred Pearce". the Guardian. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  36. Delingpole, James (speaker) (2010). Climategate and the War against Man, Bear, Pig (online streaming audio). Arlington Heights, IL: The Heartland Institute | The Fourth International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC-4), Chicago Illinois, 16–18 May 2010. Event occurs at 2:28–2:36. Retrieved 21 January 2016. 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 the What'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]
  37. NOAA Staff (24 February 2011). "Inspector General's Review of Stolen Emails Confirms No Evidence of Wrong-Doing by NOAA Climate Scientists". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Retrieved 1 January 2016. Report is the latest independent analysis to clear climate scientists of allegations of mishandling of climate information.
  38. Economist Staff (2012). "Wind Farms and Renewable Energy: A Lot of Hot Air". The Economist (online, print). No. 17 November. Retrieved 21 January 2016. Subtitle: The government's energy policy gets mired in politics.
  39. Delingpole, James (2011). "Global Warming is Real". The Daily Telegraph (online). London (21 October). Archived from the original on 23 October 2011. Retrieved 21 January 2016. 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').
  40. Delingpole, James (2010). "Dear Geoffrey Lean, Let Me Explain Why We're So Cross…". The Daily Telegraph (online). London (6 February). Archived from the original on 9 February 2010.
  41. Delingpole, James (2010). "Greens Have Got Us Tilting at Windmills". The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) (online) (30 April). Retrieved 19 January 2014. 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.
  42. Nurse, Paul (20 January 2011). BBC Two Programmes - Horizon, 2010-2011, Science Under Attack. bbc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 20 January 2011. 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, 21:00 Video See also Dowling, Tim (25 January 2011). "Horizon: Science Under Attack and Tool Academy". The Guardian.
  43. Delingpole, James (3 May 2012). "Wind Farm Scam a Huge Cover-Up". The Australian. Archived from the original on 3 May 2012 – via National Wind Watch [anti-wind-power organisation].
  44. Australian Press Council (2012). "Press Council Adjudication". The Australian (online) (20 December). Retrieved 21 January 2016. Subtitle: The Australian Press Council has released the following adjudication.
  45. "Setting the record straight in the Daily Mail". Official blog of the Met Office news team. 8 March 2013. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  46. Batty, David (11 January 2013). "Met Office hits back at 'inaccuracies' in James Delingpole article". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
  47. Delingpole, James (7 April 2013). "An English class for trolls, professional offence-takers and climate activists". The Spectator (online). Archived from the original on 11 April 2016.
  48. Romm, Joe (7 April 2013). "Denier Delingpole Wishes For 'Climate Nuremberg', Says 'Hanging Is Far Too Good' For Climate Scientists!". ThinkProgress (online). Archived from the original on 26 September 2016.
  49. The Cameron club, John Harris, The Guardian, 16 February 2007
  50. Delingpole, James (2012). "Arguments for wind power are just hot air". The Daily Telegraph (online). No. 17 September. London. Archived from the original on 18 September 2012. Retrieved 19 September 2012.
  51. Hern, Alex (2012). "Anti-Wind-Farm Candidate James Delingpole Pulls Out of Corby By-Election, as the Town Continues to Have No Wind Farms". New Statesman (online) (31 October). Retrieved 21 January 2016. Delingpole cites "stunningly successful campaign"; others cite desire to avoid losing £500 deposit.
  52. Lewis, Paul (2012). "Tory MP running Corby campaign 'backed rival in anti-windfarm plot'". The Guardian (online). No. 13 November. London. Retrieved 13 November 2012.
  53. Delingpole, James (2013). "UKIP is Patriotic, Fiscally Conservative and Socially Libertarian—What's Not to Like?". The Spectator (online) (30 March).
  54. Naughton, Philippe (2006). "The Charles Douglas-Home Memorial Trust Award 2005". Times Online (online). No. 17 March. London.
  55. Thompson, Damian (2010). "Telegraph Blogger James Delingpole wins Bastiat Prize for Online Journalism". The Daily Telegraph. No. 12 November. London. Archived from the original on 13 November 2010. Retrieved 12 November 2010.
  56. Oliver, Laura (2010). "Telegraph Blogger James Delingpole Wins Bastiat Prize". journalism.co.uk. Archived from the original on 14 November 2010. Retrieved 12 November 2010. 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 MEP Daniel Hannan won the prize for his blog for the title.
  57. "Amazon.co.uk: James Delingpole: Books, Biography, Blogs, Audiobooks, Kindle". Amazon. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  58. Depository, Book. "Results for James-Delingpole". Book Depository. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  59. Keen, Mary (6 September 2002). "The day I almost lost the plot" – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  60. Waterson, Jim (9 May 2022). "Student who shot Keir Starmer Beergate video is Breitbart writer's son". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 May 2022.
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