Del Boy And The Elite Ambiguity

Anyone looking in on Zelo Street may have formed the impression that I rather enjoy putting the boot in on the appalling James “saviour of Western civilisation” Delingpole, that I may be enjoying myself just a little when pointing up his sneering and often unpleasant behaviour. Up to a point, Lord Copper. But what makes Del Boy such an appealing target is his obvious hypocrisy.

And, returning to Del’s drivelfest in today’s Mail On Sunday, we can see a classic example of that hypocrisy in action. Elitism, says Del Boy, “ought to be a desirable thing”. But those rotten lefties have been doing bad things to this word: “thanks to more than a decade’s abuse by New Labour ministers, ‘elitism’ has acquired an almost wholly pejorative sense”.

It has? Pay attention at the back. As Del Boy tells, the “free schools” set up on the initiative of “Oiky” Gove are being “damned for their supposed ‘elitism’”. Sadly, that’s the only example offered, but it’s quite clear that the Left have turned “elitism” into a dirty word. So from that it follows that nobody out there in the sun-drenched uplands of the libertarian right would do such a thing.

Hmmm, what’s this? “What the liberal elite feel you should know about ‘Climate Change’”. That’s an article which clearly doesn’t like elitism – if it’s “Liberal”. And here’s another attack on elitism – this time it’s the “Global elite” or the “Global power elite”, some of whom ought to be subjected to a “Global warming Nuremberg”. So some elitism should be punished as a war crime, then.

It goes on: here’s an attack on an “elite group” who are controlling the peer review process (sadly, the citation is part of Andrew “Batshit” Breitbart’s empire, so a bit of a giveaway). But what’s this? A warning against a “New World Order” run by an “enlightened elite”. That’s a whole lot of attacks on elitism. And they all come from the same source.

Who might that source be? Step forward James Delingpole! So, as ever, Del Boy the sensitive flower gives off the sickly stench of rank hypocrisy.

No change there, then.