Del Boy Sells Another Dodgy Motah

In a further demonstration of the standards which he hates in others but routinely deploys himself, James “saviour of Western Civilisation” Delingpole has launched a totally ineffective yet petulant broadside at the upcoming Olympic Games. These, he has decided more than seven years after award was made (the day before the London bombings) are A Very Bad Thing.

Del Boy's preferred interpretation of Fair and Balanced

To support this Damascene conversion, Del Boy engages in just a little exaggeration, first citing an appearance by former gold medallist Sally Gunnell at an easyJet event at Southend Airport. “Union flag was removed & she had to change from a white tracksuit to an orange T-shirt” he declares. What happened is disputed, but it doesn’t match the Delingpole version.

But then, Del says we should cancel the Games as “we can’t afford them”. Bit late there, James: all the venues have already been built. To not use them – and therefore to forego all that ticket and media revenue – would be the kind of waste that you’re always accusing others of indulging in. Your argument, like your realisation, are seven years too late.

This, though, does not trouble Del Boy, who tries to paint the Games as some kind of invasion of the UK, which might cause mild consternation anywhere outside London and the south east. “We haven’t been invaded and conquered since 1066” he asserts, which means that 1688 doesn’t count, presumably as we invited the King of Orange to invade and conquer England, which he duly did.

That would spoil Del’s narrative, though, which continues “unlike any other country in the world we've had almost a thousand years of being used to do things our way”, a sentiment which may interest, most recently, those in the USA, and through history, a number of European nations, which have most certainly not allowed England, or later the United Kingdom, to do as it pleases.

So what is Delingpole’s point in posting yet another rant? Ah well. It’s one of his old favourites: Nazis. Never mind that the Third Reich fell in 1945 and has not been revisited since, Del Boy sees Nazis everywhere. And at the Olympic Games he has encountered “Olympinazis” (tm), which will in every retelling be enclosed in patented Delingpole “air quotes” (accompanying sneer to camera extra).

Yes, in Delingpole land, the brave and downtrodden citizens of the UK are “expected to give up our ancient freedoms in order to sate the Nero-like whims of a bunch of pampered, greasy, crypto-fascist sports administrators”. What Del Boy would say if there really was an invasion can only be guessed at, but then, he’d most likely say nothing and move very rapidly in the direction of away.

He is, as they say in God’s Own County, all wind and piss. No change there, then.