Rod Liddle

Credentials

• BSc Social Psychology, London School of Economics and Political Science.  [1]

Background

Rod Liddle is an English journalist and associate editor of The Spectator. He also writes for The Sun and The Sunday Times. [2], [3]

Liddle formerly edited the BBC’s Today programme, from which he resigned in 2002 after breaching impartiality guidelines in a Guardian column. [4]

Liddle is the author of several books including Too Beautiful for You (2003), Love Will Destroy Everything (2007), The Best of Liddle Britain (co-author, 2007) and the semi-autobiographical Selfish Whining Monkeys (2014).

Liddle has said he does not doubt the existence of climate change, while expressing “grave doubts” about what he describes as the “climate change industry”, such as its “fatuous obsession with hideous bird-mincing wind farms, its insistence that Armageddon is upon us.” He has also described teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg as “that weird Swedish kid.” [5], [6]

Liddle has courted controversy for the repeated use of derogatory and racist rhetoric against ethnic minority groups. In a 2010 article for The Spectator, commenting on a march in Wootton Bassett opposing the war in Afghanistan, Liddle wrote: “F*** off back to where you’re from, then, you Muslims.” Liddle described the killers of British soldier Lee Rigby as “black savages.” [7], [8]

In 2005, Liddle received a police caution after allegedly punching his pregnant girlfriend. [9]

Stance on Climate Change

August 22, 2020

In a talkRADIO interview with host Kevin O’Sullivan, Liddle downplayed the threat of climate change, stating:

“I think there is man made climate change, I don’t think it’s as pressing as some people have suggested.” [10]

September 15, 2009

Responding to George Monbiot’s criticism of Ian Plimer as a “climate change denier,” Liddle disputed the consensus on the existence of human-caused climate change, writing: 

“The unchallengeable certitude with which Monbiot treats his second favourite subject, and the viciousness with which he denounces anyone who disagrees, reminds me a little of the hardline creationists you find jabbering in the backwoods of the Appalachian Mountains: there is no argument, we are not qualified to argue, man-made climate change simply IS, and let there be an end to the debate. It is this very certitude, and the response to critics, which makes me doubtful.” [11]

Key Quotes

November 12, 2020

Writing in The Scottish Sun, Liddle commented on Extinction Rebellion’s decision to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday. Liddle branded XR activists as “tossers,” writing: “Can you imagine how we’d have coped during the war with those privileged, middle-class drips leading the fight against Hitler? It really would have been all over by Christmas – Christmas 1939.” [12]

October 10, 2019

In an article for The Sun entitled: “Extinction Rebellion should pack up their plastic tents and virtue-signalling hysterics and get back to work,” Liddle referred to XR protesters as “narcissists and bedwetters,” and: “The most white and middle-class and privileged protest this country has ever seen.” [13]

Liddle characterised the protestors as hypocrites, writing: “They want an end to fossil fuels. And there they squat in their tents made out of polyurethane, in their polyester waterproofs, clutching their mobile phones. How do you think plastic is made, you morons? You think it grows on trees? They think our society is wasteful. But they will buy their takeaway coffees from the big chains and queue at McDonald’s for their lunch. You want to change the world, you drongos? Start at home, huh? Start with your own lifestyles.”

Liddle continued: “We’re doing it for our CHILDREN!” they shriek. Nah, you’re not. You’re doing it because you are virtue-signalling ­hysterics. And the great irony, of course, is that they are being paid to squat on their fat ar*es [sic] by the rest of us. If these dingbats work at all, it won’t be in the private sector. Private sector firms can’t afford to have an employee taking weeks off at a time because he’s had a hissy fit about global warming.”

He concluded: “These protests are an utter irrelevance. They are the pre-bedtime screech of a toddler. It’s about time the rest of us lost our patience.”

April 18, 2019

In an article for The Sun entitled, “Extinction Rebellion protesters are just privileged clowns whose fuelish [sic] stunt only served to make lives difficult for ordinary Londoners,” Liddle referred to Extinction Rebellion protestors as “Middle Class Zombie Tossers….armed with hipster beards, topknots, vegan shakes, lots of badges and stupid placards,” adding: “Well-bred, polite narcissists every single one of them. And dim as a five-watt bulb in an aircraft hangar.” [14]

Liddle touted the benefits of nuclear energy as a means of reducing emissions, writing: “No country in the world has done more to combat emissions than the UK. Our carbon emissions have reduced by almost half since 1990. And they continue to reduce. They’d reduce even quicker if these eco-warriors stopped carping about nuclear power. A few more nuclear power stations and our emissions would reduce hugely.” 

Liddle also suggested overpopulation was largely to blame for climate change, despite the small contribution made by lower-income countries compared with wealthy parts of the world, writing: “Here’s a message to them. How about you go and have a word with the Chinese? They’re becoming the principal offenders. Or maybe the Indians. And when you’ve done that, how about engaging with some of the really tough issues about climate change? Such as reducing the enormous population growth in Africa and other parts of the Third World.” [15]

Liddle concluded: “Extinction Rebellion. They’re worried they’ll become extinct. If only they would.”

February 3, 2019

In an article for The Times entitled: “Climate change is real, Mr Trump. But, yep, those leftie scientists are out to get you,” Liddle criticised environmentalists’ allegedly hyperbolic rhetoric, stating: “I have grave doubts about the climate-change industry: its shibboleths, its surreal pronouncements, its politically correct determination to stick it to the affluent West. And its lies, cavalier treatment of statistics, arrogance and self-righteousness. Its fatuous obsession with hideous bird-mincing wind farms, its insistence that Armageddon is upon us.” [5]

October 11, 2018

Writing in The Sun, Liddle dismissed the efficiency of wind energy, referring to wind turbines as a “blight on the landscape,” and as “a huge Moulinex blender for all kinds of wild birds.” He added: “But because they are beloved by the gobby Green lobby, we’re going to have loads more of them. Marching across the country. Not generating very much electricity. And causing misery wherever they are.” [16]

July 26, 2018

In an article for The Sun, commenting on heatwaves across Britain, Liddle criticised “climate change monkeys” for associating warmer temperatures with climate change, writing:  “But I remember the last few ­summers we’ve had — rainy and cool — and the climate change monkeys saying THAT was a consequence of global ­warming, too. You can’t have it both ways,” adding: “And there have been wildfires in hot, dry areas for the past 100,000 years.” [17]

Key Deeds

October 7, 2020

In an article for The Sun entitled: “£50billion on wind farms? You might as well spend it on unicorn tears, PM,” Liddle criticised Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plans for the expansion of offshore wind farms, writing: “One of the problems with wind is that it doesn’t always blow — and batteries to store the electricity generated are nowhere near advanced enough to overcome this little difficulty.” He added: “Wind turbines, especially off-shore turbines, are also expensive to build, expensive to maintain, polluting to construct and they need replacing very often indeed.” [18]

Liddle also unfavourably compared renewable energy with nuclear power, stating: “Last year the talk was all about nuclear power. That was a genuinely exciting plan to reduce our carbon emissions through stable, almost renewable energy. It would have worked, even if nuclear power stations do cost a few quid to build.”

February 6, 2020

In an article for The Sun, Liddle criticised Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plans to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030, asserting that this policy had been adopted to “keep the people from Extinction Rebellion happy. Well, not happy. Just a bit less shrieky.” Liddle also stated that: “Electric cars are more damaging to the environment than petrol cars. The pollutants involved making those heavy batteries. The massively increased demand for electricity. I wonder what they will urge us to do then?” [19]

The article was also reposted by the GWPF, Britain’s most prominent climate science-denying organisation. [20]

April 28, 2019

In an article for The Times criticising Bob Geldof, Liddle argued that he had “spawned” Greta Thunberg, who he referred to as “that weird Swedish kid.” Liddle added: “The lass, who is 16 and has Asperger’s Syndrome, does not have the remotest clue about the enormous strides made by the UK in reducing carbon emissions, not the least the fact that our dependency on coal has been almost eradicated. In short, the poor child does not know what she is talking about.” [6]

February 17, 2019

The Global Warming Policy Forum reposted an article in The Times written by Liddle which criticised a series of school strikes advocating for action on climate change. Liddle accused the schoolchildren of hypocrisy, writing: “Those kids on the march had no idea of the issues surrounding global warming. If they did, they’d have been demonstrating outside the Chinese embassy at that country’s relentlessly growing emissions, or campaigning for more nuclear plants.” [21]

November 4, 2012

The GWPF reposted an article written by Liddle in The Times, criticising polls which suggested public support for the expansion of on-shore wind energy. Liddle wrote: “I have never met anyone who approves of wind farms, and yet the BBC, in those spare moments when it is not sheltering pederasts from the public gaze, insists that the country loves them, according to the polls.” [22]

He added: “People like wind energy until it imposes ugliness upon them, and then they become infuriated. Trouble is, if you publicly express your doubts about wind power, you are immediately fingered as a climate-change-denying, polar-bear-strangling Neanderthal in the pay of the oil companies. It is far easier to tell everyone that you love the wind, the baleful breath of Boreas; how wonderful that it might solve all our energy needs.”

January 11, 2010

Liddle was considered for a position as Editor of The Independent by Russian businessman Alexander Lebedev, DeSmog reported.

Affiliations

• The Spectator – Associate Editor [2]
• The Sun – Columnist [3]
• The Times – Columnist [3]

Social Media

Liddle does not appear to be active on social media.

Publications

• Dog: A Biography  (Expected publication: September 2021)
• The Great Betrayal  (Constable, 2019)
• Selfish Whining Monkeys (Fourth Estate, 2014)
• The Best of Liddle Britain (Spectator, 2007)
• Love Will Destroy Everything (Century, 2007)
• Too Beautiful for You (Century, 2003)

Resources

1. “Rod Liddle,” High Profiles, February 25, 2010. Archived December 8, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/x3RSe
2. “Rod Liddle,” The Spectator. Archived December 8, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/XAeFx
3. “Rod Liddle,” Muckrack. Archived December 8, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/HJIf0 
4.  “Liddle stands down as editor of the Today Programme,” Campaign, October 1, 2002. Archived December 8, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/XAeFx 
5. Rod Liddle. “Climate Change is real, Mr. Trump. But, yep, those leftie scientists are out to get you,” The Times, February 3, 2019. Archived December 8, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/Mshvi 
6. Rod Liddle. “I’ll tell you why I sometimes don’t like my pal St Bob — he spawned Greta Thunberg,” The Times, April 28, 2019. Archived December 8, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/xZu9d
7. “Rod Liddle’s ‘Two Black Savages’ Spectator Blog Draws Accusations of Racism,” The Huffington Post, May 28, 2013. Archived December 14, 2020. Archive.vn URL:  https://archive.vn/Geaya
8. Rod Liddle. “All Anjem Choudary wants is lots of infidel media attention,” The Spectator, January 9, 2010. Archived December 8, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/azYyS
9. David Sanderson. “Liddle gets caution for row with girlfriend,” The Times, May 7, 2005. Archived December 8, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/S7GYl 
10. “Rod Liddle: have face masks become part of a wider ‘culture war’?” YouTube video uploaded by user talkRADIO on August 22, 2020. Archived.mp4 on file at DeSmog
11. Rod Liddle. “Moonbat,” The Spectator, September 15, 2009. Archived December 8, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/0oyz6 
12. Rod Liddle. “Think the Covid vaccine is the answer? You may feel a little prick?” The Scottish Sun, November 12, 2020. Archived December 8, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/ZVAe1 
13. Rod Liddle. “Extinction Rebellion should pack up their plastic tents and virtue-signalling hysterics and get back to work,” The Sun, October 10, 2019. Archived December 8, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/zDgKL 
14. Rod Liddle. “Extinction Rebellion protesters are just privileged clowns whose fuelish [sic] stunt only served to make lives difficult for ordinary Londoners,” The Sun, April 18, 2019. Archived December 8, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/83ZFf 
15. “Confronting Carbon Inequality,” Oxfam, September 21, 2020. Archived December 8, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/UxKJX 
16. Rod Liddle. “Gutless knight who fled from Westminster terrorist as PC Keith Palmer was murdered must fall on sword,” The Sun, October 11, 2018. Archived December 8, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/VokDQ 
17. Rod Liddle. “The Met Office can stick advice where sun doesn’t shine — let us enjoy the heat while it lasts,” The Sun, July 26, 2018. Archived December 8, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/qdcDz 
18. Rod Liddle. “£50billion on wind farms? You might as well spend it on unicorn tears, PM,” The Sun, October 7, 2020. Archived December 8, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/EvJIV 
19. Rod Liddle. “So when will Boris Johnson’s Government tell us that hybrid cars are the new diesel?” The Sun, February 6, 2020. Archived December 6, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/PlNeK 
20. Rod Liddle. “Rod Liddle: So When Will Boris Johnson’s Government Tell Us That Hybrid Cars Are The New Diesel?” The Global Warming Policy Forum, February 6, 2020. Archived December 8, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/JMeaJ
21. Rod Liddle. “What do kids want? Climate action. When do they want it? During double maths,” The Global Warming Policy Forum, February 17, 2019. Archived December 8, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/9x2nI 
22. Rod Liddle. “Rod Liddle: The Coalition Wind Blows Both Ways But It’s Just Hot Air,” The Global Warming Policy Foundation, November 4, 2012. Archived December 8, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/is08S 

Other Resources

_{Photo credit: YouTube/talkRADIO}