Richard Littlejohn
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Richard Littlejohn (born 18 January 1954 in Ilford, Essex) is a right-wing British newspaper columnist, radio personality and television presenter.
He writes for the Daily Mail newspaper, having previously written columns for The Sun and London's Evening Standard. In 1997, he was named "Columnist of the Year" at the British Press Awards.
He is well known for his right wing views and has been widely accused of racism and homophobia by critics. Nick Griffin, leader of the far-right British National Party, describes Littlejohn as his favourite journalist although Littlejohn distances himself, describing the party as "knuckle-scraping scum".
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[edit] Career
Although primarily a newspaper journalist, Littlejohn has presented numerous radio and TV shows, and has authored or co-authored several books.
[edit] Journalism
Littlejohn left school in 1970 aged 16, and started work as a trainee journalist in his home town of Peterborough; he worked for several local newspapers during the early 1970s. In the mid-1970s, he joined the Birmingham Evening Mail, becoming its industrial editor in 1977.
He worked at the London Evening Standard from 1979 to 1989, initially as industrial editor, later becoming a feature writer and (in 1988) a columnist. Whilst industrial editor in the early 1980s he was asked to stand as a Labour Party candidate, which he declined.[1] In 1989 he joined The Sun, quickly becoming its most popular columnist. His columns regularly attracted controversy, and he was voted "Irritant of the Year" at the 1993 What The Papers Say Awards.
In 1994, he left The Sun and started writing for the Daily Mail, contributing two opinion columns: one on news and current affairs (in a similar format to his Sun column), and one on sport. His Mail columns earned him the title "Columnist of the Year" at the 1997 British Press Awards.
In early 1998, Littlejohn became the UK's best-paid columnist when he returned to The Sun to write a twice-weekly column as part of a £800,000-a-year deal (which also saw him present a regular TV programme, Littlejohn: Live And Unleashed, on Sky One). It was subsequently cancelled due to poor ratings.
In May 2005, however, he re-joined the Mail, a move he claimed was "always his intention". When news of the move broke, Mail editor Paul Dacre issued a statement praising Littlejohn, adding that he was "thrilled" that Littlejohn was "returning to his spiritual home". Littlejohn reportedly earns an annual salary of between £700,000 and £800,000, making him the Mail's highest-paid journalist.
In addition to his regular columns, Littlejohn has occasionally contributed articles to magazines such as The Spectator and Punch.
One of Littlejohn's Sun columns - a 2004 skit, entitled "Rum, Sodomy and the Lifejacket", in which Lord Nelson is confronted with political correctness, compensation culture and the nanny state - has been widely plagiarised. It has been published in several newspapers, magazines, and websites with Littlejohn's writing credit removed.
[edit] Radio
By the end of the 1980s, Littlejohn was well known in London for his Evening Standard columns, and he was regularly invited onto radio programmes as a pundit. Starting in 1991, he worked for the London radio station LBC as a guest presenter, standing in for Michael Parkinson on the morning show and for Mike Dickin on the afternoon phone-in programme.
LBC gave Littlejohn his own early afternoon show, Littlejohn's Long Lunch, in August 1992; the programme was a talk show featuring topical discussion, listener phone-ins, and celebrity guests. He later became the permanent presenter of the morning show, replacing Michael Parkinson. Littlejohn's programmes were frequently controversial, and his outspoken views attracted censure from the Radio Authority on a number of occasions. LBC was also reprimanded by the Radio Authority over some of the language and subject matter in the show (particularly sexual topics), which were judged to be inappropriate for a daytime audience.
In 1995, Littlejohn joined BBC Radio Five Live as a guest presenter on 6-0-6, a football phone-in show. He presented a number of sports programmes on the station, and in 1997 he became the permanent presenter of 6-0-6, a position he held for five years. In 2000, he won a Sony Radio Award for his work on the programme.
[edit] Television
After leaving LBC in 1994, Littlejohn was approached by BSkyB managing director (and former Sun editor) Kelvin MacKenzie, and was offered the chance to present a nightly current affairs show on the TV channel Sky News. Called Richard Littlejohn, the show ran for one year and was not a huge success. Littlejohn later expressed his disappointment, claiming that British broadcasting regulations would not permit him to present the show in the style of Rush Limbaugh's programmes: "If Sky News could emulate its U.S. sister Fox News... ratings would soon shoot past the Astra satellite. But the regulators won’t allow it."
Later in 1994, Trevor Phillips of London Weekend Television hired Littlejohn to host a studio-based talk show entitled Richard Littlejohn Live And Uncut. Phillips produced three series of the programme, which was transmitted in the London area only. In 2006 it was voted by the BBC's TV listings magazine Radio Times as one of the worst programmes ever to appear on British television, with its presenter called "as amateurish as he is odious".
Littlejohn also hosted the first series of Channel 4's game show Wanted, though he was not the producers' first choice of presenter (he was a last minute stand-in for Bob Mills). Wanted first aired in October 1996, and won a Silver Rose at the prestigious Festival Rose d'Or.
During the 1990s and early 2000s, Littlejohn presented several shows for Carlton Television, including Sport In Question, Thursday Night Live, Do I Not Like That, Shut Up Shop and Forking Out For The Scots. Additionally, he has regularly appeared as a panellist and pundit on programmes such as the BBC's Question Time and Have I Got News For You.
As part of a 1997 deal which also saw him return to the Sun newspaper, Littlejohn briefly hosted a late night talk show on Sky One called Littlejohn: Live And Unleashed. It was first broadcast on 21 April 1998.
In early 2003 he returned to Sky News to present Littlejohn, a live topical talk show which was initially broadcast twice-weekly, but was later extended to four nights per week. The programme ended on 8 July 2004 when Sky News changed its format, replacing the show with regular rolling news. Littlejohn has stated that he has "not ruled out" the possibility of returning to Sky News in the future, although since his programme was cancelled due to poor ratings this seems unlikely.
[edit] Books
Littlejohn has authored or co-authored several books:
- The Essex Girl Joke Book (as Ray Leigh, with Brent Wood, 1991, Corgi Publishing) - a collection of Essex girl jokes, co-written (with "Brent Wood") under the pseudonym "Ray Leigh".
- You Couldn't Make It Up (1995, Heinemann, ISBN 0-434-00238-0) - named after one of Littlejohn's catchphrases, and described (no doubt by himself) on the jacket as "a brilliant collection of liberal-skewering wit and wisdom", this is a book of recollections and opinion pieces on subjects such as political correctness, politicians, corporate "fat cats", the European Union, and the British Royal Family.
- To Hell In A Handcart (2001, HarperCollins, ISBN 0-00-710613-0) - named after another of his catchphrases, this is Littlejohn's first and only novel, based loosely on the Tony Martin case. The book was lambasted by liberal critics for its portrayal of asylum seekers, notably by The Independent's David Aaronovitch who described it as "a 400-page recruiting pamphlet for the BNP". However, it received positive reviews from conservative writers such as Frederick Forsyth and Andrew Roberts.
- The Book Of Useless Information (with Keith Waterhouse, 2002, Blake Publishing, ISBN 1-903402-79-4) - co-written with Keith Waterhouse, this "stocking filler" book is a collection of "useless" facts, described on the cover as "all you never needed to know and didn't need to ask."
- The Ultimate Book Of Useless Information (with Keith Waterhouse, 2004, Blake Publishing, ISBN 1-84454-060-X) - another volume of "useless" facts.
[edit] Opinions
Littlejohn frequently denounces asylum seekers, homosexuals and single parents, whom he sees as part of a "politically correct" elite, and is also against closer ties between Britain and the European Union, both these standpoints being in keeping with the viewpoint of his most recent employers, the Daily Mail and The Sun. He was also very much in favour of the Iraq war in 2003, as was The Sun newspaper which he was writing for at the time.
However, some of his views were at odds with The Sun's editorial policy - notably his decision to attack the Prime Minister Tony Blair's toddler son Leo, referring to the baby as "Damien" (after the central character, the son of the Devil, in the film The Omen). These disagreements - along with the decision to axe his Sky TV show after poor ratings - led to Littlejohn's departure from the employ of Rupert Murdoch (boss of both The Sun and Sky) for the Daily Mail.
Unlike some other right-wing commentators, Littlejohn is against the restoration of capital punishment in the UK. He is however in favour of deporting people to countries where they will be tortured or executed. He has described the Human Rights Act as "evil", regarding it as a charter for criminals and terrorists. He frequently refers to Cherie Blair as "the Wicked Witch", due to the high level of human rights cases she takes on as a QC.
He is strongly critical of the police force, which he accuses of being soft on criminals, pandering to political correctness, persecuting motorists who commit supposedly minor traffic offences like speeding (which his critics point out has killed thousands of children), and arresting people who defend their homes against burglars. Littlejohn was a staunch defender of Norfolk farmer Tony Martin, who became a cause célèbre in the conservative press after he was convicted of murder for shooting Fred Barras, a 16-year-old burglar, in the back as he was attempting to escape. Martin's conviction was later reduced to manslaughter. Littlejohn said that Martin "had good reason to hate Gypsies" (referring to the fact that Mr Martin had been burgled on numerous occasions previously [2]). This has been criticised as racist, because it ascribes collective guilt to a race of people on the basis of the actions of a few of its members. In fact the people involved were actually not Romani but in fact Irish Travellers and so in fact groups from which they did not originate were also being blamed because they were described under a umbrella term.
He also wrote in 1991 that British women married to Iraqis 'should be left to rot in their adopted country, with their hideous husbands and their unattractive children' [3].
Littlejohn is outspoken in his criticism of left-wing journalists, such as Polly Toynbee and Roy Greenslade, who he describes as "Guardianistas". He uses the term 'Left-fascism' to describe people he believes are trying to impose their views on the wider society.
His favourite catchphrases are "you couldn't make it up" and "we're going to hell in a handcart", usually at the end of a column detailing some initiative he regards as being "political correctness gone mad", particularly ones that involve taxpayers' money being used to help asylum seekers or homosexuals. He often uses the phrase "mind how you go" (a sarcastic reference to Dixon of Dock Green) when criticising the police.
Littlejohn is a big fan of football, and is a keen supporter of Tottenham Hotspur football club.
He reportedly now spends most of his time writing columns from his "gated mansion" in Florida, and admits to "rare[ly] set[ting] foot outside" when in the UK.
[edit] Controversy and criticism
Littlejohn is well-known for his controversial right-wing views. Although he is sometimes praised as an antidote to political correctness, other critics see him as a bigot.
Littlejohn has denied that he is either racist or homophobic. In a 2003 interview, he said: "People project their own prejudices on me... I'm a convenient whipping boy... I'm the 'homophobe' who had a whole column in favour of gay weddings. I'm the 'racist' who supported Trevor Phillips for London mayor. It's not enough to disagree with them [the Left] - they have to make you out to be a monster."
However, he has been found by independent broadcasting regulators to be homophobic, frequently uses the word "poofs", and often makes disparaging references to gay public figures such as Peter Mandelson, Mandelson's partner Reinaldo Avila da Silva, and Ron Davies, linking gay men to paedophilia by claiming they are attracted to young boys. Critics such as Marina Hyde have documented so many disparaging references to homosexuality in his column that they consider him "obsessive".
He is often considered to be racist for his relentless attacks on asylum seekers and Gypsies, and for his comments on events such as the 1994 Rwandan genocide, about which he wrote: "Does anyone really give a monkey's about what happens in Rwanda? If the Mbongo tribe wants to wipe out the Mbingo tribe then as far as I am concerned that is entirely a matter for them." He was also criticised for describing Palestinians as "the pikeys of the Middle East". He has also described the Iraqi people as "hideous".
His TV programme 'Richard Littlejohn Live and Uncut' has also caused controversy. Former TV sports presenter David Icke stormed off one show, saying if Littlejohn "had a braincell, it would die of loneliness", and another infamous clash with Michael Winner in 1994(see below).
Littlejohn once urged Charles Clarke to commit suicide[4].
Littlejohn resigned from the Sun newspaper because he felt the editor, Rebecca Wade, did not spend enough time on his copy. It has been widely reported in diary columns that Littlejohn requires "sensitive handling" from his editors at the Daily Mail, and it was suggested that some middle managers prominently reported a damning criticism of Littlejohn from the Radio Times in a revenge swipe for his "tantrums".[citation needed]
[edit] LBC radio programme
During his time at the radio station LBC, Littlejohn was censured by the Radio Authority on several occasions for breaching broadcasting rules. This culminated in an official reprimand for an edition of his phone-in show in which he described gay rights protesters outside the Houses of Parliament as "plankton" and suggested the police should use dogs and flamethrowers against them after a group of protestors "kicked lumps out of a young police officer outside the Commons".[5] The subject of the protest was the lowering of the gay age of consent, which Littlejohn described as "allow[ing] schoolboys to be buggered at sixteen". Littlejohn was judged by the Radio Authority to have breached guidelines on homophobia and incitement to violence. Littlejohn claims that gay people who worked on the programme found his comments about massacring gay people with flamethrowers "hilarious".
On another LBC phone-in programme he was again censured by the Radio Authority for describing the British Royal Family as a "bunch of tax-evading adulterers".[6]
[edit] The Michael Winner incident
On one episode of Littlejohn's London Weekend Television show Richard Littlejohn Live And Uncut in 1994, two lesbian guests (one of whom was former Lambeth council leader Linda Bellos) argued in favour of lesbians becoming parents. Littlejohn was very critical of the two women, which led to celebrity guest Michael Winner denouncing Littlejohn as an "arsehole" and condemning him as homophobic. Nigella Lawson, who was also present, described Littlejohn's views as "extreme".
Littlejohn recalled this incident in his 1995 book You Couldn't Make It Up, expressing surprise that his "revolutionary opinion" that children should ideally have both a male and a female parent, and that the NHS should not subsidise artificial insemination for women "who can't even abide the thought of becoming pregnant in the natural manner", was condemned so vociferously by his guests. Some people believe it was not the content of Littlejohn's views but his abusive manner towards his lesbian guests that caused offence[citation needed].
[edit] The Will Self incident
On a 2001 edition of Nicky Campbell's show on BBC Radio Five Live, a heated discussion took place between Littlejohn and fellow guest Will Self. Both were on the show to promote their recently published novels (Littlejohn's To Hell in a Handcart and Self's How The Dead Live).
Campbell cited David Aaronovitch's description of Littlejohn's novel as a "400-page recruiting pamphlet for the BNP". Littlejohn responded (referring to Aaronovitch): "What else do you expect from an overgrown student union leader who used to be a member of the Communist Party?" he later boasted he would include the quote on the cover of the book when it was reprinted. However, due to very poor sales this reprinting has not taken place.
Self then stated that he agreed with Aaronovitch's comments, and that he had read half of Littlejohn's book, which he described as "a kind of Tom Sharpe for the far right". Littlejohn said that he should "read the book in its totality", to which Self retorted "Why?... Does it turn into Tolstoy at page 205?"
Littlejohn's often-quoted response to this was "No it doesn't turn into Tolstoy. I don't set out to be Tolstoy. It is a much more complex book than that."
Recalling the incident some time later, Self denounced Littlejohn as a bully and a coward, adding: "Ask anyone who's gay: they find him repugnant."
[edit] Attitudes to homosexuality
In recent years, Guardian journalist Marina Hyde has counted the number of references Littlejohn makes to homosexuality in his columns, implying that he has a long-running obsession with the subject. (Littlejohn himself has accused Tony Blair and others of being "obsessed with poofery", a statement which is seen as ironic by some, given Littlejohn's predilection for the subject). She has documented the results on a yearly basis.
In the 12 months to August 2003, Hyde noted that Littlejohn had referred “24 times to gays, 17 to homosexuals, 15 to cottaging, seven to rent boys, six to lesbians, six times to being 'homophobic' and four times to 'homophobia' (note Richard's scornful inverted commas), twice to poofery and once to buggery. That's a mere 82 mentions in 90-odd columns.”
During the following 12 months, he “referred 42 times to gays, 16 times to lesbians, 15 to homosexuals, eight to bisexuals, twice to 'homophobia' and six to being 'homophobic' (note his scornful inverted commas), five times to cottaging, four to 'gay sex in public toilets', three to poofs, twice to lesbianism, and once each to buggery, dykery, and poofery. This amounts to 104 references in 90-odd columns.”
[edit] Johann Hari
Journalist and author Johann Hari is strongly critical of Littlejohn, and has described his writing as "far-right propaganda". He has accused him of lying about the benefits paid to asylum seekers.
In 2004, Hari appeared as a guest on Littlejohn's Sky News programme and challenged him about his claims that an asylum seeker could claim hundreds of pounds per week in benefits, stating that the true figure was just £37.77 per week. He later wrote: "I asked Richard how much a single asylum seeker is given in benefits each week. You'd think that a journalist who writes about asylum twice a week would, of course, know something so incredibly basic. His response was clear. He snapped: 'I have no idea'."
Hari published an article on his website in June 2005, stating that it was a "provable fact" that Littlejohn was a "racist and homophobe". The article cited Littlejohn's views on the Rwandan genocide ("Does anyone really give a monkey's about what happens in Rwanda? If the Mbongo tribe wants to wipe out the Mbingo tribe then as far as I am concerned that is entirely a matter for them"), his comments about Gypsies in the wake of the Tony Martin case: ("He [Martin] had every reason to hate them. He and his neighbours had been terrorised by them for years."), and many other statements by Littlejohn. Citing Marina Hyde's article (see above), Hari also accused Littlejohn of being obsessed with homosexuality, of joking about gay-bashing, and of comparing homosexuality with paedophilia and extreme fetishes. Littlejohn has not taken up Hari's invitation to sue.
In July 2006, Hari accused Littlejohn of "hating Britain" and of writing "anti-British screeds from a gated mansion in Florida"[7].
[edit] Viz Magazine
Newcastle-based adult comic Viz has, over the years, featured several satirical mock newspaper columns written by a journalist named "Richard Littlecock". The intended resemblance to Littlejohn is obvious, with the articles featuring exaggeratedly racist, homophobic and generally bigoted opinions and comments. One column implied that Littlejohn's homophobic obsession may be because Littlejohn is himself a repressed homosexual. Littlejohn himself has said that he has read the columns and has found them to be hilarious.
Littlejohn's catchphrases "you couldn't make it up" and going "to hell in a handcart" (which was also the title of a novel by Littlejohn) are also liberally used in the spoof columns.
He was also the subject of a one-off Viz cartoon strip called 'The Adventures of Robin Hood and Richard Littlejohn', in which he made his usual musings about the ills of the nation in a medieval setting. His outbursts were confounded when King Richard the Lionheart, having returned from the crusades, declared open a stall offering "Free KY jelly to homosexual asylum seekers".
[edit] External links
- Richard Littlejohn biography on the website of the Noel Gay Organisation, the showbusiness agency which represents him
- Interview with Richard Littlejohn in The Times, January 2003
- Why I'll never give up the day job - an article by Littlejohn for British Journalism Review, 2002
- BBC News: Self vs. Littlejohn
- Richard Littlejohn: Racist and Homophobe - critical article by Johann Hari, June 2005
