PROGRAMMING NOTE: At 12 noon US Eastern today, Monday, Mark will be back on his one of his favorite broadcasts, The Megyn Kelly Show. You can listen on Sirius XM or watch via YouTube.
Yes, it's me - Mark Steyn of that ilk, just about hanging on and trying to conserve my strength to make it to Trieste for the start of the Mark Steyn Cruise. Nonetheless, I'll be back tonight to launch a brand new week of The Mark Steyn Show at 8pm BST/3pm North American Eastern. If you're in the Antipodes, you may prefer to watch at 5pm Aussie Eastern via Alexandra Marshall and our other friends at ADH TV. Among other things, we will try to make sense of the French riots and the Nigel Farage de-banking.
Because my medical procedures have been rather time-consuming, I'm playing catch-up on more important matters, such as my free-speech lawsuit in the English High Court against the UK state censor Ofcom. Their "rulings" against me for my shows on the Covid vaccines are not healthy or normal in a supposedly free society - and UK broadcasting should not accept it as such. The nancy boys at GB News pose as "disruptors" but are utterly craven before "Lord" Grade and his commissars. They threw me to the wolves (and, indeed, deceived me about what they were doing) as part of what they thought would be a cozy deal with Ofcom. Well, so much for that. As was entirely predictable, feeding the beast only works up his appetite. Today Grade and his goons have just announced another investigation into the channel:
We received 40 complaints about this programme, presented by Jacob Rees-Mogg MP, which covered a breaking news story about a civil trial verdict involving former US President Donald Trump.
There is no end to this - even when, as in the case of Moggadon, Farage and the rest, you have largely ceased talking about anything that matters.
In the seven decades of UK government media regulation since the creation of the ITA, there has never been this degree of editorial micro-management. Ofcom is - and has been since the dawn of the Covid - exceeding its statutory authority, which is a polite way of saying that its pseudo-jurisprudence is unlawful. Someone has to push back on that, because what exists at the moment in UK TV and radio has degenerated into a mere simulacrum of a "free press". So it falls to a dilettante Canadian to be the first UK presenter in a decade-and-a-half to reject Ofcom's pseudo-jurisprudence and get it into a real court. You can read my initial Statement of Claim here. We are going to extend it to include Ofcom's second "ruling" against me and my comrade-in-arms Naomi Wolf. It will be interesting to see whether English courts are still prepared to defend English liberties - and to restrain Grade and his censors from their abuse of their powers. Ofcom's reach is about to be extended to the Internet, so they'll be coming for all your favourite websites next.
Many readers, listeners and viewers have inquired about how to support this important free-speech lawsuit in the High Court. Well, there are many ways to lend a hand, including:
a) signing up a friend for a Steyn Club Gift Membership;
b) buying a chum a SteynOnline gift certificate;
c) buying a copy of my new book The Prisoner of Windsor; or
d) treating your special someone to a last-minute stateroom on this week's Mark Steyn Cruise. They will love you forever.
With the first two methods, one hundred per cent of the proceeds and, in the latter two, a significant chunk thereof go to a grand cause - and you or your loved one gets something, too.
~Speaking of The Prisoner of Windsor, I'm delighted to see it piling up more five-star reviews. This is from David at Amazon UK:
Comedy, adventure and social comment all in one
Mark Steyn's The Prisoner of Windsor is a good read which is both very funny and a ripping yarn. Mark is an influential, insightful and courageous political and social commentator, so the story also has its serious undertones. Western democracies have over many centuries improved the standard and quality of human life beyond all recognition yet we seem intent on ripping to shreds our history, our values and beliefs, our legal and justice systems and much more besides, whilst at the same time endangering our safety. This is the book's underlying message ... though you can read it just for the laughs of course.
Don't choose to ignore this novel on the grounds that you can always wait for the movie. It would actually make for a very good movie but they would have to find a Ruritanian to play the main character. This might prove difficult but to do otherwise would of course be cultural appropriation (formerly known as acting).
I thoroughly recommend this most entertaining novel.
Thank you for that, David. As to acting upon his recommendation:
If you absolutely can't live without your full-price hardback being personally inscribed, that we can do.
However, if you disdain my John Hancock, Amazon is selling the book at a discount - and the shipping will be rather less, too. Likewise, if you order from Amazon Canada. (An alternative option north of the border: for a hardback direct from the University of Toronto Press, click here.)
For digital versions of the book, please scroll down the page.
~If you enjoy The Mark Steyn Show, we'll also be doing it live at sea during this week's Mark Steyn Cruise - and with all of your favourite guests, including of course Eva, Leilani and Alexandra. More details here.
~Notwithstanding my one-step-forward-three-steps-back health, we had a busy weekend at SteynOnline, starting with yours truly back at the helm of our Clubland Q&A. Rick McGinnis's Saturday screen pick plumped for an Ealing classic, and on Sunday Tal Bachman wrapped up his bicentennial celebration of rugby. My Song of the Week offered a belated number for Dominion Day.
If you were too busy spending the weekend torching French cities, we hope you'll want to check out one or three of the foregoing as a new week begins.
~Finally, if you are way beyond print copies of books, The Prisoner of Windsor is also available in digital format.
For Nook, see here.
For Kobo, see here.
For the Kindle edition around the world, please click below:
