Welcome to Part Six in our new audio adaptation of a favourite book among Steyn readers: America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It.
Thank you for all your kind comments about my first ever self-narration of this prescient tome. Chris, a New York member of The Mark Steyn Club, writes:
I cannot remember if my copy of America Alone had that fantastic review blurb at the top from the Saudi Ambassador 'The arrogance of Mark Steyn knows no bounds'. Only MS would turn that into a rave review.
It was the cover designer who put that in, Chris - just as a placeholder until the editor sent him some blurb from Mark Levin or Michelle Malkin or whoever he'd managed to extract one from. But they sent the artwork to me for approval and I liked the quote from Prince Turki. So, when the real cover arrived, I said no, no, get rid of that generic autopenned fake-o schmoozeroo, and put the House of Saud guy back.
Whether or not the arrogance of Mark Steyn knows no bounds, I can claim to have said things that, two decades ago, very few bestselling authors were saying, and even fewer members of the respectable political class. Indeed, twenty years on, with western Europe facing an imminent existential crisis, respectable politicians are still unwilling to raise the subject: yes, I'm looking at you, Kemi Badenoch, after your total crapwanker conference speech implicitly comparing yourself to Thatcher and Churchill while declining to talk about anything that matters. So, in this weekend's episode of America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It, I summarise the situation as I saw it in 2006 - when the Continent's present terrible future could still have been averted. Recent developments in the post-Christian Church of England and on the ground in the "Raise the Colours" campaign will come as no surprise to Steyn readers twenty years ago:
The Church of England is considering removing St George as the country's patron saint on the grounds that, according to various Anglican clergy, he's too 'militaristic' and 'offensive to Muslims'. They wish to replace him with St Alban, and replace St George's cross on the revamped Union Flag, which would instead show St Alban's cross as a thin yellow streak.
Right down the Archbishop's back?
In a few years, as millions of Muslim teenagers are entering its voting booths, some European countries will not be living formally under sharia, but – as much as parts of Nigeria they will have reached an accommodation with their radicalized Islamic compatriots, who like many intolerant types are expert at exploiting the 'tolerance' of pluralist societies.
So here we are two decades later, and ambitious Taqiyya Muslims such as former Scottish First Minister, the virulently racist Humza Yousaf, are now discarding their useful idiots in western leftist parties to form avowedly Islamic political blocs.
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear me read Part Six of America Alone simply by clicking here and logging-in. Earlier episodes can be found here.
If you prefer more fictional fancies of a weekend, we have thrillers, comedy classics, tales of horror and historical romance and much more, all over at our Tales for Our Time home page. If you've a friend who might be partial to our six-dozen pertinent adventures, we have a special Gift Membership that, aside from audio capers, also includes video poetry, live music and more. And I'll be doing a live-performance Tale for Our Time at sea on the next Mark Steyn Cruise - sailing aboard the Queen Mary 2.
To become a member of The Mark Steyn Club, please click here - and don't forget that special Gift Membership. As soon as you join, you'll get access not only to America Alone but to over seventy audio adventures in Tales for Our Time. Please join me next weekend for Part Seven of America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It.