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Yes, it's me! Mark Steyn of that ilk - back in the saddle for another hour of questions from Steyn Clubbers around the planet. The fun starts at 3pm North American Eastern - which nota bene (due to time-zone adjustments on one side of the Atlantic but not the other) is for this month only:
7pm Greenwich Mean Time
- which is 8pm in western and central Europe.
Lots going on around the world: Zelenskyyyy has submitted to Trump's demand for a ceasefire in Ukraine. Those highly nuanced jihad boys in Syria are presiding over the world's most predictable bloodbath. At USAid, the last twelve corruptocrats still working have been called back into the office to crank up the shredders. And, if you're wondering how cosy the globalist leadership class is, well, it's like dynastic marriages in mediaeval Europe. In Canada, where the new prime minister is the former Governor of the Bank of England, the race for 24 Sussex boiled down to a choice between that guy and his godson's mother:
As they say at the multiplex, Mark Carney is The Godfather.
This is why the globalist left always triumphs. On the British right, there will be no unity until Rupert Lowe becomes godfather to Nigel and Zia's love-child.
Oh, and pay no attention to that nonsense about the Islamisation of Europe:
Speaking of Nige:
Thanks for clearing that up. Unfortunately, less than a week into the Nigel/Rupert death-match, the first polling suggests it may take more than that.
A headline from The Lotus Eaters:
What Is Nigel Farage Really Like?
Any one of the dozens of "friends" and "colleagues" he has discarded like used Kleenex over the years could have answered that, but the task has fallen to Catherine Blaiklock, the actual founder of the Brexit Party. A few excerpts:
Nigel Farage is often portrayed, by his enemies, as similar to Donald Trump – nothing is further from the truth.
Correct. Trump is a big man at ease with himself - which is why he presides over a "ministry of all the talents": Vance, Musk, RFK, Tulsi... Farage, underneath the pub-bore shtick, is deeply insecure, which is why it is impossible to imagine him seating any of the above round the cabinet table: he can only handle a ministry of all the no-talents.
Farage has studiously avoided making comments about grooming gangs, Sharia law, cousin marriage or terrorist attacks. There is a fine line when honesty is sacrificed to expediency.
Also true. Farage's softlee-softlee-catchee-monkey routine (if, that is, he even wants to catch the monkey) assumes the luxury of time. The United Kingdom has about five years left before submission or serious social disintegration; Sir Keir does not have to call an election until 2029: the math isn't difficult.
With Farage, one should always get it in writing. Unfortunately, he doesn't write:
Nigel almost never writes emails. Emails are paper trails.
So Miss Blaiklock, upon Nigel's word, gave him her party shares via a non-profit trust, and Nigel has now transferred them to his new Islamo-sugar-daddy.
Nigel picks up new people like hoes get picked up by punters in Patpong Road.
That's Bangkok, by the way.
For the record, I do not know Miss Blaiklock. I once met her dad - the great polar explorer from the Commonwealth Antarctic Expedition in the Fifties. But she knows Farage as well as anybody and there are hundreds who recognise that portrait. Read the whole thing.
Okay, enough with the political trivia. As our Australian readers may know, I have some big-picture thoughts in the new issue of Quadrant:
How the West Was Lost
Happy to take your thoughts on that, Trump, Zelenskyyyy, Syria, Iran or anything else today. Whether or not you're a member of The Mark Steyn Club, you can listen to our show live as it happens wherever you chance to be on this turbulent earth: Club membership is required only to ask a question. We love to hear from brand new members, and especially appreciate those who are having such a great time round these parts that they've signed up a chum for a Steyn Club Gift Membership. Among the additions to our ranks in recent days are newbies from around the globe - from Surrey to Surrey Hills, Vancouver to Virginia, Auckland to Anaheim. If you've joined this week either for a full year or a see-how-it-goes experimental quarter, do shoot me a head-scratcher for today's show.
But, if you're not interested in joining, no worries, as they say in Oz: We seek no unwilling members - and as always the show is free to listen to, so we hope you'll want to tune in. So see you back here at 3pm North American Eastern - which, for March only, is 7pm in London, 8pm in Paris, 9pm in Kiev, 10pm in Moscow; half-past-ten in Teheran; midnight-forty-five in Kathmandu; 3am in Singapore and Honkers (sorry about that); 6am in Sydney and Melbourne; 8am in Auckland, and an even more convivial hour for the kippers and kedgeree in His Majesty's Dominions eastward across the Pacific, where you're so far ahead Michael E Mann's probably lost his appeal by now...