The protagonist of The Flying Inn is a totalitarian progressive who sides with Islam and determines to shut down the English pub. So I would like to thank UK prime minister Sir Keir Stürmer for arranging the perfect promotional tie-in:
Starmer plots OUTDOOR smoking ban: Leaked plans reveal PM's aim to stop people lighting up in pub gardens
Nigel has responded in what is his now familiar not-quite-butch-enough fashion. I prefer Julie Burchill's take:
There will be no public house, with its pleasant pub garden. There will be no public square. There will be no public discourse. There will, eventually, only be the privacy of the jail cell and the torture chamber - and the one last public joy, of the execution of the heretic.
— Julie Burchill (@BoozeAndFagz) August 29, 2024
Indeed. As G K Chesterton understood over a century ago, the pub is at the heart of English community: as Miss Burchill delineates the continuum, no public house, no public square, no public discourse. One hundred and ten years after he published his novel, England's submission to the strictures of Islam has come true, and the Starmtroopers are now waging war on the village pub.
In tonight's episode, Lord Ivywood, the Sir Keir of his day, sics the coppers on the hold-outs:
"Captain Dalroy," said Ivywood, simply, "you seem to be under a misapprehension, which I think it would be hardly honourable to leave undisturbed. Whatever these extraordinary events may mean and whatever be fitting in the case of this gentleman, when I spoke of the police coming, I meant they were coming for you and your confederate."
"For me!" cried the Captain, with a stupendous air of surprise. "Why, I have never done anything naughty in my life."
"You have been selling alcohol contrary to Clause V. of the Act of——"
If you're a member of The Mark Steyn Club you can hear my reading of Part Fourteen of our serialisation of The Flying Inn simply by clicking here and logging-in. All previous episodes can be found here - so you can choose whether to follow along each night twenty minutes before you lower your lamp, or save them up for a weekend binge-listen.
We continue to receive very generous comments on this latest Tale for Our Time. Larry Durham, a Mark Steyn Club member from South Carolina, says:
Mr. Steyn, first off - and I know you hear it all the time - but your vocalizations are remarkable. I don't know how you do it.
Re the tale: Our boys have a dog now - I'm feeling better about the future.
Actually, I don't hear it all the time, Larry, so thank you for that.
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