Just ahead of tonight's episode of our Yuletide Tale for Our Time, we have a helpful public-service announcement from the Brit Wanker Coppers:
Are we allowed to discuss why there is a need for statements like this, or is that too free speechy? pic.twitter.com/XpuAHiFUmM
— 𝗡𝗶𝗼𝗵 𝗕𝗲𝗿𝗴 ♛ ✡︎ (@NiohBerg) December 20, 2024
Within hours of the above, a man ploughed his vehicle through the Magdeburg Christmas Market, one of the biggest in Germany - it attracts a million-and-a-half attendees every year, although not for much longer. As I write, up to eighty people are injured and at least two are dead, one of them a child. The perp has been arrested - a Saudi doctor. So one of those "skilled immigrants" we're told we need. But did he look like a "potential terrorist"?
I really don't want to have to telephone HM Constabulary every time I see a "potential terrorist" - and not just because, if he was, say, bearded and carrying a machete, Sir Keir's Starmtroopers would arrest me for noticing him. Instead of having to report "potential terrorists", I would far rather the west's treasonous political class would cease admitting them to hitherto peaceable countries. Any chance of that?
At any rate, the above is by way of preamble to saying that on Sunday we shall have a Tale for Our Time on this all too topical theme.
~Meanwhile, we rocket toward tomorrow's thrilling finale of our current Tale: Jefferson Farjeon's "Christmas crime story" of 1937, Mystery in White. I thank you for all your comments about this Yuletide caper. Margaret Hughes, a Welsh member of The Mark Steyn Club, writes:
I know others have commented on this previously but kudos to Mark on his ability to effortlessly characterise the protagonists. He moves from one to another without missing a beat.
Too kind, Margaret. Voice-wise, I'm not what I was before the heart attacks.
Nevertheless, we are approaching the final moments of yet another Tale. In tonight's penultimate episode of Mystery in White, Mr Maltby welcomes a last-minute guest to the snowbound party:
Shaw filled the empty glass. Then they all waited, while Mr. Maltby again looked at the clock whose ticking was now the only sound in the hall. One minute to the hour. The minute seemed an hour itself. When it had passed, and the clock gave its preliminary wheeze before chiming, Mr. Maltby raised his glass in his right hand, and cried:
"A happy Christmas to you all, and a toast to——"
The clock chimed two, and as it did so Mr. Maltby's left hand moved swiftly to the lamp and turned it out. Immediately afterwards a ray of light, directed by the same hand, illuminated the face of the picture, seeming to transform it into a living thing..
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear me read Part Twenty-Two of Mystery in White simply by clicking here and logging-in.
If you're new to our Club, or if the day's developments simply make you despair, there's nothing healthier than taking a short break from the hell of the hamster-wheel news-cycle and exploring the delights of our Tales for Our Time home page. It's configured in Netflix tile style, with the stories organised by category - thrillers, fantasy, romance, etc - which we hope will make it easy for you to find a favourite diversion of an evening. You can access nearly seventy of our cracking yarns here - and all previous episodes of our current adventure here.
If you've yet to hear any of our Tales for Our Time, you can do so by joining The Mark Steyn Club and enjoy our nightly audio adventures every evening twenty minutes before lowering your lamp - or hoard the episodes and binge-listen at the weekend or on a long car journey, if your government still permits you to leave your fifteen-minute city. For more details on that and other benefits to Steyn Club membership, see here - and don't forget our special Gift Membership. It makes a perfect Christmas present, and can be digitally delivered, so it will arrive in time for the big day.
Please join me right here tomorrow evening for the conclusion of Mystery in White.
