Programming note: Mark will be on the radio immediately after today's Steyn Show with the Thursday replay of his Serenade Radio Song of the Week. That's at 9pm British Summer Time/4pm North American Eastern. You can listen from anywhere on the planet right here.
~Mark is still recuperating from his heart attacks and having to build up his strength to get back to full output. But, after three great shows with some of his most popular guests, we thought you'd enjoy the following special to close out the week:
Eva Vlaardingerbroek is a young Dutch legal philosopher who has become one of the breakout stars of The Mark Steyn Show. You can see Eva across the planet, from German TV to Fox News. You can also see her on stage all over the map: as Mark often jokes, every week she checks in from a different country - Hungary, Italy, Switzerland, just to cite recent editions. So we are always very glad when she can make time for the Steyn Show.
In this edition, Mark revisits the best of Eva from the last year-and-a-half, going back to her first ever appearance on his show. The topics she addresses are profound - from vaccine victims and Dutch farmers to God and digital identity - and her insights stand up as the years go by.
If you've only gotten to know Miss Vlaardingerbroek in recent weeks, we think you'll enjoy this Eva extravaganza. Click above to watch.
~Tomorrow, Friday, is the deadline Steyn's solicitors have given the UK state censor Ofcom to respond, satisfactorily, to his concerns over their illegal "ruling" against him for his show of April 21st last year, about the Covid vaccines. We are not expecting any such satisfactory response, so, upon close of business in London, Mark's lawyers will file his statement of claim in the King's Bench Division of the High Court.
As Kathy Gyngell writes today at The Conservative Woman:
We can expect [GB News] to obey their summons to the Ofcom headmaster's office for a carpeting. So it's left to Mark Steyn, whom GB News let go without a fight, and his guest... Naomi Wolf, who was also ruled against, to take on what may well prove be the most important broadcasting battle of the decade – specifically over Ofcom's covid misinformation 'policy' and the censorship of any broadcasting departure from the official covid narrative (or threat of), and broadly over the principle of free speech. They are taking Ofcom to the High Court – and more power to their elbow.
Disgracefully, given its significance for freedom of speech in this country, their fellow broadcasters have gone remarkably silent. Is there not one editor worried for their journalistic independence, or indeed the principle of balance, prepared to enter the fray to stand up for Mark, not exactly a fly by night rather a highly experienced journalist, writer and broadcaster? We'll see. Or will they be prepared to forgo their prerogative to question government policy, field contrary opinion and different facts, no matter how important? That is my fear.
So thank god for Steyn's determination to keep the flame of freedom burning.
Being Ofcom-cowed seems to be working well for GB News: At 12.45pm yesterday, they had 1,600 viewers across the British Isles, but, alas, by 3.45pm had fallen to 1,200.
~Many viewers have inquired about ways to support this important lawsuit against Ofcom. There are multiple methods, including:
a) signing up a friend for a Steyn Club Gift Membership;
b) buying a chum a SteynOnline gift certificate;
c) ordering him or her Mark's new book; or
d) treating your special someone to a stateroom on this summer's Mark Steyn Cruise. They will love you forever.
In the first two cases, 100 per cent of the proceeds and, in the latter two, a significant chunk thereof (save for shipping costs for the book, etc) go to a grand cause - and you or your loved one gets something, too.
~Speaking of The Prisoner of Windsor, set in a strange land that may nonetheless seem oddly familiar, Mark's satirical fancy is beginning to pick up five-star reviews around the globe. From a UK reader:
Brilliant
Very amusing. Buy this book and support Mark Steyn against the Ofcom debacle.
You'll enjoy the book in and of itself: the sticking-it-to-Ofcom is merely a bonus.
If you absolutely can't live without your full-price hardback being personally inscribed, that we can do.
However, if you disdain Mark's 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.)
~Among the benefits of Mark Steyn Club membership is that you can enjoy The Mark Steyn Show in any medium you desire: video, audio or text. So, if you find Steyn and his guests more convivial in non-visual form, please log-in to our Audio and Transcript versions. To listen to the above show, simply click here.
If you're a Mark Steyn Club member and you take issue with Eva or Mark, then have at it in our comments section.