I’m sure we’ve all had those embarrassing moments on first dates when, over the flickering candlelight in the corner table, conversation suddenly flags. What to do? Well, why not bring up the surefire topic of a “Canadian former disc-jockey called Mark Steyn“?

That’s what hot British leftie (and undercover NR cruiser) Johann Hari does with celebrated novelist Martin Amis, and soon the apercus are dropping like overloaded Piper Cubs. Is Steyn a “racist” (Hari)? Or a “nutter” (Amis)? Hours of fun for all!

Incidentally, the above discussion (in a newspaper I used to write for) provides one response to Diana West’s portrayal of me as a gutless nellie taking craven refuge in evasive formulations. Corroded by political correctness, public discourse cannot even find a language with which to discuss the rise of Islam in the western world. Try to do so and you’re damned as a “racist” in Britain and sued as a “racist” in Canada – mostly because “race” is the dominant prism of the PC worldview and we’re unable to put it aside even when it’s irrelevant to the discussion.