James Delingpole James Delingpole

The terrible truth

Plus: how to manufacture the perfect pop hit – and why disco, not punk, was the real game-changer

issue 04 March 2017

Here’s the bad news. One day you or someone like you will be shopping in a mall or enjoying a concert or about to catch a train when the first sudden, sharp crack will rend the air and your world will change forever.

Around you, people will start to crumple and as the panic and horror finally dawn the screams will begin while the automatic rifle fire escalates and those still standing will begin to flee — but where to? If you run away from the gunfire you’re being herded into a trap. If you run towards it you’ll be shot, either killed immediately, or casually, later, as you lie wounded, probably by knife to save ammo.

Welcome to the modern world — from which unfortunately none of us can escape because this is how it is from now on, as it has been since at least 1997 when those 68 people, most of them foreign tourists, were massacred at the Hatshepsut Temple in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, paving the way for Nairobi, Mumbai and Paris.

The fact that it hasn’t happened in Britain yet is no cause for consolation, as various experts reminded us at the beginning of The Attack: Terror In The UK (BBC2, Thursday).

Comments

Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.

Already a subscriber? Log in