Not that there’s much mystery as to what he’ll say, but I’ve been eager to hear Hitchens finally weigh in on this. Thanks to our pal Sugiero for putting me out of my misery. I’ve been curious about the “Question Time” show, too, ever since reading Martin Amis’s story about his own appearance on it. Sounds like “Hardball” but with more guests and Bill Maher’s audience trucked in for some clapping-seal atmosphere. Amis:

What is the most depressing thing about Britain you have observed since your return? And the best? GRANT MULLIN, Surrey

The most depressing thing was the sight of middle-class white demonstrators, last August, waddling around under placards saying, We Are All Hizbollah Now. Well, make the most of being Hizbollah while you can. As its leader, Hasan Nasrallah, famously advised the West: “We don’t want anything from you. We just want to eliminate you.” Similarly, when I went on Question Time the other week, a woman in the audience, her voice quavering with self-righteousness, presented the following argument: since it was America that supported Osama bin Laden when he was fighting the Russians, the US armed forces, in response to September 11, “should be dropping bombs on themselves!” And the audience applauded. It is quite an achievement. People of liberal sympathies, stupefied by relativism, have become the apologists for a creedal wave that is racist, misogynist, homophobic, imperialist, and genocidal. To put it another way, they are up the arse of those that want them dead.

Judging from the applause here for Baroness Williams (and from op-eds like this), it’ll be awhile before they crawl out of that ass. Watch for the cutaway to Hitchens when she says Rushdie’s “deeply offended Muslims in a very powerful way.” He’s almost literally choking down the bile.

Update: Another good catch by Sugiero. It’s British Lord Nazir Ahmed appearing on France 24 and comparing Rushdie’s religious skepticism to the factual revisionism of Holocaust deniers. The irony of Britain’s first Muslim peer complaining about Britain’s insensitivity to Muslims is irresistible.