The Saint – Nothing New

This week, I picked up a copy of “The Saint Plays with Fire“, published originally in 1958.

To many, the Saint is either a radio series, a TV series featuring Roger Moore or Ian Ogilvy, or a film starring actors such as Val Kilmer.  However, the full flavour can only be understood by reading the original books.  There will be elements which are no longer acceptable in terms of comments and observations by the Saint, his friends and the ‘baddies’.  There is not a small degree of nostalgia for the somewhat gentile era that has long left us, but there is nothing wrong with dreams and nostalgia.

However, the reason I have put pen to paper about this book is because of this extract from the book:

“… to crush them like vermin, to destroy them like rats who would carry their plague germs through our fair land!  The blood of a million Frenchmen, dead on the fields of glory, cries out to you to show yourselves worthy of their sacrifice.  Rise up and arm yourselves against this peril that threatens you from within; stamp out these cowardly pacifists, these skulking traitors, these godless anarchists, these alien Jews who are betraying out country for a handful of gold … Sons of France, I call you to arms.   Fling yourselves into the fight with a song on your lips and glory in your hearts, for only in the blood and fire of battle will our nation be purified and find once ore her true soul!”

I write to warn you about the same thing that Leslie Charteris wrote about in 1958; the Far Right Parties that have reconstituted in Europe, these are not listed in any particular relevance, just a list:

But, we are haemorrhaging under these ‘far right’ parties who are destroying our culture under the guise of protecting our future; the slow creeping of these parties taking a position in government, brain washing a proportion of the populace about the damage that minority groups are causing to their way of live in terms of wages, housing, safety is so reminiscent of a period in history that we have only just celebrated the end of with VE day.

History must not be allowed to repeat itself, either here in the UK, or in Europe; or in the USA which seems to have even its constitution under threat.

In the light of these pressures, I can and do encourage everyone who can vote to vote when given the opportunity to vote, don’t let our way of life be taken away because you have been disillusioned with politics or politicians! 

Links:

• Wikipedia – List of active nationalist parties in Europe
• BBC – Europe and right-wing nationalism: A country-by-country guide
• Going Mainstream: Why extreme ideas are spreading, and what we can do about it
• Going Dark: The Secret Social Lives of Extremists
• Rogue Element in British Politics