Peter Hitchens's Blog, page 348

Halfwitted leniency failed again...yet still Mr Injustice Ball thinks he's right

This is Peter Hitchens' Mail on Sunday column

I do not know how or why the honest people of this country continue to tolerate the insults thrown in their faces by the establishment. Take the case of the career burglar Bradley Wernham, now 19, who has been thieving since he was 12 years old, targeting everything from churches to expensive cars.

The grief, anger and distress of his victims – about which our Criminal Injustice System cares nothing – can barely be imagined.

What...

An Anniversary We Don't Mark Properly

The French have a holiday and a parade on Bastille Day (though they long ago buried the horrible ideas which were unleashed on that occasion, and are now among the most conservative peoples in the world, striving for the attributes of a not very constitutional monarchy while calling it a Republic). The Americans, now a mighty empire, do the same on 4th July to mark their departure from another empire. The USSR used to commemorate the Bolshevik Revolution on 7th November and countless...

Travelling

I expect to be travelling during much of the coming week, and so will not be posting anything apart from my Mail on Sunday column. Nor do I expect to be intervening in debates.

Some Constructive Responses - the greatest pleasure in debate

In the past few days I've received some interesting and constructive responses here, civil and wise, which illustrate the way in which serious debate among people with differing views and principles can bring us closer to the truth. This doesn't necessarily mean that people have agreed with me (though in one case it does). It's the nature of the disagreement that's important - actually taking account of what has been said, responsive to it, prepared to consider it.

What a change from certain...

Empires - Have Your Own, or Be Part of Someone Else's. And the Everlasting Church Schools Question

I was struck by a comment from Stephen Squires on 27th July, after I cast doubt on the 'Special Relationship' and noted that the USA had used World War Two to bring about the end of the British Empire.

Mr Squires wrote: 'Hitchens, you can't be serious? Churchill-like, do you REALLY pine for "lost" colonies after WWII (I don't mean America!). Long before 1940, you Brits couldn't even afford your so-called "empire," upon which sun never set. Colonialism repressed legitimate movements for...

The disturbing picture of growing repression at the heart of 'Eurabia'

Down a glum, dark back alley in Istanbul, I found a sinister sight. In a workshop two stern and bearded men were bent over sheets and patches of very black cloth, their sewing-machines whirring urgently.

I was plainly unwelcome and they objected to the very idea of being photographed. I quickly saw why. They were making dark robes and masks for women to wear. They looked to me as if they longed for the day when every woman in sight was clad in their workmanship.

They knew the women would...

More broken-backed than Brokeback, the rebels afraid to strike

This is Peter Hitchens' Mail on Sunday column

What keeps us free? Mainly, the difference between the two big parties in Parliament. As long as they are not too friendly, governments cannot get away with attempts to push us around, or make bad laws. But in the new era of the Coalition, there is no such difference.

Nobody even pretends that there is. Two of the parties are clasped in a fond embrace. The third looks on beaming. Take this astonishing example from the House of Commons on...

Something for the weekend - my latest rebuttal of the Storke Fallacy, for those interested

I'll respond to Mr Storke by interleaving my replies with his contribution.

Mr Storke: 'Mr Hitchens amazingly asks: "Why do left-wingers still act and talk as if they were bold rebels, when in fact their ideas are the conventional wisdom of the governing elite and the academy?" Are you serious?'

My response: Mr Storke must learn to treat his opponents with basic respect. Of course I am serious. I have never been more so. I believe Mr Storke is serious, too, which is why I am devoting so much...

Defeated or not? Mr Storke fights back

Jason Storke continues to insist that he has in some way triumphed in the debate over his liberal beliefs on crime and punishment. Very well then. I shall continue to point out that he has, on any reasonable terms, been defeated.

I doubt if we can settle this matter here to his satisfaction, because his idea of the rules of debate is fundamentally different from mine (see below).

But for the benefit of those third parties who have followed this discussion, my account of the debate so far is...

Mr Wooderson and Freedom of Speech

There's also the case of Joshua Wooderson, and his strangely muted response to Nicholas Humphrey's call for the censorship of religious education. I referred to this because a contributor 'Iain', alleged that atheists wanted 'only' schools to be stopped from teaching Christianity as truth.

I wrote in response: 'If he will turn to pages 152-3 of the British edition of my book 'The Rage Against God' he will find there particularly the remarks published on RichardDawkins.net on 15th May 2006...