Peter Hitchens's Blog, page 350

Not all that Cordiale an Entente, and other matters

Mr 'J.R.Hartley' has actually raised one new question in the otherwise exhausted subject of our supposed Finest Hour. Mr 'Hartley' writes: 'Britain could have stayed out of the war in 1914 saving something like 1 million lives but we were obliged to uphold the sovereignty of Belgium, wasn't the Entente Cordiale still in place in 1939 & didn't the UK have alliances on the continent at this time?'

I don't want to start an argument about 1914 just now. But as far as I know our guarantee to...

Travelling

I shall be travelling for the next few days and won't be posting anything except my Mail on Sunday column.

A Final Word

On the finest hour. People are now popping up in this discussion who seem not to have read the earlier threads on the same subject. I suggest they do so, especially one 'J.R.Hartley' (fine book on fishing, JR) before rehearsing questions that have already been quite thoroughly answered.

I am grateful for the words of Michael Williamson, valuable not least because he is among my more stringent and unforgiving critics here.

'I am at a loss to understand why the very simple argument put forward...

Pride and Prejudice

Many years ago I decided that I was puzzled by a number of things that were going on around me, that nobody was doing anything about. Why did our society seem to have become so coarse and inconsiderate? Why had the police disappeared from the streets? Why did I no longer feel that they were my allies? What was crime? Why did the prison population keep on going up and up, while the number of offences committed rose at the same time? Why were the schools so bad? Why did we seem, as a people...

This mugger-hugger knows the truth, just like the 'all mouth and no truncheon' phoney

This is Peter Hitchens' Mail on Sunday column

I agree completely with that awful old wet liberal Ken Clarke. Talking about politicians and crime, he says 'the failure of the past has been to use tough rhetoric and to avoid taking tough decisions that might prove unpopular'.

Quite. I would much rather have an honest, straightforward mugger-hugger like Ken in charge, weeping and snuffling about rehabilitation and similar rubbish, than a false friend of the people like that phoney hard man...

Let Me Explain...

...A little more about the point of the 'Finest Hour' argument, first taken up by 'Stan', and now by 'HM'. The posting by 'HM' suggests that my main purpose is still eluding some readers, who seek to give me motives and opinions I don't have rather than recognise what is at issue here.

I reproduce below what 'HM' wrote (1st July, 9.16 pm, on the 'Demetriou Conundrum' thread), interleaving my comments in rebuttal and explanation:

'HM' 'Yes, the point is clear now. If it had not been for the...

The 'Demetriou' Conundrum and other topics

Mr 'Demetriou' complains that I classify him as one of the less thoughtful readers here. Why have I done this? Well, take for instance this comment from Mr 'Demetriou': 'It is sad to watch Hitchens founder as he tries desperately to comment with any competence on matters relating to economics and national or international finance.' As it happens, I make no claims to expertise in economics. But if I have 'foundered', as he asserts (I think he intends to say 'flounder'), in my comments on the...

The Last of the Wine

This posting won't all be about Mary Renault (who by the way did not pronounce her name like the French car, but so that the second syllable rhymed with 'fault'). But because several readers responded to my complaint that my postings on books did not seem much appreciated, part of it will be about her. The rest will be some general responses.

I have been meaning to read these books - mostly novels about classical Greece - for years, but never quite getting round to it. I began to do so thanks...

The History Boys

Please don't read this if you find history dull. It is not for you. You do not have to, nay, really ought not to, trouble with it.  There is another item about football which you may well prefer. I received complaints last week for devoting some space to the arguments of 'Stan', and to the important controversy about the current received wisdom on the outbreak and origins of the Second World War.

I find this irritating. Our behaviour in the present is (or ought to be)  governed by what we...

Is Football A Pagan Cult?

Those of us who watch with puzzlement and even amusement as the nation convulses itself over the World Cup should take this thing more seriously than we do.

Clearly football satisfies some deep human need.

Otherwise why do all these flags fly from vans and hang from windowsills, why do millions of people sit in front of their TV sets on a blazing summer afternoon watching a not-specially-exciting game, involving 22 men chasing a bladder around a field, thousands of miles away?

Why do they yell...