Peter Hitchens's Blog, page 4

My latest article for Compact about why Ukraine Shouldn't Join NATO

....may be read here 

 

https://compactmag.com/article/ukraine-shouldn-t-join-nato

Why Have We So Willingly Surrendered to the Abolition of Personal Service?

Why have we co-operated so readily in the destruction of personal service? I admit that I was fooled by the introduction of cashpoint machines. At last, I didn���t need to worry about getting to the bank before it closed, and writing a cheque for the cash I needed. It did not then cross my mind that it would lead to the accelerating disappearance of actual banks. How stupid I was. The other week, the branch of Lloyds in North Oxford where I opened my first savings account 60 years ago was closed...

NATO is like Tinkerbell. If People Don't Believe in It, it will Die. Do not Over-rate its Power to Keep the Peace.

This is Peter Hitchens's Mail on Sunday Column

 

Here are two good rules, confirmed by history, to bear in mind. It is very dangerous to assume that any sort of alliance or diplomacy can deter or control a country which does not think it is defeated, or thinks it has been wronged. And powerful states do not always keep promises to defend small weak countries against aggression. 

 

For example, for 75 years from 1870, Germany was the main threat to peace in Europe. In that year, the Prussian...

The Hated Peter Hitchens Speaks on Pessimism, Eeyore and Personal Questions

You may read the interview, with Premier Christian Radio, here:

 

https://www.premierchristianity.com/interviews/the-hated-peter-hitchens-on-pessimism-divine-grace-and-burning-his-bible/15818.article

What is conservative about privatisation?

This is Peter Hitchens's Mail on Sunday Column

 

What is conservative about privatisation? What has it conserved? How has it helped the nation be stronger and safer? 

Though there are many more, I will take just three examples. Once, Britain had a first-rate nuclear power industry and could build its own atomic power stations. Then we privatised that and decades of experience and wisdom were scattered to the winds. And now we have to get the Chinese, a despotic menace, to provide the nuclear ...

The 999 System Cannot Work Unless We Reinstate Police Foot Patrols

This article was published in the Daily Mail of Thursday 29th June

 

How much longer can we rely on the 999 system for emergency calls? Is it in fact so overloaded that it is nowadays very nearly fictional? Last Sunday much of the emergency phone service broke down, with uncounted 999 calls failing to connect and one local council actually advising people to go their nearest fire station if they wanted to alert the fire brigade. This suggestion met a chorus of jeers on social media. One reside...

Why I Spent Last Week in Prison

I spent last week in prison. I know prison is where quite a lot of my left-wing enemies want me to be, but this was by my own choice. I was taking part in what I believe is a tremendous and important Channel Four documentary series. It was an experiment that can almost certainly never be repeated. People such as me, soft and safe individuals who have lived far from evil and danger for most of their lives, were exposed to life behind bars in a frighteningly realistic way. As well as me, these inc...

I saw a putsch in Moscow when I was there in 1991 and I pray there will never be another. You should too

I say 'Thank God!'  if what looked like Civil War in Russia really has been averted. I hate to think what would have happened to the endlessly oppressed, repeatedly robbed stoical, brave Russian people if civil war had come to that country again. I was in Moscow the last time its government was overthrown in a coup d���etat, and I do not recommend such events for people of a nervous disposition. Dig almost anywhere in Russia and you find human bones with the marks of murder on them. The country ...

There is still time for us to do right ��� and save Assange from dying in a US dungeon

This is Peter Hitchens's Mail on Sunday column

There is still just time for our Government to do a good, brave deed, which will be recognised as such decades hence. There is still just time for prominent figures in politics and the media to place themselves on the side of justice and liberty, where they ought always to be.

Julian Assange must not be extradited to the US, for such an action will shame our country.

If in doubt they should consider the very similar case of Daniel Ellsberg, who h...

The Low Door in the Wall :My new column for The Lamp magazine

May be read here:

 

https://thelampmagazine.com/blog/the-low-door-in-the-wall