Mystic Hitchens Was Wrong - Official

What follows is an extended response to a timely and justified criticism from Mr Wylie in the ‘Boris Johnson’ thread.

 

Mr Wylie asked :

 

‘Recently Mr Hitchens commented on the courage of one of his readers for his willingness to rethink his stance on addiction. Can I ask Mr Hitchens when he will have the courage to admit that he was wrong on his predicted split of the Coalition Government, by the Spring of 2014, through some sort of manufactured row between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, and that Vince Cable would take over from Nick Clegg as leader of the Liberal Democrats, following Nick Clegg’s appointment as a European Commissioner. These were views that Mr Hitchens expressed in his blog on 25th November 2011, 4th March 2012, 15th July 2012, and then on 17th May 2013, bafflingly under the headline ‘MYSTIC HITCHENS IS RIGHT AGAIN’, even though the events he had forecast had not actually happened yet. Come on Mr Hitchens, show your courage and admit that you got this one wrong.

 

I replied ( as soon as I saw his comment in the queue): ‘Mr Wylie asks :' Can I ask Mr Hitchens when he will have the courage to admit that he was wrong on his predicted split of the Coalition Government, by the Spring of 2014, through some sort of manufactured row between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, and that Vince Cable would take over from Nick Clegg as leader of the Liberal Democrats, following Nick Clegg’s appointment as a European Commissioner. ' Mr Wylie is quite right , and he has pricked my conscience. I have been meaning to address this for some time, and will do so (with full admission of error) in a proper post soon. But yes, I was wrong.'

 

 

 

I repeat, my prediction was wrong.

 

I won’t offer any defence, as such, simply say that in my view the Coalition Parties would have been more sensible if they had done what I predicted. I am sure such an arrangement was considered. Could it be that it didn’t happen because a planned putsch against Nick Clegg failed? The whole affair certainly had the look of a botched coup to me.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2640629/Et-tu-Vince-Cables-best-friend-revealed-putsch-topple-Clegg-Lord-Oakeshott-paid-opinion-poll-said-lead-party-disaster.html

 

 

What they have done instead is an elaborate distancing act, in which Mr Cameron and his colleagues attempt to give the impression that they have woken from a long liberal sleep and become conservatives ‘initiatives’ about welfare. Immigration, crime, the EU etc) , and the Liberal Democrats are increasingly publicly critical of those areas of coalition policy with which they disagree.

 

My only puzzle is why Mr Clegg wants to stay in Coalition to the bitter end, and why his MPs are ready to let him do so. Maybe they just decided that nothing could save them.

 

The Tories, as was plain from the appalling spin they successfully foisted on their media toadies after the Euro-elections, genuinely believe their own propaganda, that they can win outright, that Labour were the main losers in May (statistically this is blatantly untrue) and have pinned almost everything on the so-called (buy them) ‘Kill Mill’ strategy.

 

This aims to mock and diminish Ed Miliband to such an extent that he becomes as much of a liability as Gordon Brown was (after a similarly disreputable  campaign of personal vilification) in the last election. It had not occurred to me when I made my prediction that British politics had now sunk to such a puerile level. I apologize for failing to realise the depths to which the Tory machine would sink, and the willingness of the media circus to go along with this.

 

Mind you, I should have realised that. After all, if there’s no earthly reason to vote Tory, the only thing you can do is to smear the other side.