I've been looking for this interview for a couple of years now. I remember the very quotable final point he raised and have been looking for it ever since!
Interesting new interview, thanks. A pity it had to take place in a cupboard rather than a drawing room lined with books, a nice lamp etc. This would have given it gravitas :)
I admire the honest realism of mr. Hitchens. I think we do live in an age of pessimism which I consider to be healthy in comparison to the over the top optimism of 90's and early 2000's when everybody in the political sphere were about "end of history" globalism.
What Peter presented as declining economic prospects for the citizens of Europe is a trend applying to Western, industrialised, advanced economies generally. The prime movers have been global capitalism and predatory financial services, generating extreme income inequality and overpowering the voices for progressive development.
If you are the biggest economic power in Europe you bound to have a say.Britain did the damage all by itself by allowing industries to be destroyed.You can go on forever why but it did happen.
I'm 3 years off being a millennial and I find it simply astonishing at the state of politics in this country.. the fact that this man has ever been demonised in any way for having 'sensible' views amazes me to this day. I'm guessing that my peers will gradually grow conservative as they age but right now I would say that pretty much 99% of the people I know think its fashionable to lean left and spout views they've never even thought about. Pointless rant right here.
I agree 💯 with your assessment completely and ay dan. I'm here in the states and we really have a one party system with our Red and blue 🤡🎪🎡🎠. People here are stuck in an ideology instead of being American with believing non sensical talking points with I'm on your side. They're really laughing all the way to the bank.
Can't really disagree with any of that but was slightly baffled by his rather blasé dismissal of Merkel's Asylpolitik as if it were a simple mistake or an under estimation of the potential numbers involved-she remained leader of the CDU until only a few day ago and remains Chancellor until 2020.
Independence from who? There is no point whatsoever in leaving the U.K and going directly to Brussels to be told what to do, rather than being told what to do by Brussels via London.
@@stuartbritain8529 Open your eyes! The U.K. is declining since 100 years. No surprise it is the worst European country in handling corona. There is no future for the kingdom. Our common way is ending. Ireland will unit and Scotland will be independent.
Have to agree with you and actually you will find that both Peter and Christopher Hitchens both agree that the UK has been in decline since World War 1, they shared that view (which was very rare when it comes to the Hitchens brothers when Christopher was alive) Peter also would rather Scotland stayed as a part of the United Kingdom but recognises and encourages that if we vote to leave or have an appetite to leave then we absolutely must have our independence. I personally... Will vote SNP until we gain independence. When we are independent I will be voting for whatever party doesn't want us to rejoin the EU but instead go the Scandinavian route to the single market. But, if Scotland votes to rejoi the EU then so be it because I would rather be in the EU than the UK in its current form. The UK only offers us unfuncional democracy and we cannot keep walking down this undemocratic path where we keep getting governments that do not reflect the political will of our country. At least in Europe, we get veto powers. We just cannot afford to make the same mistake as we and the British electorate have been guilty of which is LOW TURNOUT in EU elections therfore having MEPs represent us - inaccurately
May the ship lapped and varnished tentacles of the Trumpet Queen sing that holy song, until the mountains of the gong people surrenders it's frozen bounty.
I agree with much of what PH says but there are some aspects of his views which undermine his whole rather fatalist outlook somewhat. The first of these is the underpinnings of Germany's "inevitable" position in Europe. Germany's population may be big but it was was also declining fast. There is no reason for any of the political establishments in other country's around Europe to simply allow Germany to dictate the continent's European immigration policy......unless they were conducting the same illegal covert policy in their own backyards. There is nothing "inevitable" at all about Germany's position just a weakness and lack of fight a vision within the other nation's political leaderships to combat it. That lack of leadership is a direct result of their being no democracies in Europe upon which an energetic response might arise. Another aspect of this is he might well have "nothing against people wanting to improve their lives" but its just as egregiously illegal for governments (and parliaments) to encourage and facilitate their entry into places like the UK as it for them to wage their dirty wars abroad. Peter has to try to come to terms with the fact that we are SUPPOSED to be a democracy (and by Christ our people have expended enough blood to demand the right to secure such a future from its political overlords) and the bare minimum for a functioning democracy is for its membership to control absolutely who is allowed to join it (for that membership is also SUPPOSED, in a democracy, to determine its political future). Given that's not the case these "migrants" are ALL here illegally. I'm not just talking about the ones who have come in the last decade or those here by virtue of EU policy but ALL those (and their descendants) who are here by virtue of illegal immigrations policies imposed by successive Westminster parliaments since 1945. There is not the minutest democratic legitimacy for any of it....but PH steadfastly refuses to point that particular fact out. Its one thing to complain of what it has done to country's like the UK but its quite another to call it outright for what it is, an egregiously criminal act amounting to an act of HIGH TREASON. Until he says those words I have no time for his complaints about it. Without facing that reality its no wonder he is fatalistic. Without facing that reality we are sure to be right back where we were as a nation (indeed a continent) as we were centuries ago.
Saw Peter on bbc2. He was all over the place. Didn't vote in the referendum because he doesn't like Referendums! But agrees that we shouldn't have been in in the first place! Seems everyone is thick except him.! WTF
6 лет назад
he didnt support the referendum because he believed without it the conservative party would decline and ultimately disappear and be replaced by an actual conservative party instead the tories got a gift that was vote for us we will do brexit and it breathed new life into the conservatives who dont believe in leaving the union anyway
No mate, you're just too thick to separate concerns in your mind. It's actually really simple his position and not contradictory at all, whether you agree or not. Saying he's 'all over the palce' is just you showing how dumb you are don't vote or breed
Here he goes again! This nonsense about the Russian word for "safety" - безопасность - being a negative word because it begins with the preposition for "without" and that THEREFORE this indicates that the Russians have a unique attitude to national security. Oh, really, Peter? Well then perhaps you could explain why the word for "safety" in Polish (bezpieczeństwo), Czech (bezpečnost), Bulgarian (безопасност), and Serbian (безбедност) are virtually identical to the Russian, since they all derive from the original proto-Slavic word. Does this mean the entire Slavic ethnic group all share the same concept of "security"? Best stick to what you know, Mr. Hitchens, rather than fantasising about connections between languages and "inherent national attitudes." You don't have to be a polyglot to know this, either. A few clicks and some typing on Google Translate would have informed you of this simple fact. Too enamoured of your pet theory to check it, eh?
Good point, but his purpose in bringing up 'безопасность' is to suggest that the Russians live in existential fear of being attacked, which doesn't seem to me to be much different from the how other Slavic nations view their neighbors. Historically, Poland is scared of being attacked by Russia/Germany, Czechia scared of Austria/Germany, Slovakia scared of Hungary, Ukraine scared of Poland/Russia, etc.
