Peter Hitchens: "Does Our Government Have Any Right to Rule Us?" at Bristol University 

You know something: aside from my agreement with Hitchen's on many issues I think the man has style. This post-Trotskyist-metro-Anglican thing he's got going is, for lack of a better term, pretty cool.

I hope the students now have a moral compass after having the privilege of listening to Based Hitchens for an hour

Peter is a highly skilled speaker, incredibly insightful and very knowledgeable. Would be good if the government would take some of his advice...

1. Replace the Monarch with Based Hitchens (Peter) 2. Give full constitutional power to the Monarchy Problem solved

Journalism Society has had such good speakers. Wish UBTV could learn how to film from a proper angle and record audio from the speakers microphone.

"I would remind you that extremism in the defence of liberty is no vice." "And let me remind you also, that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."

Can we go back to having an absolute monarchy and a scattering of parish councils across the countryside?

Regarding the United States of Europe and the UK losing its sovereignty, Mr. Hitchens tells us "People did know, but actually they didn't care". This issue was spoken of, but only by the likes of Enoch Powell and Tony Benn, the mainstream politicians were all on about trade (and never touched on the issue of national sovereignty). Moreover, the government assured us that the UK had a veto on everything that the EEC might do. Therefore, since so many of the public didn't want their country to lose sovereignty, the British government would veto any moves towards the formation of a United States of Europe. Whatever happened to that veto?

The person who set up that microphone needs a slap.

Hitchens borders on comic genius sometimes with his matter of fact deadpan manner - "It doesn't matter to me, I'll be dead soon". I guffawed quite a lot at that casually made remark.

Bloody legend

What he says is correct, but its so self-evident I wonder why he had to say it at all. I have maintained exactly what he says here for most of my adult life (nearly 40 years now). You can tell whether a country is democratic IF it protects and supports 2 fundamental principles 1. Its citizens are in control of who they choose to govern AND 2. Whether the citizens get to choose who is permitted into the membership who gets to choose who governs them. Parliaments attitude to the EU and immigration PROVE that they despise and deny both principles.

Any way of adding subtitles to the audience questions?

FFS it's not hard to tie in the microphone feed to the video feed.

Hitchens is so based in morality I can hardly believe he can move his legs

sound quality is shocking

incredibly bad sound quality. reverberation and almost some feedback. had to raise output to 100% and still barely heard peter, yet turn down to 25% for audience - which i still couldn't hear because they were eating the mic, and then 5% for thunderous applauds.

great talk as always by Peter Hitchens although for a guy who diagnosis well the problem of broken politics and the political match fixing between two or three or four major parties that are barely indistinguishable his wanting to conserve anachronistic the House of Lords, maintain first past the post as opposed to serious electoral reform like proportional representation, and call for just 'limited spending' as opposed to be no corporate money and major bankrollers is quite contradictory and just maintains the problems and endless downward spiral of British politics and parties not representing their true supporters.

If, as seems possible, the brexit referendum result is overturned by parliament without further reference to the electorate (or is rigged by, say, a referendum offering two sorts of not-really-leave and one sort of remain) then I believe we might just see the creation of a new party and the demise of one, or both of the main parties (just as the Liberals shrank after the rise of the Labour party). Given that the EU is likely to be destroyed by the departure of Italy and/or France if it persists with its intransigence perhaps this, in the long term, would be an even better outcome for the UK than the half-hearted brexit that either of the current parties is perhaps going to deliver. BTW - as a former student of the physics department at Bristol I hope very much that it was not a student of that department who was responsible for the quality of this recording!

Sound quality, as at the Cambridge event, utterly awful, what is that roar, air conditioning?

why did he lower the microphone?

The government has no right to rule. Representatives are elected. Laws are made. The states choose legislation via debate/majority process, old as the hills. People agree or not. Courts decide on a case-by- case (individual) basis and on precedent following established due process. Any disagreement(s) proceed to arbitration or committee - the will of the people comes to be recognized through the ballot, peaceful assembly, and lawful process. That is why the government cannot be sued (originally), because the state is not a party, but a lawgiver belonging to and issuing from the people themselves. (The people are the government and ergo cannot sue themselves). The facts are readily available to everyone, and there is the long and short of it..... love you Brits! Long live and all that ; ) ! ! !

Don't usually agree with Peter Hitchens but on the subject the Tories attempt to spy on us, I definitely do.

Morality Man's natural whistle needs some insane amount de-Essing compression in order to combat that sibilance.

An act passed in 1984!!!!!

NO. NO they don't. They are public servants. PERIOD. Their job is to do what the people tell them to. They are there to protect our borders and property rights.

Peter is so punk

Peter (all) If you put the 'dumbing down' of the British population in historical context, it is an attempt to establish a secular version of christianity under pseudo-scientifc argument, and the closure of the church, and the extermination of the aristocracy, using forcible conversion by the state, using the same aggressive means that christianity was a successful attempt to establish a mystical christianity, using forcible conversion by the state, and the closure of the pagan temples and stoic schools, and the extermination of the aristocratic families. In the modern era, feminism and socialism and the attack on marriage and family have caused a population collapse as great as any plague in history. In the ancient era, the transfer of rates of reproduction from the middle and upper class to the lower classes, plus rapid immigration by the lower classes, was followed by devastating plagues that left the western roman empire indefensible. Our middle ages did not experience immigration, so we survived that plague. IN the ancient and modern world we did not, and may not unless we learn from it. In this context there is no difference between the prelude to the dark ages in the collapsing roman empire, and the prelude to another dark age in the collapse of the British empire. There is no talk necessary. We will destroy, fight and kill, or be little more than the priests at Lindesfarne as the boat people come to steal from us. Curt Doolittle The Philosophy of Aristocracy The Propertarian Institute Kiev, Ukraine

Dukes, earls, and aristocratic ruled Poland! The nation disappeared, because they got better deals with our neighbours. Self-interest at it’s best! Hopefully, Britain will not!

Pardon?

This would be banned in 2022