Has the Left Stopped Thinking? Part 5: Peter Hitchens

To mark the announcement of the 2008 Shortlists, the Orwell Prize hosted a debate (sponsored by Reuters) entitled 'Has the Left Stopped Thinking?'. The panellists were Matthew Parris (former Conservative MP, Times columnist and former Orwell Prize winner), Jean Seaton (Chair of the Orwell Prize, professor of media history at the University of Westminster), Greg Clark MP (Conservative, Shadow Cabinet Office Minister), Dr Denis MacShane MP (Labour, former Europe Minister), Peter Hitchens (columnist, The Mail on Sunday) and Will Hutton (chief executive of the Work Foundation, and Observer columnist and former editor). The debate was chaired by Sean Maguire (Editor -- Political and General News, Reuters). Filmed by Jack Lancaster, edited by Jack Lancaster and Amy Downes. Further editing by Gavin Freeguard.

[@TomorrowWeLive]

Some would say they never started...

[@RTN1994]

Thank you!

[@burtingtune]

Hitchen's arguments are better understood after reading The Abolition of Britain: they aren't simple and need elaboration.

[@arvidfalk5719]

And then he got the prize. One just needs to insist in a very subtle way....

[@Doransdomain]

Legendary

[@kzearo]

" ... their response is a blank refusal to listen and a characterisation of the critic as pathologically deformed" Haha very funny. Also very true. I find it hard to believe that anyone - including those panelists - could truthfully disagree with Peter's analysis of the Modern Left. A very incisive speech.

[@eirefrance]

If I may provide an example. My mother was not married to my father and I was an accident. My father left her as soon as he discovered that. She remarried a man she met on a hippie commune a year later and he adopted me. I proudly have his last name and he has always treated me as his son and I love him and consider him my father in every way. I was born out of wedlock but a good man came along and gave me a father, not because I was his child but because he is a good man.

[@Zen0xious]

It's not about what he looks like it's about what he's saying, and what he's saying is true. Personally I don't care how he came to these conclusion, but the accuracy of those conclusions is enough for me.

[@eirefrance]

Feel free to send me the links. I'm never adverse to learning a little bit.

[@relarerfhjk]

when i emtnioned free speech codes, I was not only referring to national legislation, but rather the baleful influence of political correctness on the speech codes in,for example,college campuses, where Professors have been sacked,speakers prevented from speaking,and students taken off student radio/newspapers, for expressing the "wrong" view on feminism, abortion or gay marriage, this is a disgusting left-wing attack on free thought

[@eirefrance]

Well, I'm glad to hear that. I can see we disagree on some things, but I prioritize my political beliefs. #1 on that list is my country and the rights, freedoms, checks and balances that must exist for the free citizen to remain a free citizen.

[@relarerfhjk]

yes,I am offended by the cases you mentioned, though a seminary is different from a University,as seminaries require adherence to a set of beliefs which Universities do not! But Larry Summers did not even argue that women were different from men,even though research confirms this,he merely called for more research into it! and thats enough to get forced out of Harvard? what kind of an academic institution gets rid of someone who calls for academic research?

[@eirefrance]

I just listened to the clip of Peter Hitchens attacking David Milliband about the war on terror. I noticed you had a comment there to, so you must have listened to it. Its amazing how everything Hitchens said could just have come, verbatim, out of the mouth of most leftists in my country. I myself have said just what he did many times. You should realize that, if you're honestly opposed to the things he says, there are millions on the Left you could join with.

[@kzearo]

You probably didn't understand most of what he was saying in that clip.

[@eirefrance]

I understand that. I mentioned my adoptive father, and I'm sure I'm better off as a person because of it. But I can attest to that fact that poverty is destructive to children. Although I took my parents work ethic to heart and worked hard to get out of poverty, I saw the effect on those around me, including those with two parents. Drug abuse, crime and fucked up views of sexualities.

[@richardabbot8724]

Leftism by Erik Von Kuenneldt Leddihn explains perfectly the black void at the heart of this movement

[@eirefrance]

Not moving FAR ENOUGH to the Right has nothing to do with not moving to the Right at all. Especially on economic issues, he definitely moved to the Right.

[@relarerfhjk]

My stance on the war is very normative for someone on the Right in my country.I didnt say gay people abuse children any more than heterosexuals..I never said any group of people were morally superior to any other group.Rather,it is marriage, the insitution, that has "moral superiority" over any other type of relationship,because it alone provides a framework in which children can be conceived in lifelong union,and in which adults must make and keep, promises to each other,and their kids.

[@eirefrance]

Thats how you respond to a joke? Okay, then.

[@eirefrance]

I haven't defended Summers' resignation. I simply point out that to attack it as an example of political correctness is dishonest. People overreacted because he offended their sensibilities long before he ever made the remark (Cornel West, ROTC, getting wealthy off globalization at the expense of the poor & the World Bank report on exporting polluting companies to poor countries), but he was not forced from his job. Like any leader who has lost the confidence of his flock, he stepped down.