Peter Hitchens

I am always interested to read what Peter Hitchens has to say in the Mail On Sunday each week. It is supposed to be a pay-to-read column, but because of having to read using text-to-speech, I came upon a way to see it online for free by chance. 

He tends to be seen as someone with views very much to the political right, but actually he is more of a contrarian. Certainly, he is no supporter of the Labour Party, but he is no fan of the Conservatives either, because, he says, they are not conservative. They do not conserve anything and have not done so for 45 years. Indeed, he blames Margaret Thatcher for much of the deterioration in modern Britain as we know it today. 

Thatcher, for example, had the idea of privatising the railways and water companies, both terrible disasters, although carried out later. She removed the sensible old pub licencing laws, creating the drunkenness and violence that blights every city centre every weekend, with bouncers on every pub door for the trouble they know is coming, and the mess and expense of cleaning it up. She allowed the licencing of no-win no-fee lawyers, creating exaggerated health and safety panics that shut down trains and parks, and cost us all dearly in enquiries and speculative legal actions. She failed to save the grammar schools which did so much for equality of opportunity, and tried to cut the navy, and would have been unable to defend the Falklands. These were not conservative acts. 

He has many opinions I disagree with, but at least unlike many of the moaning minions on Blogland, they are well informed and well argued. I think that essentially he liked the Britain he grew up in, and regrets the changes that have taken place. With a number of caveats, he is not alone in that. Unfortunately, he can come across as rather arrogant. 

He has two long standing causes I am completely persuaded by, that he has been writing repeatedly about for years. 

One is the harm caused by cannabis. It is fashionable to call for its legalisation, and argue that it is harmless, but, actually, it causes a great deal of damage to society and its users. Long term use reduces the ability to care about anything. It takes away motivation. 

Nearly all the so-called terrorist attacks and mass stabbings and shootings are extreme cases. The evidence is over whelming, but it is ignored. Only now may a few psychiatrists and police be beginning to wake up to the problems. The Nottingham and Southport murders, and the recent train attack in Huntington, all have the stink of cannabis. They were not the result of terrorism. They are the actions of drug crazed nutters.  

The second cause is that of Lucy Letby. She was found guilty of murdering very ill new-born babies in the hospital where she worked, and has been sentenced to spend the rest of her life in prison, but increasing numbers of expert doctors and legal experts are beginning to believe that a massive miscarriage of justice has taken place. The evidence simply does not support her guilt. Indeed, there is no clear evidence that a crime of any kind has taken place at all. It seems that the police and the hospitals decided she was guilty and then looked for reasons to support it. It is beyond appalling that this could happen to someone under British justice today, where there is supposed to be the presumption of innocence unless proved guilty. It could be you or me. Calls for a retrial have so far been dismissed.