Hi °C | Lo °C Peter Hitchens was on a bit of a charm offensive last night. Admittedly, the audience was about 60-40 in favour of the Mail on Sunday's fulminator-in-chief, but his gags got a decent hearing.
He can be quite funny, outlining his move from Left to Right, which as he noted everybody did back in the day, ie our parents' day, then finishing with “Who's weird, me or the liberals still wearing jeans?”
His technique exaggerates liberal nostrums in a Swiftian manner. Moderator Malachi O'Doherty turned the discussion to faith. Apparently, you can't have ethics without religion.
Hitchens didn't sound 100% convinced about the afterlife but touchingly said the last thing he'd said to his late brother Christopher was “Till we meet again”.
Hitchens was challenged best by a social worker, who asked his views on her homeless, drug addicted clients. He replied that the homeless weren't really homeless and should be with family.
Hitchens said the concept of addiction didn't exist, and that you might as well argue for aliens. I swear at that point a little green man entered the hall.
