Alas Vine & Hitchens

By: Daily Mail
Listen for free

  • Summary

  • What's the Big Idea? Finally, Sarah Vine (once memorably described as being ‘like and loathed in equal measure, divisive, but never indecisive’) and Peter Hitchens (a man whose writing a critic was called to compare to a Guardsman’s boot: ‘as highly polished and potentially lethal’) meet once a week to look at the world and mutter, alas… Acclaimed columnist and journalist Sarah Vine and best-selling author and broadcaster Peter Hitchens discuss and dissect social, economic, and pop cultural flotsam and jetsam that have risen out of the dark waters of that week’s news. Taking one big idea each episode and pulling it apart with élan, imagine Vine and Hitchens respective columns brought to life and then skewered, scoffed at, debated, and given the full weight of Vine and Hitchens impenetrable gaze. Though an accord might not always be reached, it’s the journey that matters. Whether it’s the tech bros gone rogue – Meta tearing up its own rule book on fact checking, Musk attempting to influence governmental policy, or the knotty subject on society’s ever-increasing reliance on anti-depressants to treat what might just be the modern malaise and not depression at all. Or, evil, nature or nurture? Does evil actually exist or is it an idea that hangs over us, or do we just sometime embody it and the actions themselves are evil, not the individual? All this and more are to be pored over, one towering topic each week discussed with humour, insight, and real understanding. Take part in our listener survey here: https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=9#? To get in touch email alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on WhatsApp - on 07796 657512 start your message with the word 'alas' Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens Producer: Phillip Wilding Editor: Chelsey Moore Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini Executive Producer: Jamie East A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular
    Daily Mail
    Show More Show Less
Political Science Politics & Government
Show More Show Less
Episodes
  • Turn off your TV and Bloody Taxes

    Turn off your TV and Bloody Taxes
    Apr 23 2025
    Not unlike the Rolling Stones, Peter Hitchens is ready to toss his TV through the nearest window. He’s in accord with the late, great Groucho Marx who was once moved to remark: "I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book." Once forced to rent a TV to watch the news before being quickly lured towards shows like Minder, Peter is now wary of the television, to the point he blames it for a lot of the world’s woes. Tune in for that. And as the customer friendly ad for the Inland revenue insisted, tax doesn’t have to be taxing. Try telling that to Sarah and her circle of friends who have tried and failed to reach the HMRC to query a bill or simply get help. The revenue sent bailiffs to the door of one friend, while another chum had to draw down part of their pension to meet a tax demand. So, here’s the question, why are the inland revenue so awful and insistent on treating people like criminals? On our reading and watching list this week: · The Wonder Years · Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business – Neil Postman · The Great Tax Robbery: How Britain Became A Tax Haven For Fat Cats And Big Business – Richard Brooks To get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’. Take our show survey at: https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=9 Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens Producer: Philip Wilding Editor: Chelsey Moore Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini Executive Producer: Jamie East A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
    Show More Show Less
    35 mins
  • Birmingham’s Bulging Bins and the end of the Toby Carvery Tree

    Birmingham’s Bulging Bins and the end of the Toby Carvery Tree
    Apr 16 2025
    Sarah Vine wants to bin it off. Though given the decline in public services nationwide, that’s getting harder and harder to do. As the Birmingham bin strike rolls on, the council declares itself bankrupt and rats invade the city’s streets, we ask what the hell is going on with our public services and is this just part of a wider societal malaise? Also, could someone please take this rubbish away? They were once the so-called lungs of the earth, but as a centuries-old oak tree with “more ecological value than the Sycamore Gap tree” is hacked down by owners of a nearby Toby Carvery, Peter Hitchens asks why we’re chopping down our majestic, sometimes ancient trees and why is it so damn easy to destroy something so beautiful and filled with life? Also, how do say crikey, exactly? On our reading list this week: · The Fifth Estate: Britain's Unions in the Seventies – Robert Taylor · The Magic Faraway Tree – Enid Blyton · Tiger Tim’s Annual 1937 To get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’. Take our show survey at: https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=9 Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens Producer: Philip Wilding Editor: Chelsey Moore Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini Executive Producer: Jamie East A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
    Show More Show Less
    33 mins
  • Drinking Swamp Broth and why our Police Forces are Failing Us

    Drinking Swamp Broth and why our Police Forces are Failing Us
    Apr 9 2025
    Peter Hitchens hates to be blunt about these things, well, not really, but he’d really like to know why the police are so useless. And not in one specific instance or area, but generally. No coppers on the beat, rarely answering emergency calls and heaven forfend they actually bang someone up. What happened to policing in the UK? While Sarah has spent her week at a wellness centre (don’t call it a fat farm), and while she has returned glowing like a rare gem, she did manage to put some weight on. But did a week of wheatgrass colonics, waddling about and living on liquids take her to some higher spiritual ground? Possibly… On our reading list this week: · The Abolition of Liberty – Peter Hitchens · Broken Windows: The Police and Neighborhood Safety - George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson · The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma Paperback – M.D. Bessel van der Kolk To get in touch, email: alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’. Take our show survey at: https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=9 Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens Producer: Philip Wilding Editor: Chelsey Moore Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini Executive Producer: Jamie East A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
    Show More Show Less
    43 mins

What listeners say about Alas Vine & Hitchens

Average customer ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Audible.co.uk reviews

Amazon reviews
No Reviews are Available