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PODCAST

Alas Vine & Hitchens

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

news news commentary,

All Episodes

31:22

Loss of Hair, Life and Liberty

Alas Vine & Hitchens ·

2025/12/05

On this week’s episode, Sarah Vine addresses her thinning pate and loss of hair that has plagued her most of her adult life and why she’s now finally decided to cast her wig aside! Meanwhile, Peter looksat the incredible story ofNazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe, the woman held hostage by the same Iranian forces who took his friend prisoner too.Plus, Peter and Sarah ruminate on dual nationalities, Sarah’s Spotify wrap thinking she’s aged 75, if identity politics has damaged progress for the working class

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52:04

An Audience with Vine & Hitchens at St Peter’s...

Alas Vine & Hitchens ·

2025/12/03

On this week’s episode, Sarah and Peter travel toSt Peter's College, Oxford,where Peter ruminates on an increasingly unlikely peace deal in Ukraine, and Sarah begins by asking why Christmas starts earlier each year before regaling the student audience with tales of Christmas past more woeful that Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.Plus, Peter and Sarah take on all comers, and each other, with questions from the floor including the evolution of women’s role in the workplace (which goes off like a cheap

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39:48

Puberty Blockers, Save Our Juries and Tea with the DG

Alas Vine & Hitchens ·

2025/11/26

On this week’s episode, Sarah and Peterare asking why new trials for puberty blocking drugs in children have been announced after a government decided to ban it last year? And they’d really like to know why David Lammy would like to take our juries away from certain cases after once tweeting that the jury was the one of the pillars of our judicial system.Plus, which countries did Covid well? Why did the former BBC DG go around Sarah’s house once to ask about the future of the corporation and then

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39:51

Piggy, Lady Chatterley’s Lover and the late Leon Trotsky

Alas Vine & Hitchens ·

2025/11/19

On this week’s episode, Peter,once described as ‘godless Trotskyist’ by The Guardian,will be ruminating on the legacy of one Leon Trotsky while Sarah will be asking if it’s ever okay to call someone piggy, no matter if you are the leader of the free world or a so-called alternative comedian with a national newspaper column.Plus, debating Ann Coulter, Welsh authors you must read and why Peter’s literary avatar is Mr Badger while Sarah leans more towards Alice drifting through Wonderland.On our

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49:56

Cancel Culture and Something Rotten at the BBC

Alas Vine & Hitchens ·

2025/11/12

On this week’s episode, Peter and Sarah ask whycrazed ideologies seem to have taken root at the heart of both the BBC and the publishing world as we examine the corporation’s latest missteps and the scandalous case of author Kate Clanchy’s cancellation.Plus, being berated on social media over shots of your bookshelf, trying to take the train to Glasgow on a Sunday (a schoolgirl error) and why novels need more vivid descriptions of food and drink.On our reading and watch list this week:·Some Kids I

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42:49

(Prince) Andrew, Useless Architects and Awful Airport...

Alas Vine & Hitchens ·

2025/11/05

On this week’s episode, Peterwants to know if the government really going to strip Andrew of his Falkland campaign medals and, in the light of this week’s attack, Sarah will be asking what kind of security do our transport systems need to make us feel safe?Plus, don’t get them started on parking permit portals, underwired bras, and the awfulness of some architects, but do ask them what historical biographies you should read.On our reading and watch list this week:·Elysium – Dir: Neill Blomkamp·The

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40:10

The Hopeless Home Office and A Cosmic Car Crash

Alas Vine & Hitchens ·

2025/10/29

On this week’s episode,Peter will be asking why Britain’s infrastructure is so very awful and why are we concreting over so much over the countryside and then sticking ugly new buildings all over it. While Sarah is dumbfounded by the fact that the Home Office costs£23billion and spends it time blundering from one debacle to another.Plus, Sarah reveals what ministers really fight over. And the pair really can’t find any common ground when it comes to Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here.On our reading and

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42:44

The Covid Legacy and Now Is Not The Time

Alas Vine & Hitchens ·

2025/10/22

On this week’s episode,Peter is rejoicing in the news that the clocks revert to true time on Sunday, whatever that might mean, and Sarah is asking why the hell we closed down schools during the Covid 19 pandemic and what long-term damage it’s done to our kids.Plus, why does Sarah think politics in its current form is beyond saving, and why her dad had many, many accents. While Peter wonders if we’re seeing the monarchy’s endgame.On our reading and watch list this week:·P.G. Wodehouse–Big Money·Peter

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45:52

The End of Prince Andrew and What Did Thatcher Ever...

Alas Vine & Hitchens ·

2025/10/15

On this week’s episode, on what would have been Margaret Thatcher’s hundredth birthday, Peter and Sarah tussle over the former PM’s legacy, charisma and what she did or did not do for this country. Elsewhere, Sarah asks why should King Charles solve the problem that is Prince Andrew when the King’s brother should admit he’s a liability and retire from the public eye?Plus, where do our hosts like to holiday (Peter is not a beach bum for those who were curious)? What was Peter doing with the paparazzi

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38:41

Singing Bob Dylan on a Steep Hill and Health & Safety...

Alas Vine & Hitchens ·

2025/10/08

On this week’s episode, Peter and Sarah ask why parks shit down at the first sign of inclement weather? Why do under twenty-five-year-olds feel the need to rail against something, but not bother to read up on it first (we’ve all been there)? Elsewhere, Peter recalls chasing a bicycle thief while hitting him about the head with a bag of dirty laundry. Not to be outdone, Sarah admits to punching her brother in the face with her car keys, which should teach them both something about bringing up

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43:53

Digital IDs, Dinosaurs and Class A Drugs

Alas Vine & Hitchens ·

2025/10/01

On this week’s episode, Peter and Sarah debate the idea of Digital ID cards, wonder at the minutiae we’re obsessed with as a nation, also, what did Sarah make of Michael Gove’s admission of his drug taking past? And sticking with history, where would our intrepid pair travel to if they could go anywhere in time and what one artifact or memento would they bring back with them?On our reading and watch list this week:·The Lost World – Arthur Conan Doyle·Sneakers – Director:Phil Alden Robinson·Time Of

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36:17

The Cost of Health Tourism and Why Do We Kill?

Alas Vine & Hitchens ·

2025/09/24

On this week’s episode, Peter and Sarah tussle with medical tourism and bloody murder.Peter wants to know what drives an assassin to kill and Sarah is asking why we’re allowing our already overrun NHS to become a destination for so called health tourists.Elsewhere, modern Methodism, being heckled by Danny Kruger while he was still a staunch Tory and is it the Union Jack or Union Flag or can it be both? Tune in to find out.On our reading, watch and listening list this week:·Night Falls On The City –

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38:43

Our Submarine Fleet is Sunk and what to call Camilla

Alas Vine & Hitchens ·

2025/09/17

On this week’s episode, Peter, and Sarah struggle to think of Camilla as Queen but for quite different reasons, though Sarah did very much enjoy her cosy supper at Clarence House, not least the excellent wallpaper and furnishings.While both bemoan the sinking state of Britain’s submarine fleet, and Peter recalls the time it was leaked that we once leased our missiles from the US much to the fury of then PM Margaret Thatcher.Elsewhere, yet another listener has been dreaming of Peter, Peter and

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44:10

Fly the Flag, Sea Fences, and I Dream of Peter

Alas Vine & Hitchens ·

2025/09/10

On this week’s episode, Peter and Sarah discussvexillology,or flags for the layman. Not least how Peter was once saved by flying a rather tattered Union Jack while attempting to flee Somalia.While Sarah pores over our copious emails to mull over the suggestion from a listener that we take illegal migrants and put them in the army or at least to work.Elsewhere, someone’s been dreaming lucid dreams about Peter and our hosts bemoan the state of our ever-failing education system.On our reading, watch

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48:32

Nadine Dorries says Boris and Nigel should work...

Alas Vine & Hitchens ·

2025/09/06

In this exclusive episode, Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens managed to grab lady of the moment Nadine Dorries, fresh from her unveiling at Reform’s conference.They tackle the state of the right, where it all went wrong for the Conservatives, whether the union to end all unions if one the cards, and yes… whether singing on stage is an acceptable face of a serious party.It’s a hum-dinger - you won’t want to miss it.Please do get in touch, email:alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify

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52:33

Digital IDs, Daddy Issues and Dude, What’s My Car?

Alas Vine & Hitchens ·

2025/09/03

On this week’s episode, should we be worried about Keir Starmer’s digital IDs when, according to Sarah, we’re a slave to the digital idiom as it is. Not that Peter quite sees it like that.Nor do the pair see eye to eye on the raising of children and what staying at home means for the parents or baby. Voices were raised, thoughts were shared, it would be untrue to say compromises were met.Elsewhere, Peter doesn’t know what car he drives, its size he’s fairly sure of and that it can get him to the

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39:45

Headscarves, Hijabs and Underperforming Politicians

Alas Vine & Hitchens ·

2025/08/27

On this week’s episode, Sarah wondersif Kier Starmer’s perceived weakness in leadership might have kicked open the door for Nigel Farage to come through? And Peter would like to ask;the hijab, a sign of oppression, or something that as a society should make us think more?Elsewhere, did any government in living memory impress Peter? Don’t count on it. Why did Christopher Hitchens once storm out of The Great Lives recording studio and who did our hosts choose to revere when it came to their turn in

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41:15

Porous Pension Pots and Please Appease Me

Alas Vine & Hitchens ·

2025/08/20

On this week’s episode, Sarah wonders if it’s worth putting into your pension pot anymore as new government policies promise to make your golden years anything but. While Peter would like to ask why does nobody likes appeasement until it suits them? Not that Sarah can help with that, she’s one of life’s great appeasers.Elsewhere, all things considered, Peter would rather be a rich Edwardian, Sarah misses Swansea and one of our presenters gives a spirited rendition of the rallying cry of fans of the

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1:00:17

The Not So Great War and Does Counselling Really Work?

Alas Vine & Hitchens ·

2025/08/13

Peter would like to know why Britain slept walk in to the First World War and what our country might look like if we’d never stumbled into that national tragedy.Elsewhere, Sarah and Peter pore over our bag of electronic mail and ruminate on everything from the benefits of counselling (Sarah is for it, Peter less so), how to write a novel – not that either have – the power of Billy Wilder’s The Apartment and how Peter never actually ran with a motorcycle gang and why he’ll never wear a leather jacket

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55:10

The Case For and Against Lucy Letby and Rise of the...

Alas Vine & Hitchens ·

2025/08/06

In light of the recent documentary, Lucy Letby: Beyond Reasonable Doubt? Peter reiterates his call for a retrial of the convicted nurse.Elsewhere, Sarah asks if students are so worried about AI spoiling their chances of building a career, then why are they all using ChatGPT to write their exam papers?Also, Peter’s written a thriller, well, the first chapter at least. We can reveal very little of the plotline apart from the fact that someone dies by fax machine just after exiting a toilet. This is

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