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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

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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38:57

Nanny State and Made to Measure

Alas Vine & Hitchens ·

2025/07/30

Peter is up in arms – who knew? – over Sarah’s use of centimetres over inches even though she was raised on the continent and it’s all she knows. A measure of distance which, he insists, are simply made up. For her part, Sarah tells us that if you’re going to employ a nanny, make sure it’s not an English one.Elsewhere, Sarah, admits she enjoys going to church, if only because it’s the one place where no one can hear her sing and the discovery that Peter can be found online portrayed as a housemaid

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33:06

Up In Smoke and I Predict A Riot

Alas Vine & Hitchens ·

2025/07/23

Peter is inflamed! Why, he wants to know, searching around him in vain for an ashtray, does smoking seem to be on the rise once more in the UK? Is it vaping? Is it fashionable once more, heaven forfend? He sincerely hopes not. For her part, Sarah doesn’t smoke, well, only after three glasses of wine.Elsewhere, Sarah asks is rioting on the rise once again? And asks are we now too far gone as a country where we can’t expect anything but civil unrest? Though it’s not all doom and gloom, we have poetry,

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40:30

City to City and Walk A Mile In Our Shoes

Alas Vine & Hitchens ·

2025/07/16

Peter has a five-year plan for the five pairs of identical shoes he owns, buy in bulk, rotate diligently, but another set in five years times. Sarah, for her part, can’t walk past a shoe shop with a sale sign in the window, it’s like catnip to her.Elsewhere, Peter has had enough of cities changing their names – and not just because it keeps making his maps out of date – and Sarah muses on a song some people consider a national treasure which she could happily never hear again. And don’t get Peter

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40:57

Terrorism, Extremism and Rubbish Rock Stars

Alas Vine & Hitchens ·

2025/07/09

The love of cinema, Peter’s sonorous baritone, Sarah’s hatred of hot weather, the case for changing the way we adopt in the UK and does Peter ever go to watch Millwall and throw lager about? He does not. And those are just the topics and questions posed by listeners.Peter and Sarah also ask why we now embrace organisations that were once proscribed as terrorists? And in light of Coldplay being the most boring band on earth (scientific fact), why can’t we make decent rock stars anymore.On our reading

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33:15

Going Off the Rails and Too Hot to Handle

Alas Vine & Hitchens ·

2025/07/02

From Lord of the Rings lesser liked characters to the ‘deep state’ of government according to Dominic Cummings, and drinking beer beneath the Northern Lights, Peter and Sarah take on listener questions before wrestling with the thorny subjects of the pain and pleasure of train travel – it depends very much on where you board and depart your train and helps if that’s not in the UK.While Sarah’s been hiding indoors as the continental sunshine has bene visited on the UK, and she would very much like to

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39:15

Abortion Bills and Nuclear Bombs

Alas Vine & Hitchens ·

2025/06/25

Sarah and Peter wrangle everything from the latest abortion legislation to how to purge the world of nuclear weapons (Sarah suggests we move them to the Moon – pity the poor astronauts who next land there), Star Trek and what the Federation really alluded to. Did Hollywood treat Napoleon fairly or meddle with history for its own ends? And, more happily, we cast Peter as Badger in Toad of Toad Hall with remarkable results. Stay tuned for that.On our reading and watch list this week:·Take A Girl Like

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