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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

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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42:42

Marshmallow Totalitarianism and the Beauty of the...

Alas Vine & Hitchens ·

2025/06/18

Flared trousers, the fate of Northern Ireland, free speech, swimming with Gordon Brown and childish children’s books. All human life, as they say, is here. Sarah wants to know why we’re afraid of difficult conversations and saying what we really think, is it that we’re always being shouted down by those who don’t agree with us? What ever happened to civilised debate?Not that our debates are ever civilised.While Peter reminisces about his time in Iran some decades ago and how it’s not the country

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35:30

How Not To Be A Political Wife

Alas Vine & Hitchens ·

2025/06/11

As Sarah’s book sends shockwaves through former political grandees and the corridors of power, Sarah and Peter sit down to ponder listener questions (and some of Peter’s thoughts too) related to ‘How Not To Be A Political Wife’, a book that has been described as ‘fascinating, embarrassing and fundamentally tragic’, ‘witty, wry and incredibly touching’ and an ‘unflinching account of life at the heart of politics.’Expect questions and answers on falling in and out of love with Michael Gove, is there

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33:52

With Friends Like These… and is Poland the new Ukraine?

Alas Vine & Hitchens ·

2025/06/04

To paraphrase Randy Newman, you’ve got a friend in me, but for just how long? Especially when you’re Sarah Vine and you’re supposed best friend’s husband is on the side of staying in the European Union while your then husband is all for pushing Brexit through. As Sarah discovered, loyalties are soon divided and what ultimately makes a true friend anyway? While Peter Hitchens looks askance at the continent and wonders, as Poland lurches to the right with its latest elections results, if the European

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37:22

With Friends Like These… and is Poland the new Ukraine?

Alas Vine & Hitchens ·

2025/06/04

To paraphrase Randy Newman, you’ve got a friend in me, but for just how long? Especially when you’re Sarah Vine and you’re supposed best friend’s husband is on the side of staying in the European Union while your then husband is all for pushing Brexit through. As Sarah discovered, loyalties are soon divided and what ultimately makes a true friend anyway?While Peter Hitchens looks askance at the continent and wonders, as Poland lurches to the right with its latest elections results, if the

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37:02

The Mental Malaise of Marijuana

Alas Vine & Hitchens ·

2025/05/28

As rampage killings are on the rise both here and abroad, we ask if the long-term effects of drugs are impacting on our societal norms and encouraging a violent recklessness not seen before? As charges for cannabis possession are fast becoming a thing of the past and modern culture embraces increasingly strong strands of weed, is there a case to be made for really doubling down on those who break drug laws or as cannabis legalisation creeps across the globe, we ask, is it already too late?On our

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