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Prize moment in the war of the Hitchens brothers
True story: right-wing columnist Peter Hitchens wins the Orwell Prize
When the Guardian's Decca Aitkenhead went to interview "international darling of the intellectual left" Christopher Hitchens about his autobiography, Hitch-22, he had little to say about his younger brother, the right-wing newspaper columnist Peter Hitchens.
Asked by Aitkenhead why there was no mention of Peter in Hitch-22, Christopher said only: "Don't have copyright on other people."
The interview took place before the news came out that Peter (above) had been been awarded this year's Orwell Journalism Prize.
That he could win a prize named after the socialist novelist and journalist has come as a shock to many; that it should be announced just when his elder brother is busy flogging his book in a series of interviews running up to a Hay Festival appearance next Sunday, is beyond satire.
The judges said they had in mind Orwell's description of a political writer as someone "who is always fighting against something but who fights in the open and is not frightened."
For those unused to the thoughts of Peter Hitchens, here he is in full "unfrightened" mode in yesterday's Mail on Sunday:
"I say that Marie Stopes International (which receives about £25 million a year from the NHS, much of it for killing unborn babies under contract) should be allowed to advertise its repellent services on TV. But on one condition. That each advertisement is followed by both of these: film of an actual abortion of a 24-week-old baby, and a brief documentary reminding viewers that Marie Stopes sent love poems to Adolf Hitler in August 1939, advocated compulsory sterilisation for the 'unfit', and cut her own son out of her will because he married a girl who wore glasses. What sort of organisation would name itself after such a monstrous woman?" ·
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It is rather pathetic to dismiss the work of the organisation because of historical links to Adolf; just low quality spin. Showing an abortion might be acceptable if, in order to maintain balance, a film of the problems experienced by a mother and child in a case where the mother rejected abortion when many would have thought it wise, as well as earlier abortions in proportion to actual abortions. I think I mean Hitchens is a prat!
Could Jack Bremer clarify what kind of reaction he expects to his quoting of Mr Hitchen's (the talented one) final paragraph please? Am I supposed to be 'outraged' here, or is the intention to throw the potential for response up in the air for a little debate? If Mr Bremer could pen a similarly styled and equally hard hitting article on abortion, for the people who disagree with this practise (the majority), I'm sure that, unless I have unwittingly subscribed to a feminist news journal, the publishing of such an article will be heartily approved of. Let the screaming minority be the ones on the outside trying to be heard for a change. After all, no one hears the babies side of it.