The End of Education and Did We Really Win the War?

Sarah’s two children are currently at university, which is rather handy as a regular listener has asked that Peter and Sarah chime in on the current state of the education system here in the UK. And how times have changed, Peter spent his university years trying to kickstart social unrest, while Sarah pursued a job at The Body Shop.



And as the Union Jacks flutter in the hazy afterglow of VE Day, Peter rand Sarah reflects respectively on their father and grandfather’s service, one at sea in Scapa Flow transporting weapons to Russia, the other fighting in the jungles of Burma.



On our reading and watch list this week:

· The History Man – Malcolm Bradbury

· Quartered Safe Out Here - George MacDonald Fraser

· The Phoney Victory – Peter Hitchens



To get in touch, email: [email protected], 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


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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 [email protected], 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

• No. of episodes: 12
• Latest episode: 2025-05-07
• News News Commentary Politics

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