The Great Debate Peter Hitchens v Danny Dorling

[AlasdairILoveOxford]

Interesting debate. By the way, apparently this church is the only church where Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) preached. However as Carroll had such a bad speech stammer, I think he chose logic, maths and literature over preaching! This church was created with the funding of Thomas Combe, the founder of Oxford university press. Combe was a major benefactor of the pre Raphaelites such as Holman Hunt.

[sanchoodell]

"The *Dustbin* of History" "The *Trash Can* of History" "The *Ditch* of History" "The *Toilet* of History" "The *Sewage Works* of History" "The *Mortuary* of History" "The *Cemetery* of History" "The *Grave Yard* of History" "The *Crematorium* of History"

[fpomwcl]

Mr. Hitchens is right about grammar schools and PR systems. As usual, Dorling has no arguments, just shallow repetitions of his view: "This is how I see it. This is what makes sense to me." So what?

[Isisbridge]

58:48 Danny has it completely back to front when he says that both our main parties moved to the right. The Conservatives have gone so far to the left that they are no longer conservative. Boris had the chance to put this country right, but squandered his majority by going Liberal-Green, which was NOT what the people had voted for.

[AnthonyWoodd-xh]

Surely we need more than the hypothesis of the positive, possibly the recognition of the fundamenal dynamics of the problems..

[wilsontheconqueror]

Did He just say " people are fundamentally good" oh brother!

[andrewcooney]

If you want a very good eudicational system from kinder garden to master's Ireland does it by far the best.

[holygroove]

I am impressed by the comments here, full of so many different kinds of opinions that are not all ad-hominem. Wow.

[andrewcooney]

It's a very good thing that politicians spend months forming a government, the views of the people are forced on the parties, it should take lots of time and work on behalf of the people, pr is a great idea.

[djbobhoskins]

I agree with a number of the points Danny made but he's in danger of exaggerating/telling untruths to make his point(s). The UK's educational standards are very good internationally, for example literacy and mathematics. We do have a very high number of homeless people, but Germany has pretty much the same proportionate number - Ireland is also facing its own crisis. Housing is also complicated.

[AnthonyWoodd-xh]

History seems littered with the conflicts of the imperitives of psychologies...the conditioning of the mentalities of psychologies may be the fundamental dynamic of the violence of humanity

[georgesdelatour]

When Danny Dorling started talking about the Opium Wars, there was a moment when he could have made a good point. But of course he didn’t.

He wants us Brits to be taught more about all the bad things previous rulers of Britain did to others in history, believing that the more cowed, humiliated and ashamed we feel of ourselves, the more sheepishly compliant we’ll be with his wonderful plans for us. Meanwhile Xi Jinping uses Chinese grievance about the Opium Wars and the Century of Humiliation to justify a muscular policy of crushing dissent in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet, and sabre rattling against Taiwan. Presumably, the more shame we’re made to feel about British bad behaviour in the 19th century, the less we’re likely to complain about Chinese bad behaviour in the 21st.

The good point Dorling should have made is the need for everyone to learn about the bad things their previous rulers did to others - including previous rulers of China. Let the Brits learn about the Opium Wars, and let the Chinese learn about the Dzungar Genocides. But that thought never occurred to him.

[AlasdairILoveOxford]

If the Conservatives actually focused on realistic ways to foster economic development, they would provide value to vote for them.

If Labour actually focused on realistic ways to tackle economic inequalities, they could provide value to vote for them.

I don't see either side of the political spectrum offering either approach credibly.

[murrayeldred]

2 intelligent men. 2 emphatic people. The best point made was by Peter that both main political parties are Rubbish and have to be replaced.

[Isisbridge]

The poor sound quality makes me disinclined to listen.

[cecilefox]

Spain's State education system is NOT better than the U.K's .

[futures]

Danny isn't talking about Utopia he's talking about progress, a direction of travel. Seems Peter would like to drag us all back to doffing our caps, having god rammed down our throats and other places for those unfortunate enough to be in close proximity to men of the cloth.

[SagaciousFrank]

The arch of this video is that this Danny Dorling guy doesn't have the first clue what he's talking about.

[sarahWITAF]

It's incredible how compelling Danny Dorling's calm & reasoned assessment is, particularly when compared with Peter Hichens self-righteous & tone-deaf ranting

[gandydancer]

Contra Dorling, does anyone believe for a second, after taking a moment's thought, that history is taught in Britain without endless banging on about things like the Opium Wars?