Peter Hitchens tells Triggernometry he believes Britain is on a downward trajectory driven by long-term economic, institutional and cultural failures, arguing the state has expanded while the family has weakened, making provision for children and old age both more costly and less effective. He criticises what he calls a national “delusion” about Britain’s power and wealth, and links this to foreign-policy ambitions and defence spending choices, including the nuclear deterrent.
On public finances, Hitchens warns of a potential currency and fiscal “cataclysm”, describing scenarios where money “dies” and living standards fall abruptly, drawing on his experience of post-Soviet Russia to illustrate how quickly middle-class security can collapse. He also makes a specific historical claim that the UK defaulted on its First World War debt to the United States by stopping payments in 1934.
The conversation ranges across Britain’s 20th-century history: Hitchens argues the gravest UK mistake was entering the First World War, which he says bankrupted and transformed the country, and he disputes popular narratives about Britain’s post-Second World War status and the “special relationship” with the US. He also criticises pandemic-era conformity and what he views as the public’s appetite for big government.
In closing, Hitchens says the UK is not discussing what he sees as repeated efforts to prepare the public for war, and he questions portrayals of Russia as an imminent military threat.
Peter Hitchens claims the UK stopped paying its First World War debt to the United States in 1934 and has not paid principal or interest since. He argues that the debt recently paid off related to the Second World War, not the First.
Read this moment →Asked what Britain is not talking about, Hitchens says there are ongoing attempts to make the public "warminded", pointing to public warnings by intelligence and defence figures about preparing for war. He argues the Russian military’s capability is routinely exaggerated, later calling a Red Square parade a display of "strategic scrap metal" and citing corruption and poor training.
Read this moment →Hitchens warns of a potential UK fiscal cataclysm in which currency effectively fails, leading to a rapid collapse in living standards. He links such scenarios to social disorder and says the public often remains alive but "living in the ruins" of former stability, citing post-Soviet Moscow as an example of sudden impoverishment.
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