We Should All Calm Down

Peter Hitchens writes:

Last week's rather moving wedding behind bars of Stella Moris and Julian Assange was a reminder that one of the most effective, independent journalists of our time now languishes in a maximum-security prison, even though he has not been convicted of anything.

We are poorly placed to condemn Russian censorship while this is the case.

The USA seeks to extradite Assange and bury him alive in some penitentiary, because he embarrassed them.

I hope Home Secretary Priti Patel and our journalist PM will have the courage and integrity to refuse to send him there.

And:

Lovely spring weather always reminds me of the crazy sunlit days of 1968 when, driven largely by a revolution in music, everyone under 30 years old went more or less mad.

Paris exploded into riots because male students wanted access to women's dormitories. The yelling, stone-throwing and police sirens went on for weeks and you could almost hear it across the Channel. 

The ridiculous musical Hair opened that year and our ears and minds were assaulted without mercy by a song proclaiming that this was the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.

And yet normal Britain more or less plodded on. We still had proper schools and universities, and our broadcast and print media were full of men and women who had experienced war and economic scarcity.

It would be quite a while before the full effects of the 1968 madness worked their way into politics, universities, police forces, courts and the Civil Service and, of course, the media.

But here we are, and, because there is almost nobody left who has been trained in doubt and restraint, we now find ourselves in the dawning of the Age of Hysteria.

Terrifying international war has begun on the European continent. There is no limit to what weapons might be used. But supposedly neutral powers are pouring munitions into the conflict.

There seems to be no major diplomatic effort to get a ceasefire or peace talks. Most media report it as if it is a battle between good and evil.

Those, like me, who suggest it is more complicated are moronically accused of being in the pay of Moscow.

Meanwhile civilians die, are horribly wounded or are driven from their homes. What if this comes here, with Russian cruise missiles hitting, say, East Anglia?

They can get there. Has anyone thought of that? I have. I think we should all calm down.