Dan Hitchens

3 weeks ago | spectator.com.au | Dan Hitchens

How do you make assisted suicide safe? In recent months, a large part of Kim Leadbeater’s answer has been to point to the involvement of psychiatrists. Having a psychiatrist sign off each death, Leadbeater said, would ‘add expertise’. They would be part of a much-touted ‘multidisciplinary’ approach. In particular, they would be able to check that applicants met the threshold of the Mental Capacity Act.

3 weeks ago | spectator.co.uk | Dan Hitchens

How do you make assisted suicide safe? In recent months, a large part of Kim Leadbeater’s answer has been to point to the involvement of psychiatrists. Having a psychiatrist sign off each death, Leadbeater said, would ‘add expertise’. They would be part of a much-touted ‘multidisciplinary’ approach. In particular, they would be able to check that applicants met the threshold of the Mental Capacity Act. There’s just one problem.

3 weeks ago | compactmag.com | Dan Hitchens

Do something on Samuel Johnson, the editor urges me. Nothing political. Not “What would Samuel Johnson think of the method of tariff calculation.” Just a purely literary essay on this mighty figure of our civilization. At this, my mind goes temporarily blank, and when it restarts a figure comes into view. He is tall, big and clumsy, compulsively twitching and muttering (Tourette’s, some have diagnosed him with), wearing an 18th-century wig singed from holding a candle too close while reading.

3 weeks ago | brownpelicanla.com | Dan Hitchens

The Truth Will Set You Free, by Nick OlszykMay 12, 2025 By Dan Hitchens, First Things, May 10, 2025The philosopher Michael Oakeshott, the leading conservative thinker of his generation, regarded politics with distaste; he voted for the Tories, he said, “because they do the least harm.” The cardinals of the Catholic Church seem to have just acted on a similar basis.

4 weeks ago | firstthings.com | Dan Hitchens

The philosopher Michael Oakeshott, the leading conservative thinker of his generation, regarded politics with distaste; he voted for the Tories, he said, “because they do the least harm.” The cardinals of the Catholic Church seem to have just acted on a similar basis. Robert Prevost—as he was until yesterday—is unlikely to fulfill the liberal cardinals’ nightmare of a pope who would rip up Francis’s legacy.