The New Statesman has a new gossip columnist – and it appears at first glance to be the late, great Christopher Hitchens (died, 2011). The struggling Staggers has just unveiled a column called The Hitch, described as “the New Statesman’s gossip columnist, spreading mischief and innuendo wherever he goes”. It is illustrated with a pen portrait of Hitchens puffing away on a cigarette.
The appropriation of the Hitchens name has not been met with universal approval, however, with Robert Colvile, the right wing journalist and think tanker, weighing in on X to describe it as feeling “slightly tacky/offensive/misguided”.
Will Lloyd, the Statesman’s deputy editor, defended the move, saying the left wing magazine had “asked for permission from the family to honour one of our greatest contributors by keeping his spirit alive” and got a yes, something that “Robert might have checked with us before posting”.
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The New Statesman staggers on
In an exchange with science writer Tom Chivers on the same platform, Lloyd then called Colvile “idiotic” and pointed out that his Centre for Policy Studies has a fellowship named after Margaret Thatcher who, like Hitch, has similarly shuffled off this mortal coil. “Rob has posted quite a lot about the NS lately – in ways that I think are a bit weird,” the sensitive Lloyd added.
Finally, Hitch 2.0 weighed in – Christopher’s brother and oddball Mail on Sunday columnist Peter. He wrote to Lloyd: “Well, you didn’t ask me, Will, or if you did you must have used smoke signals or semaphore. I am quite easy to find. I have slight misgivings, for obvious reasons, about the decision to portray him while smoking.” (Christopher suffered oesophageal cancer following a lifetime of enthusiastic cigarette chomping).
Still, that’s The Hitch’s first column written!
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