Revision as of 18:14, 9 January 2011 editJprw (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users6,935 edits improving ref← Previous edit | Latest revision as of 14:06, 19 December 2024 edit undoChicdat (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers21,094 edits Reverted 1 pending edit by Hobnobsx to revision 1259705139 by Favonian: failed verificationTag: Manual revert | ||
Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{Short description|English journalist and author (born 1951)}} | |||
{{Unreferenced|date=January 2011|article's section called "Liberty, security and crime"}} | |||
{{pp-pc}} | |||
{{Infobox writer | |||
{{Use British English|date=April 2013}} | |||
| name = Peter Hitchens | |||
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2019}} | |||
| image = Peterhitchens.jpg | |||
{{Infobox person | |||
| caption = Peter Hitchens | |||
| name = Peter Hitchens | |||
| pseudonym = | |||
| |
| image = Peter Hitchens at SidneySussex (cropped).jpg | ||
| caption = Hitchens in 2015 | |||
| birthdate = {{Birth date and age|1951|10|28|df=y}} | |||
| birth_name = Peter Jonathan Hitchens | |||
| birthplace = ], ] | |||
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1951|10|28|df=y}} | |||
| occupation = ], ] | |||
| birth_place = ], ] | |||
| nationality = ] | |||
| nationality = British | |||
|alma_mater = ] | |||
| alma_mater = ] (]) | |||
| period = | |||
| |
| occupation = {{dotlist|Journalist|author}} | ||
| party = {{ubl|] (1969–1975)|] (1977–1983)|] (1997–2003)}} | |||
| subject = | |||
| spouse = {{marriage|Eve Ross|1983}} | |||
| movement = | |||
| children = 3, including ] | |||
| notableworks = '']'', '']'', '']'', '']'' | |||
| relatives = ] (brother) | |||
| spouse = | |||
| awards = ] (2010) | |||
| children = | |||
| website = {{URL|http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/|hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk}} | |||
| relatives = ] (brother) | |||
| influences = | |||
| influenced = | |||
| signature = | |||
| website = http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk | |||
}} | }} | ||
'''Peter Jonathan Hitchens''' (born 28 October 1951) is an English ] author, broadcaster, journalist, and commentator. He writes for '']'' and was a ] reporting from both ] and ] Peter Hitchens has contributed to ''], ]'', '']'', '']'', '']'', and the ''].'' His books include '']'', '']'', '']'' and '']''. | |||
'''Peter Jonathan Hitchens''' (born 28 October 1951) is an award-winning<ref name="NS Orwell prize">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/cultural-capital/2010/05/orwell-prize-hitchens | |||
| date = 20 May 2010 | |||
| title = Peter Hitchens wins the Orwell Prize | |||
| author = Daniel Trilling | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 25 May 2010 | |||
}}</ref> British ] and ], noted for his ] stance. He has published five books, including '']'', '']'', '']'' and most recently '']''. Hitchens writes for Britain's '']'' newspaper. A former ] in Moscow and Washington, Hitchens continues to work as an occasional foreign reporter, and appears frequently in the British broadcast media. He is the younger brother of the writer ]. | |||
Previously a ] and supporter of the ], Hitchens became more conservative during the 1990s. He joined the ] in 1997 and left in 2003, and has since been deeply critical of the party, which he views as the biggest obstacle to true conservatism in the UK. Hitchens describes himself as a ] ], ], and Anglo ].<ref name="spectre-online.org">White, JT. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180923111613/http://spectre-online.org/why-i-respect-peter-hitchens/|date=23 September 2018}}. ''Spectre'' 27 December 2014</ref><ref name="Peter Hitchens: One-way tweets">{{cite news|last1=Rentoul|first1=John|date=20 November 2013|title=Peter Hitchens: One-way tweets|work=The Independent|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/peter-hitchens-one-way-tweets-8950285.html|access-date=28 December 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Jackson |first=Julian T. |title=The problem with Anglo-Gaullism {{!}} The Spectator |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-problem-with-anglo-gaullism- |access-date=2022-03-19 |website=www.spectator.co.uk |date=14 August 2021 |language=en}}</ref> He advocates ] political views, such as opposition to ] and support of stricter ].<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" /><ref>{{Cite web|date=2012-10-26|title=The War We Never Fought by Peter Hitchens – review|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/oct/26/war-never-fought-peter-hitchens-review|access-date=2021-03-24|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref> Hitchens criticised the ] to the ], especially ] and mandates that the public wear ]. | |||
== Early life == | |||
Peter Hitchens was born in 1951 in ], where his father was stationed with the ]. He was educated at ], which he left at 15, completing his secondary education at the Oxford College of Further Education before entering the ], where he attained a BA in ], and is said to have replied 'I was too busy starting a revolution' when asked why he was late for a lecture.<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk"></ref> He married Eve Ross, daughter of left-wing journalist David Ross, in 1983. | |||
== |
== Background == | ||
=== Early life and family === | |||
Hitchens worked for the '']'' between 1977 and late 2000, initially as a reporter specialising in education and industrial and labour affairs, then as a political reporter, and subsequently as Deputy ]. While working for the newspaper in 1992 he broke the story concerning ].<ref name=" Public Schools ">{{Cite news | |||
Peter Hitchens was born in ], where his father, Eric Ernest Hitchens (1909–1987), a naval officer,<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.newstatesman.com/lifestyle/2012/10/other-hitchens-boy |title= The other Hitchens boy | first = Tom | last = Cook |publisher= New Statesman| date= 23 October 2012 | access-date = 24 August 2018}}</ref> was stationed as part of the then ] of the ]. His mother, Yvonne Jean Hitchens (née Hickman; 1921–1973), had met Eric while serving in the ] (Wrens) during the ].<ref name=":13">{{cite news |first=John |last=Walsh |work=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/hitch22-a-memoir-by-christopher-hitchens-1984845.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220526/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/hitch22-a-memoir-by-christopher-hitchens-1984845.html |archive-date=26 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Hitch-22: a memoir by Christopher Hitchens |date=27 May 2010 |access-date=28 May 2010}}</ref> Hitchens has Jewish descent via his maternal grandmother, a daughter of Polish Jewish migrants. His grandmother revealed this fact upon meeting his wife Eve Ross.<!-- Ross is implied Jewish by the article and his grandmother, but this may need to be confirmed by another source; it also may not be relevant. --> Though his brother ] was quick to embrace his Jewish identity following the principle of matrilineal descent, Peter noted that they were only one-32nd Jewish by descent and has not identified as Jewish himself.<ref name="Barber-2002">{{cite news|last=Barber|first=Lynn|author-link=Lynn Barber|date=14 April 2002|title=Look who's talking|work=The Observer|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/apr/14/politics|url-status=live|access-date=30 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190410124847/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/apr/14/politics|archive-date=10 April 2019}}</ref> | |||
| url = http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2009/03/public-schools-and-not-so-public-ones.html | |||
| date = 25 March 2009 | |||
| title = Public Schools, and not so public ones | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 30 March 2009 | |||
}}</ref> | |||
As a youth, Hitchens wanted to be an officer in the ], following his father. However, when he was 10, he learned he had a ] that could not be corrected, thereby barring him from serving in the ].<ref name=":13" /><ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Peter Hitchens on his life|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt5NF9bKtoo|access-date=|website=]}}</ref> | |||
Leaving parliamentary journalism to cover defence and diplomatic affairs, he reported on the decline and ultimate collapse of the ] regimes in several ] countries, an assignment which culminated in a stint as ] Correspondent, where he witnessed and reported on ] ] in 1990/91. He became the ''Daily Express'' ] correspondent soon afterwards. Returning to London in 1995, he became a commentator and, eventually, a regular columnist. Hitchens continued to espouse a conservative viewpoint despite the publication's general move towards the ] in the mid-nineties, and its decision to support the ] under ] in the months approaching the ]. In 2001, Hitchens announced his departure from the ''The Daily Express'' in response to the title's acquisition by ]; Hitchens felt that his own moral and religious conservatism was incompatible with Desmond's publishing a string of sex magazines.<ref>{{cite news| title=BBC News Online report: "Veteran columnist quits Express" | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1061015.stm | date=2000-12-09 | accessdate= 2006-11-02}}</ref> He joined ''The Mail on Sunday'', where he has a weekly column and ] in which he debates directly with readers and produces occasional reportage from the UK. | |||
Hitchens attended ], ],<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-06-17 |title=The River of God |url=https://thelampmagazine.com/blog/the-river-of-god |access-date=2024-08-19 |website=The Lamp Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref> ], and the ]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=34562 |title=Toffs at the top |work=Press Gazette |date=16 June 2006 |access-date=2 May 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110616101832/http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=34562 |archive-date=16 June 2011 }}</ref> before being accepted at the ], where he studied Philosophy and Politics and was a member of ], graduating in 1973.<ref name="farndale">{{cite web|title = Peter Hitchens {{!}} Nigel Farndale|url = http://www.nigelfarndale.com/2013/06/peter-hitchens/|website = www.nigelfarndale.com|access-date = 7 October 2015|archive-date = 15 February 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210215230620/https://www.nigelfarndale.com/2013/06/peter-hitchens/|url-status = dead}}</ref> | |||
Hitchens has also written for '']'', a conservative British magazine, and sporadically for more left-leaning publications such as '']'', '']'', and the '']''. He is also an occasional contributor to '']'' magazine.<ref name="American conservative">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://www.amconmag.com/article/2008/sep/08/00014/ | |||
| date = 8 September 2008 | |||
| title = Back in the USSR | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 25 May 2010 | |||
}}</ref> | |||
Hitchens married Eve Ross<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220825172405/https://esajaelina.com/inside-the-married-life-of-peter-hitchens-and-wife-eve-ross-everything-to-learn-about-them/ |date=25 August 2022 }} Published on 6 March 2022</ref> in 1983. They have a daughter and two sons.<ref name = "farndale"/> Their elder son, ],<ref>{{cite news |last=Martinson |first=Jane |date=21 April 2019 |title=Wanted: newsrooms that truly reflect modern Britain |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/commentisfree/2019/apr/21/wanted-a-media-that-truly-reflects-modern-britain |work=The Guardian |access-date=14 April 2023|quote=The awarding of an internship to the son of the well-known journalist, Peter Hitchens...}}</ref> was editor of the '']'', a London-based ] newspaper.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180818214458/http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/issues/july-13th-2018/the-trouble-with-catholic-politicians/ |date=18 August 2018 }} Published by ''Catholic Herald'', 12 July 2018, retrieved 18 August 2018</ref> Hitchens lives in Oxford.<ref> Published by Hampstead Highgate Express on 22 December 2016</ref><ref> Published by The Spectator on 11 December 2021</ref> | |||
In 2007 and 2009 Hitchens was shortlisted for the ] in Political Journalism.<ref>Owen Amos ''Press Gazette'', 26 March 2009</ref> | |||
=== |
=== Religion === | ||
Hitchens was brought up in the Christian faith and attended Christian boarding schools but became an ], beginning to leave his faith at 15. He returned to church later in life, and is now an ] and a member of the ].<ref>{{cite web |date=30 March 2016 |title=How an atheist journalist became a Christian believer |url=https://www.premierchristianity.com/Blog/How-an-atheist-journalist-became-a-Christian-believer |access-date= |work=]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Hitchens, Peter|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/727649562|title=The Rage Against God|year=2010|publisher=Bloomsbury |isbn=978-1-4411-6285-4|oclc=727649562}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Letters |date=2018-03-08 |title=Peter Hitchens: I'm no zealot {{!}} Letters |url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/mar/08/peter-hitchens-im-no-zealot |access-date= |website=] |language=en |quote=As it happens, I am a soppy, broad-church Anglican who dislikes any sort of religious enthusiasm or sectarianism, given to hiding behind a pillar during Evensong.}}</ref> | |||
In 2010 Hitchens was described by ] in '']'' as "a forceful, tenacious, eloquent and brave journalist. Readers with long memories may remember his extraordinary coverage of the revolution in Romania in 1989, or more recently his intrepid travels to places such as North Korea. He lambasts woolly thinking and crooked behaviour at home and abroad".<ref name="Lucas_Economist"/> | |||
=== Relationship with his brother === | |||
Hitchens first became a roving foreign reporter in the early 1990s while working for ''The Daily Express'', when he reported from ] during the last days of ], and from ] at the time of the ] in the country. He continued his foreign reporting after joining ''The Mail on Sunday'', for which he has written several foreign reports, including from ] (including Moscow<ref name=" Marx-Martini ">{{Cite news | |||
{{external media| float = right| video1 = , ]}} | |||
| url = http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/columnists/article-147443/From-Marx-Martini.html | |||
Hitchens' only sibling was the journalist and author ], who was two years older. Christopher said in 2005 that the main difference between the two was belief in the existence of God.<ref name="meet">{{Cite news| last = Katz | first = Ian | title = When Christopher met Peter |work=The Guardian | url = http://books.guardian.co.uk/hay2005/story/0,15880,1495897,00.html | date=31 May 2005}}</ref> Peter was a member of the ] (forerunners of the modern ])<ref name="OwenJones">{{Cite news| last = Jones | first = Owen | title = Peter Hitchens got me thinking: do lefties always have to turn right in old age? |work=The Guardian | url = https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/09/peter-hitchens-tory-trotskyite-left-right | date=9 September 2015}}</ref> from 1968 to 1975 (beginning at age 17) after Christopher introduced him to them. The brothers fell out after Peter wrote a 2001 article in '']'' which allegedly characterised Christopher as a ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/13th-october-2001/18/o-brother-where-art-thou|title=O Brother, Where Art Thou?|website=The Spectator Archive|access-date=5 January 2018}}</ref><ref name="meet" /> | |||
| date = 10 November 2002 | |||
| title = From Marx to Martini | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 30 April 2009 | |||
}}</ref><ref name="Red Army">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-565421/The-Red-Army-marches--I-fear-futures-says-Peter-Hitchens.html | |||
| date = 10 May 2008 | |||
| title = The Red Army marches again – and I fear for all our futures, says Peter Hitchens | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 16 January 2010 | |||
}}</ref>) and the ], ] and ], many of the former ] (including a 2008 visit to ] in ],<ref name="comb-Soviet">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1036512/The-comb-Soviet-style-tyrant-soon-Wests-favourite-allies.html | |||
| date = 19 July 2008 | |||
| title = The comb-over Soviet-style tyrant who could soon be one of the West's favourite allies | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 15 January 2010 | |||
}}</ref> and a 2010 report from ] in ]<ref name="sevastopol">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1315318/As-Ukrainians-force-Russians-turn-their-language-change-names-I-ask-Is-worlds-absurd-city.html | |||
| date = 27 September 2010 | |||
| title = As Ukrainians force Russians to turn their back on their language and change their names, I ask, is this the world's most absurd city? | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 29 September 2010 | |||
}}</ref> described by ] in '']'' as a "dismaying lapse"<ref name="Lucas_Economist">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2010/09/western_media_and_its_lapses | |||
| date = 29 September 2010 | |||
| title = Foggy at the bottom | |||
| author = Edward Lucas | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 30 September 2010 | |||
}}</ref>), ] in ],<ref name="Astana_Hitchens">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1327296/Kazakh-President-Nazarbayev-dictator-Royal-warrant.html?ito=feeds-newsxml | |||
| date = 8 November 2010 | |||
| title = The dictator with a Royal warrant: Why HAS Prince Andrew been to Kazakhstan six times in seven years? | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 8 November 2010 | |||
}}</ref> the ] (including ], ],<ref name="Gaza Hitchens">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1319157/Gaza-Strip-Lattes-beach-bbqs-dodging-missiles-worlds-biggest-prison-camp.html?ito=feeds-newsxml | |||
| date = 11 October 2010 | |||
| title = Lattes, beach barbecues (and dodging missiles) in the world's biggest prison camp | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 11 October 2010 | |||
}}</ref> a 2003 visit to ] in the wake of the ],<ref name="Iraqs-Year-Zero">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/columnists/article-181282/Iraqs-Year-Zero.html | |||
| date = 18 May 2003 | |||
| title = Iraq's Year Zero | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 30 March 2010 | |||
}}</ref> and an undercover report from ],<ref name="Iran Hitchens">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-449880/Iran-A-nation-nose-jobs-nuclear-war.html | |||
| date = 21 April 2007 | |||
| title = Iran: A nation of nose jobs, not nuclear war | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 30 January 2010 | |||
}}</ref> which was described by ] as "a quite brilliant account"<ref name="iaindale_praise">{{cite web| url=http://iaindale.blogspot.com/2007/04/peter-hitchens-iran.html | title=Peter Hitchens & Iran | publisher=Iain Dale's Diary | accessdate=30 January 2010}}</ref>), ] (including a trip to the ] in 2008, during which he narrowly avoided being ])<ref name="new-slave-empire-Africa">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1063198/PETER-HITCHENS-How-China-created-new-slave-empire-Africa.html | |||
| date = 28 September 2008 | |||
| title = How China has created a new slave empire in Africa | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 27 January 2010 | |||
}}</ref> ], ], ],<ref name="rich-glorious03">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/columnists/article-202304/To-rich-glorious.html | |||
| date = 16 November 2003 | |||
| title = To get rich is glorious | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 25 January 2010 | |||
}}</ref><ref name="rich-glorious04">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/columnists/article-228246/To-rich-glorious.html | |||
| date = 23 April 2004 | |||
| title = To get rich is glorious | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 30 January 2010 | |||
}}</ref><ref name="Kashgar_report">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1233439/Special-Investigation-PETER-HITCHENS--Blood-fear-Happiness-Street-China-threatens-obliterate-ancient-culture.html | |||
| date = 10 December 2009 | |||
| title = Special Investigation: PETER HITCHENS – Blood and fear on Happiness Street as China threatens to obliterate another ancient culture | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 31 January 2010 | |||
}}</ref> ],<ref name="Japan_report">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1192777/Welcome-rock-Hitchens-San-.html | |||
| date = 15 June 2009 | |||
| title = Welcome to rock bottom, Hitchens-San... A penetrating look at a Japan still reeling from TWO economic earthquakes | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 1 February 2010 | |||
}}</ref> ],<ref name="NK_report">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-486079/PETER-HITCHENS-North-Korea-great-Marxist-bastion-real-life-Truman-show.html | |||
| date = 8 October 2007 | |||
| title = North Korea, the last great Marxist bastion, is a real-life Truman show | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 5 February 2010 | |||
}}</ref> ]<ref name="Inside_Burma">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1094457/Peter-Hitchens-Inside-Burma--worlds-beautiful-ugliest-countries-ghost-British-Empire.html | |||
| date = 2 August 2010 | |||
| title = Peter Hitchens: Inside Burma one of the world’s most beautiful and ugliest countries and the last ghost of the British Empire | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 2 August 2010 | |||
}}</ref> and Istanbul.<ref name="Hitchens_Istanbul">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1299213/Peter-Hitchens-disturbing-picture-growing-repression-heart-Eurabia.html?ito=feeds-newsxml | |||
| date = 2 August 2010 | |||
| title = As David Cameron calls for Turkey to join the EU, PETER HITCHENS on the disturbing picture of growing repression at the heart of 'Eurabia' | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 2 August 2010 | |||
}}</ref> In 2009, Hitchens was ] for ] in the ].<ref name="A-bumper-crop">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1158165/A-bumper-crop-Mail-On-Sunday-nominations.html | |||
| date = 28 February 2009 | |||
| title = A bumper crop of Mail On Sunday nominations | |||
| author = Mail On Sunday reporter | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 2 August 2009 | |||
}}</ref> | |||
After the birth of Peter's third child, the two brothers reconciled.<ref name="warofwords">{{Cite news| last = Katz | first = Ian | title = War of Words |work=The Guardian| url = http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1933179,00.html | date=28 October 2006}}</ref> Peter's review of his brother's book '']'' led to a public argument between the brothers but no renewed estrangement.<ref>James Macintyre, {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080829204608/http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article2640860.ece |date=29 August 2008 }}, ''The Independent'', 11 June 2007. Retrieved 11 June 2007.</ref> | |||
In 2010, Hitchens was awarded the Orwell Prize in recognition of his foreign reporting.<ref name="NS Orwell prize">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/cultural-capital/2010/05/orwell-prize-hitchens | |||
| date = 20 May 2010 | |||
| title = Peter Hitchens wins the Orwell Prize | |||
| author = Daniel Trilling | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 25 May 2010 | |||
}}</ref><ref name="Orwell">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2010/05/smelly-little-orthodoxies.html | |||
| date = 24 May 2010 | |||
| title = Smelly Little Orthodoxies | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 25 May 2010 | |||
}}</ref> | |||
In 2007, the brothers appeared as panellists on ] TV's '']'', where they clashed on a number of issues.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/organgrinder/2007/jun/22/borisstealsquestiontimeshi |title=Boris steals Question Time's Hitchens show |author=Tryhorn, Chris |work=The Guardian |date=22 June 2007 |access-date=22 August 2018}}</ref> In 2008, in the US, they debated the ] and the ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cfimichigan.org/hitchens |title=Hitchens vs Hitchens Debate – On God, War, Politics, and Culture |date=7 May 2008 |publisher=cfimichigan.org |access-date=3 May 2012}}</ref> In 2010 at the ], the pair debated the nature of God in civilisation.<ref name="Hitchens brothers debate if civilization can survive without God">{{cite news | url = http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/13/hitchens-brothers-square-off-in-debate-over-god-in-civilization/ | date = 13 October 2010 | title = Hitchens brothers debate if civilization can survive without God | author = Eric Marrapodi | publisher = CNN | access-date = 14 October 2010 | archive-date = 15 October 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101015191444/http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/13/hitchens-brothers-square-off-in-debate-over-god-in-civilization/ | url-status = dead }}</ref> At a memorial service for Christopher after his death in 2011, Peter read St Paul's ] 4:8<ref>{{Cite web |date=2012-04-20 |title=Hitch Quotes St. Paul |url=https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/hitch-quotes-st-paul |access-date=2022-04-12 |website=Tablet Magazine}}</ref> which Christopher had read at their father's funeral.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/reliable-source/post/christopher-hitchens-remembered-at-memorial-service-in-nyc/2012/04/20/gIQA1usIWT_blog.html |title=Christopher Hitchens remembered at memorial service in NYC|newspaper=The Washington Post |date=20 April 2012|access-date=28 April 2012}}</ref> | |||
=== Appearances in the British broadcast media === | |||
Hitchens speaks frequently on British radio and television, often debating (typically left-wing) opponents on a variety of social and political topics. He is a regular panellist on '']'' and '']'' and has been a frequent guest on '']'' with ], '']'' and '']''. | |||
== Journalism == | |||
Hitchens has authored and presented several ] on ] and ], in which he examined Britain's entry into the ], discussed the erosion of ] in the UK, and critically examined the political achievements of ], and later the career of ] (see '']''). In the late 1990s, he co-presented a programme on ] with Labour Party stalwarts ] and ]. Hitchens was offered the chance to present a programme on his own by the station's then boss, ], but preferred and suggested an adversarial format with a left-wing co-presenter, believing this to be the best way of achieving broadcast fairness and balance.<ref>Peter Hitchens ''The Guardian'', 3 April 2000. Retrieved on 17 March 2008.</ref> | |||
Christopher Hitchens helped his brother began his career in journalism at the '']''.<ref name="indy1">{{cite news |title=Media families; 3. The Hitchens |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/media-families-3-the-hitchens-1270834.html |access-date=6 November 2024 |work=The Independent |date=3 March 1997}}</ref> Its editor, ], recalled that Hitchens "was as dry as a stick, and had no personality of any sort".<ref name="indy1">{{cite news |title=Media families; 3. The Hitchens |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/media-families-3-the-hitchens-1270834.html |access-date=6 November 2024 |work=The Independent |date=3 March 1997}}</ref> | |||
Hitchens joined the ] in 1977 but left shortly after campaigning for ] in 1979, thinking it was wrong to carry a party card when directly reporting politics,<ref name="anger">{{Cite news | last = Silver | first = James | title = Look forward in anger |work=The Guardian | url = https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/nov/14/mailonsunday.mondaymediasection | date=14 November 2005|access-date= 2 April 2007}}</ref> and coinciding with a culmination of growing personal disillusionment with the Labour movement.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2000/jun/07/uk.oxbridgeandelitism |title= How 'Bonkers' launched the battle for Britain | first = Kevin | last = Maguire |work= The Guardian| date= 7 June 2000 | access-date = 31 August 2018}}</ref> | |||
== Personal political history == | |||
{| class="toccolours" style="float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-right:2em; font-size:85%; bgcolor=ivory; color:black; width:45em; max-width:40%;" cellspacing="5" | |||
| style="text-align: left;" | "Against the Labour Party, which I knew to be penetrated by all manner of Marxists, and soaked in the ideas of the revolutionaries, it was increasingly necessary to support the Tories. This was partly because of the strikers' lies, but much more because of Poland and Czechoslovakia. On the Cold War, I knew she was right and the Left were wrong. I found my teenage belief in nuclear disarmament the most embarrassing of all, and made it my personal business to confront the silly revived ] (CND), attending their showings of Peter Watkins's propaganda film ''The War Game'' and pointing out that the horrors portrayed in it were the result of Soviet nuclear bombs – a fact that did not seem to have crossed their minds".<ref name="Hitchens-84">{{harvnb |Hitchens|2009| p=84}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| style="text-align: right;" | — '''Hitchens recounting in his book ] a stage he reached in the early 1980s in his own political philosophy'''. | |||
|} | |||
Hitchens worked for the local press in ] and then at the '']''.<ref>His first cited article from the latter paper on the ] is "Stoke to Build Alpine Engine", 28 June 1976</ref> He then worked for the ''Daily Express'' between 1977 and 2000, initially as a reporter specialising in education and industrial and labour affairs, then as a political reporter, and subsequently as deputy ].<ref name="anger" /> Leaving parliamentary journalism to cover defence and diplomatic affairs, he reported on the decline and collapse of communist regimes in several ] countries, which culminated in a stint as Moscow correspondent and reporting on life there<ref>{{cite web| last = Ainslee | first = Jonny | url= https://www.journalistsontruth.com/a-z-of-interviews/peter-hitchens |title = Peter Hitchens - News is what somebody, somewhere, wants suppressed. | work = journalistsontruth.com | date = 20 February 2018 | access-date= 17 October 2018}}</ref> during the final months of the ] and the early years of the ] in 1990–92. He took part in reporting the ], closely following ].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Hattenstone|first1=Simon|title=Raging bulldog: Peter Hitchens|url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/1999/sep/20/features11.g23|work=The Guardian|date=20 September 1999}}</ref> He then became the ''Daily Express'' Washington correspondent.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Silver|first1=James|title=Look forward in anger|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/nov/14/mailonsunday.mondaymediasection|work=The Guardian|date=14 November 2005}}</ref> Returning to Britain in 1995, he became a commentator and columnist.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}} | |||
Hitchens studied ] at the ] from 1970 to 1973. He was a ] member of the ] from 1969 to 1975, and joined the British ] in 1977, campaigning for ] unsuccessful candidature for ] in the ]. Hitchens left the Labour Party in 1983 when he became a political reporter at the ''Daily Express'', thinking it wrong to carry a party card when directly reporting politics.<ref name="anger">{{Cite news| last = Silver | first = James | title = Look forward in anger | work = ] | url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2005/nov/14/mailonsunday.mondaymediasection | date=2005-11-14}}</ref> The period also coincided with a culmination of growing personal disillusionment with the Labour movement.<ref name="Hitchens-79">{{harvnb |Hitchens|2009| p=79}}</ref> In 2010, Hitchens dismissed the "cruel revolutionary rubbish" he promoted as a Trotskyist as "poison".<ref name="Hitchens-10">{{harvnb |Hitchens|2010| p=10}}</ref> | |||
Hitchens reported from Somalia at the time of the ].<ref name="Somalia">{{Cite news | url = https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018632507/peter-hitchens-the-uk-is-an-atrophied-nation | date = 17 February 2018 | title = Peter Hitchens: The UK is an 'atrophied' nation |work=radionz.co.nz | access-date = 22 August 2018}}</ref> | |||
He joined the ] in 1997, but concluded that the party had no idea what it was facing and would never be able to challenge New Labour, and subsequently left in 2003. Hitchens challenged ] for the Conservative Party nomination in the ] seat in 1999. | |||
In 2000, Hitchens left the ''Daily Express'' after its acquisition by ],<ref>{{cite web| last = Hodgson | first = Jessica | url= https://www.theguardian.com/media/2000/dec/07/pressandpublishing.dailyexpress1?INTCMP=SRCH |title = Hitchens quits Express | work = The Guardian | date= 7 December 2000 | access-date= 28 April 2012}}</ref> stating that working for him would have represented a moral conflict of interest.<ref name="BBC Express">{{Cite news| publisher =BBC News | type = report | title = Veteran columnist quits Express | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1061015.stm | date=9 December 2000 | access-date= 2 November 2006}}</ref> Hitchens joined ''The Mail on Sunday'', where he has a weekly column and weblog in which he debates directly with readers. Hitchens has also written for '']'' and '']'' magazines, and occasionally for '']'', '']'', and the '']''. | |||
Hitchens believes that no party he could support will be created until the Conservative Party disintegrates, an event he first began calling for in 2006.<ref name="tory_collapse">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2006/03/kilroy_was_here.html | |||
| date = 23 March 2006 | |||
| title = Kilroy was here, and failed | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 11 February 2010 | |||
}}</ref> From 2008, he began frequently advocating in his writing that what would facilitate such a collapse would be for the Conservative Party to lose the ]: "If they fail to win an election against this awful government, then it is my belief and hope that they will collapse. Many of their MPs and supporters will leave politics altogether, others will go to the Liberal Democrats or Labour, where they belong. Some will be interested in an entirely new party, which will not be the Conservatives and so will be able to appeal to the many patriotic, law-abiding people abandoned by Labour".<ref name="replacing the Tories">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2010/01/manifestos-and-replacing-the-tories.html | |||
| date = 14 January 2010 | |||
| title = Manifestos, and replacing the Tories | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 25 January 2010 | |||
}}</ref> | |||
After being shortlisted in 2007<ref>Martin Moore for the Frontline Club. 1 May 2007 . Quote: "...judge Francis Wheen congratulated a strong field that included ...Peter Hitchens – more for his delightfully frank foreign dispatches than his 'fire and brimstone' Mail columns (read, for example, his article on 'Iran – a nation of nose jobs, not nuclear war')."</ref> and 2009,<ref>{{Cite news | first = Owen | last = Amos | url = http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=43424&c=1 | title = Shortlists announced for Orwell Prize for political writing | newspaper = Press Gazette | date = 26 March 2009 | place = UK |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110428005352/http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=43424&c=1|archive-date=28 April 2011}}</ref> Hitchens won the ] in political journalism in 2010.<ref name="NS Orwell prize">{{Cite news | url = http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/cultural-capital/2010/05/orwell-prize-hitchens | date = 20 May 2010 | title = Peter Hitchens wins the Orwell Prize | first = Daniel | last = Trilling |work=New Statesman | access-date = 25 May 2010}}</ref> ], one of the Orwell Prize judges, described Hitchens's writing as being "as firm, polished and potentially lethal as a Guardsman's boot."<ref>{{cite web| last = Goligher | first = Kate |url=http://www.nouse.co.uk/2010/05/25/university-of-york-graduate-peter-hitchens-wins-orwell-prize-for-foreign-correspondence/ |title=University of York graduate Peter Hitchens wins Orwell prize for foreign correspondence | publisher = Nouse |date=25 May 2010 |access-date=28 April 2012}}</ref> | |||
== Public image == | |||
In '']'', James Silver describes Hitchens as "the Mail on Sunday's fulminator-in-chief"<ref name="anger"/> and his columns as "molten ] fury shot through with visceral wit".<ref name="anger"/> Hitchens has said of his reputation: "I know a lot of people consider me to be disreputable or foaming at the mouth, but you have to learn not to care, or at least not to mind. I don't like being called 'bonkers' and I think to some extent it demeans people who use phrases like that. But I take comfort from the fact that most ] tend to classify their opponents as mentally disordered."<ref name="anger"/> | |||
A regular on British radio and television, Hitchens has been on '']'',<ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.irishnews.com/arts/2018/03/08/news/peter-hitchens-on-why-we-should-trust-russia-and-how-the-second-world-war-was-phoney--1270433/ | title = Peter Hitchens on why we should leave Russia be and how the Second World War was 'phoney' |newspaper= The Irish Times |location=Dublin | date= 8 March 2018 |access-date= 23 August 2018}}</ref> '']'', '']'',<ref>{{cite news|url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_week/5412812.stm | work = This Week | title = Peter Hitchens |publisher= The BBC | series = News |date= 6 October 2006 |access-date= 3 May 2012}}</ref> '']'' and '']''.<ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.tvguide.co.uk/The_Big_Questions | title = The Big Questions Comments |publisher= tvguide.co.uk | date= 8 April 2018 |access-date= 23 August 2018}}</ref> He has authored and presented four documentaries;<ref>{{Cite tweet |number=630111143399452673 |user=ClarkeMicah |title=@cynicalyoubet Much appreciated. No, I have made four full-length documentaries, otherwise there are various clips that others put up. |first=Peter |last=Hitchens |date=August 8, 2015}}</ref>{{Primary source inline|date=February 2024}} one on the BBC about Euroscepticism, and three on ], including one on the surveillance state, and critical examinations of ]<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/anthony-sampson-mandela-is-not-a-saint-but-he-could-teach-blair-and-bush-about-peace-making-563444.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220526/https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/anthony-sampson-mandela-is-not-a-saint-but-he-could-teach-blair-and-bush-about-peace-making-563444.html |archive-date=26 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live | first =Anthony | last = Sampson | title = Mandela is not a saint, but he could teach Blair and Bush about peace-making |work= The Independent |place = UK | date= 15 May 2004 |access-date = 1 May 2012}}</ref> and ].<ref>{{cite web| url= https://www.theguardian.com/culture/tvandradioblog/2007/mar/27/lastnightstvdispatchescame | title= Last night's TV: Dispatches: Cameron - Toff at the Top | work= The Guardian | date= 27 March 2007 | access-date = 1 August 2018}}</ref> In the late 1990s, Hitchens co-presented a programme on ] with ] and ].<ref>{{cite web | url= https://www.theguardian.com/media/2000/apr/03/bbc.mondaymediasection1 | title= Hear me roar | work = The Guardian | date = 3 April 2000 |access-date=17 March 2008}}</ref> | |||
== Core beliefs == | |||
Politically, Hitchens could be classified as a ]. His stance resembles the ] tradition in the United States. Apart from the occasional condemnation of the UK's ], and the scope and reach of its ], he rarely comments on ] matters. Hitchens is critical of ], arguing that an unwavering allegiance to the unfettered ] is no substitute for ] morality, and that the ], pursued dogmatically, can often damage institutions which conservatives should value. Correspondingly, he has frequently criticised ] for ignoring the value of institutions and traditions, and has said the left are not entirely wrong when they accuse the ] of having damaged British society. | |||
In 2010, Hitchens was described by ] in '']'' as "a forceful, tenacious, eloquent and brave journalist. He lambasts woolly thinking and crooked behaviour at home and abroad."<ref name="Lucas_Economist" /> In 2009, ] wrote of Hitchens, "the old revolutionary socialist has lost nothing of his passion and indignation as the years have passed us all by. It is merely the convictions that have changed, not the fervour and fanaticism with which they continue to be held."<ref name="Broken Compass_ Howard">{{cite news | url = http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2009/05/british-politics-lost-hitchens | date = 21 May 2009 | title = The Broken Compass: How British Politics Lost Its Way by Peter Hitchens | author-link = Anthony Howard (journalist)|last=Howard|first= Anthony | work = ] | access-date = 2 May 2012}}</ref> | |||
In propounding his ] views, Hitchens frequently criticises ], which he considers to be a manifestation of ]. He says it is important to acknowledge that the Left has been correct in its long opposition to ]. He maintains that opponents of political correctness will fail unless they accept that it has some positive elements, and that it is attractive to so many because of its promotion of simple good manners. However he argues (in opposition to the Left) that genuine good manners, ] and ] are impossible, in the long term, without the foundation of traditional morality and ]. | |||
==Political views== | |||
], writing in '']'', has asserted that, for Hitchens, what is more important than the split between the Left and the Right is "the deeper gulf between the restless progressive and the Christian pessimist",<ref name="Gove The Times">{{Cite news | |||
{{Conservatism UK|Commentators}} | |||
| url = http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/michael_gove/article6216321.ece | |||
Hitchens describes himself as a ] ],<ref name="spectre-online.org"/> a ]<ref name="Peter Hitchens: One-way tweets"/> and more recently, a British ].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Jackson|first=Julian T.|title=The problem with Anglo-Gaullism {{!}} The Spectator|url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-problem-with-anglo-gaullism-|access-date=2021-11-04|website=www.spectator.co.uk|date=14 August 2021 |language=en}}</ref> In 2010, ], writing in '']'', asserted that, for Hitchens, what is more important than the split between the Left and the Right is "the deeper gulf between the restless progressive and the Christian pessimist."<ref name="Gove The Times">{{Cite news|last=Gove|first=Michael|author-link=Michael Gove|date=5 May 2009|title=Dazzling divisions of the Hitchens brothers|work=The Times|place=UK|url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/dazzling-divisions-of-the-hitchens-brothers-69wv0qf6qpz|url-access=subscription|access-date=30 March 2010}}</ref> Hitchens joined the ] in 1997 and left in 2003. This was when he challenged ] for the Conservative nomination in the ] seat in 1999.<ref>{{cite web|last=Ward|first=Lucy|date=17 September 1999|title=Byelection contender denounces 'liberal' Portillo|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/1999/sep/17/uk.politicalnews|access-date=2 May 2012|work=The Guardian|location=UK}}</ref> | |||
| date = 5 May 2009 | |||
| title = Dazzling divisions of the Hitchens brothers | |||
| author = ] | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 30 March 2010 | |||
}}</ref> and in 2010 Hitchens himself wrote "in all my experience in life, I have seldom seen a more powerful argument for the fallen nature of man, and his inability to achieve perfection, than those countries in which man sets himself up to replace God with the State".<ref name="Hitchens-111">{{harvnb |Hitchens|2010| p=111}}</ref> | |||
He has been consistently dismissive of the modern ] since the 1990s. This is because he believes that the party has since then abandoned true ].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Payne|first=Adam|date=31 July 2017|title=Peter Hitchens: I have got 'a lot of pleasure' out of Corbyn's success|website=] |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/peter-hitchens-interview-jeremy-corbyn-theresa-may-brexit-2017-7?r=US&IR=T}}</ref> His view is that conservatism should embody a Burkean sense of public duty, conscience and the ], which he sees as the best guarantee of ]. Furthermore, this view holds a general hostility to hasty reforms and adventurism. This was central to his criticism of many policy proposals by the ] government, which he viewed as attacks on liberty and facets of a constitutional revolution.<ref name="Sutherland2000">{{cite book|author=Keith Sutherland|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1LwTMA57TXEC&pg=PA93|title=The Rape of the Constitution?|publisher=Imprint Academic|year=2000|isbn=978-0-907845-70-6|page=93}}</ref> He believes the Conservative Party should be a defender of establishment institutions such as the ] and the ], but has shifted to ] instead. He believes that atheism, along with ], are the causes of the systematic undermining of Christianity. Hitchens has written "The left's real interests are moral, cultural, sexual and social. They lead to a powerful state. This is not because they actively set out to achieve one."<ref name="Why I respect Peter Hitchens">White, JT. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180923111613/http://spectre-online.org/why-i-respect-peter-hitchens/|date=23 September 2018}} Spectre|27 December 2014.</ref> He also believes that the ] and the devolution of ] are the causes of the demise of Christianity in Europe.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Foul Tornado|url=http://spectator.org/59563_foul-tornado/|access-date=26 May 2016|work=The American Spectator|archive-date=1 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160701122518/http://spectator.org/59563_foul-tornado/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Marriage Debate|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5e2vFc1AIOA|access-date=17 January 2019|work=Oxford Union| date=10 February 2016 }}</ref> | |||
=== Morality and religion === | |||
Hitchens, a former atheist,<ref name="Hitchens-ix">{{harvnb |Hitchens|2010| p=ix}}</ref> is a confirmed and communicant member of the ] and an advocate of moral ]s founded on religious (particularly Christian) faith. He argues that these have been undermined and eroded by ], and by those he calls ], since the 1960s—a theory he explores in his book '']''. | |||
In his book '']'', Hitchens argues that in the last few decades, the party has become virtually "indistinguishable from ] New Labour".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-cameron-delusion-9781441183026/|title=The Cameron Delusion|website=Bloomsbury Publishing}}</ref> He thinks the Conservative Party is now just a vehicle for "obtaining office for the sons of gentlemen" and he loathes the party.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Staker|first=Jay|date=14 January 2019|title=Peter Hitchens Talks Jeremy Corbyn, Brexit And The Tories|url=https://www.oxfordstudent.com/2019/01/14/peter-hitchens-talks-jeremy-corbyn-brexit-and-the-tories/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=31 May 2020|title=THE CHAMELEON NATURE OF THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY|url=https://bbench.co.uk/2020/05/31/the-chameleon-nature-of-the-conservative-party/}}</ref> Hitchens's claim that the "Conservatives are now the main Left-wing party in the country" in his '']'' column has been met with criticism.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Alexander Scott|first=Callum|date=30 May 2020|title=Johnson and Cummings are waging information war on the UK|url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/trumpification-conservative-party/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Hasan|first=Mehdi|date=31 August 2009|title=Peter Hitchens, the BBC and me The right is in denial about the Beeb|url=https://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/mehdi-hasan/2009/08/bbc-conservative-hitchens}}</ref> | |||
In support of this thesis, Hitchens cites, among other things, what he describes as serial attacks on marriage by the State. He identifies these attacks as the introduction of ], the removal or redistribution of what were formerly the exclusive privileges of marriage (and the resultant decline in status of the matrimonial state<ref name="pinnies-price-worth-paying">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/columnists/article-398280/Mothers-pinnies-price-worth-paying-save-society.html | |||
| date = 30 July 2006 | |||
| title = Mothers in pinnies, a price worth paying to save society | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 25 January 2008 | |||
}}</ref>), the abolition of the ], and the growing economic and cultural pressure on wives and mothers to go out to work. He believes that without ] and without strong families, the development of ] is stunted, ] is diminished and the power of the state increased. | |||
He is in favour of ],<ref>{{cite web|date=5 October 2011|title=Amnesty TV: Peter Hitchens and the death penalty|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2011/oct/05/amnesty-tv-peter-hitchens-death-penalty-video|access-date=28 April 2012|work=The Guardian}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Says|first=Sharon|date=19 May 2011|title=Hitchens on the death penalty|url=http://oxfordstudent.com/2011/05/19/hitchens-on-the-death-penalty/|access-date=28 April 2012|publisher=Oxford student}}</ref> and was the only British journalist to attend and write about the execution of British-born ] in America in 1995.<ref>{{cite web|last=Rose|first=David|date=13 April 2003|title=Hanging's too good for 'em|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/apr/13/ukcrime.society|access-date=31 August 2018|work=The Observer|location=UK}}</ref> He supports ].<ref>{{Citation |title=Too Late to Replace Tories with Real conservative party | date=4 January 2023 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alWdx7wvW0I |language=en |access-date=2023-01-08}}</ref> He is opposed to the ].<ref name="spectre-online.org" /> | |||
He believes that many of the measures which created the "]" were mistaken or excessive and need to be reexamined, and posits that ] relationships should not be granted ] with heterosexual marriage. | |||
Hitchens has been a member of the campaign to clear the name of ], ], from allegations of ].<ref>{{cite web|last=O'Grady|first=Jack|date=25 February 2018|title=The Church of England should stand up for Bishop Bell|url=https://www.oxfordstudent.com/2018/02/25/church-england-stand-bishop-bell/|access-date=30 August 2018|publisher=oxfordstudent.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Wolfson|first=Sam|date=15 December 2017|title=The Day the Church Stopped Believing Victims|url=https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/8xm5pp/the-day-the-church-stopped-believing-victims|access-date=30 August 2018|publisher=]}}</ref> He has argued that the ] convicted him in what he described as a ],<ref>{{cite news|last=Sherwood|first=Harriet|date=15 December 2017|title=Anglican church 'rushed to judgment' in George Bell child abuse case|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/15/george-bell-anglican-church-rushed-to-judgment-child-abuse-carlile-report|access-date=30 August 2018}}</ref> and stated his wish that allegations are not treated as proven facts.<ref>{{cite web|last=Parkinson|first=Justin|date=5 May 2016|title=George Bell: The battle for a bishop's reputation|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35971308|access-date=30 August 2018|publisher=BBC News}}</ref> | |||
Hitchens believes that ] should be illegal at any stage of pregnancy.<ref name="Abortion_on_special_offer">{{Cite news | |||
| url =http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2008/05/abortion-when-h.html | |||
| date =24 May 2008 | |||
| title = Abortion... when human life isn't just cheap, it's on special offer | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 25 November 2008 | |||
}}</ref> | |||
Hitchens "completely" opposes the ] scheme introduced by ], describing it as a "grave mistake" and advocates for replacing the UK's system of ], which he describes as an "absolute scandal", with a substantial increase in ].<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwEPcO8pDww</ref> | |||
{| class="toccolours" style="float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-right:2em; font-size:85%; bgcolor=ivory; color:black; width:45em; max-width:40%;" cellspacing="5" | |||
| style="text-align: left;" | "As it sought to be relevant and forward-looking, the Church of England found its Bible, its Prayer Book and its buildings something of an embarrassment. All spoke a wholly different language, not just in vocabulary, grammar, and cadence – but in thought and in the goals and rules they regarded as important. The language of both Prayer Book and Bible had been deliberately archaic when they were first written. Like most religions, the sixteenth-century Anglicans recognised that the ordinary spoken tongue of street, shop and kitchen were not suited to dealing with the eternal. Apart from anything else, much of it designed to be sung rather than said, and it was allied from the start with some of the most beautiful music written in Britain".<ref name="Hitchens-AOB111">{{harvnb |Hitchens|2000| p=111}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| style="text-align: right;" | — '''From Chapter Four of '']'', 'Hell Freezes Over' '''. | |||
|}Hitchens defends the use of the ]'s 1662 '']'' and the Authorised (or ]) version of the Bible. Of the latter, he has written "it is not simply a translation, but a poetic translation, written to be read out loud to country people in large buildings without loudspeakers, to be remembered, to lodge in the mind and to disturb the temporal with the haunting sound of the eternal".<ref name="King James">{{Cite news | |||
| url =http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2011/01/the-king-james-version-versus-the-sid-james-version.html | |||
| date =6 January 2011 | |||
| title = The King James Bible versus the Sid James Bible | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 8 January 2011 | |||
}}</ref> Hitchens feels that both books are indispensable foundations of ]ism's "powerful combination of scripture, tradition and reason",{{Citation needed|date=January 2011}} and that they have been undermined as a result of "senior figures wishing to dump what they regard as the baggage of a penitential and gloomy past".<ref name="King James">{{Cite news | |||
| url =http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2011/01/the-king-james-version-versus-the-sid-james-version.html | |||
| date =6 January 2011 | |||
| title = The King James Bible versus the Sid James Bible | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 8 January 2011 | |||
}}</ref> | |||
He is a supporter of ]s.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Jones |first1=Owen |author-link1=Owen Jones (writer) |title=Anachronistic and iniquitous, grammar schools are a blot on the British education system |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/anachronistic-and-iniquitous-grammar-schools-are-blot-british-education-system-9013626.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220526/https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/anachronistic-and-iniquitous-grammar-schools-are-blot-british-education-system-9013626.html |archive-date=26 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=30 October 2020 |work=The Independent |date=18 December 2013 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Devon |first1=Natasha |title='Separating children according to perceived academic talent won't address the inequalities in education' |url=https://www.tes.com/news/separating-children-according-perceived-academic-talent-wont-address-inequalities-education |access-date=30 October 2020 |work=] |date=24 May 2017 |language=en}}</ref> Hitchens describes himself as a "lifelong ]".<ref>https://www.bigissue.com/opinion/peter-hitchens-i-trade-unionist-i-favour-nationalization/</ref> | |||
Hitchens has often spoken out against the liberal positions of the current Archbishop of Canterbury ].{{Citation needed|date=January 2011}} | |||
== Writings and thought == | |||
Hitchens does not subscribe to a ] of the ] story of ]. In a review of his brother's work '']'', he stated that, "many decades have passed since I fancied the story of Adam and Eve was literal truth, if I ever did.<ref name="dailymail.co.uk"/> | |||
=== War and terrorism === | |||
He was opposed to the ] and 2003 ], arguing that neither was in the interests of either Britain or the ],<ref>{{cite web|title=Hitchens on Iraq: 'slow decline'|url=http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/international_politics/hitchens%2Bon%2Biraq%2Bslow%2Bdecline/1823547.html|access-date=28 April 2012|work=News|publisher=Channel 4}}</ref> and opposed the ].<ref>{{cite news|date=25 June 2010|title=Afghan war effort 'has failed'|work=BBC News|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/question_time/8760463.stm|access-date=25 June 2018}}</ref> | |||
He believes that the UK should never have participated in ], and is very critical of the view that ] was "The Good War". His view on World War II is laid out in his book '']'', in which he argues that the UK entered World War II too early, and that the UK overly glorifies World War II.<ref name=":8">{{Cite web|last=Evans|first=Richard J.|date=26 September 2018|title=Peter Hitchens's Eurosceptic take on the Second World War is riddled with errors and bizarre theories|url=https://www.newstatesman.com/Peter-Hitchens-Phoney-Victory-World-War-II-Delusion}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Coutinho|first=Charles|date=12 December 2018|title=The Phoney Victory - The World War II Illusion|work=New Books Network|url=https://newbooksnetwork.com/peter-hitchens-the-phoney-victory-the-world-war-ii-illusion-i-b-tauris-2018/}}</ref><ref name=":9">{{Cite web|last=Johnson|first=Daniel|date=2 October 2018|title=A martial nation needs Churchill to inspire us|url=https://standpointmag.co.uk/issues/october-2018/features-november-2018-daniel-johnson-winston-churchill-peter-hitchens-andrew-roberts/|access-date=16 June 2020|archive-date=6 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806055608/https://standpointmag.co.uk/issues/october-2018/features-november-2018-daniel-johnson-winston-churchill-peter-hitchens-andrew-roberts/|url-status=dead}}</ref> He argues that while the ] were fighting a radical evil, they sometimes used immoral methods, such as the ] of German civilians.<ref>{{Cite web|last=West|first=Andrew|date=5 Jun 2019|title=The Religion and Ethics Report|website=] |url=https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/religionandethicsreport/the-phoney-victory/11180854}}</ref> He believes that Britain's entry into World War II led to its rapid decline after the war. This was because, among other things, it could not finance the war and was not prepared for it. As a result, it had to surrender much of its wealth and power to avoid bankruptcy.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Giovanni|first=Charles|date=14 January 2019|title=The Phoney Victory - Reviewed by Charles Giovanni, Vanzan Coutinho, New York|url=http://www.cercles.com/review/r84/Hitchens.html}}</ref> Hitchens' views on the ] have been met with criticism by historians, with ] describing his book ''The Phoney Victory'' as 'riddled with errors'.<ref name=":8" /><ref name=":9" /> Hitchens responded to Evans' review on his online web-blog.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hitchens |first=Peter |date=27 September 2018 |title=A Reply to the Knighted Professor. His Review of My Book is a Very Poor Piece of Work |url=https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2018/09/a-reply-to-the-knighted-professor-his-review-of-my-book-is-a-very-poor-piece-of-work-.html |access-date=22 July 2024 |website=Peter Hitchens Blog}}</ref> | |||
=== Liberty, security and crime === | |||
Hitchens advocates a society governed by conscience and the ], which he sees as the best guarantee of ]. He believes that ] is a key element of a strong ]. | |||
Hitchens is not ], since he believes that this position often leaves countries defenceless in times of war. Instead, he argues that military power and the threat of war can be deterrents against war.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Maiolo|first=Joseph|date=2 November 2018|title=Myth understanding - Trying to make sense of the Second World War|url=https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/myth-second-world-war/}}</ref> Hitchens wrote about his concern of the use of ] and increased police powers under ], and how it has been used to suppress ]. In ]'s ], Hitchens said the result of this legislation was that Britain ended up "sleepwalking into a Big Brother state".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Burgh |first1=Hugo de |title=Investigative Journalism |date=27 May 2008 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-06871-5 |page=81 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YLROtlz42h4C&pg=PA81 |access-date=29 October 2020 |language=en}}</ref> | |||
He warns that the decline of conscience and ] will inevitably lead to a strong state. He is especially critical of the use of "]" as a pretext for diluting and eroding ]. He argues that increased "security" destroys freedom without necessarily increasing safety, and says that there is no contradiction between maintaining liberty and protecting the ]. | |||
=== European Union === | |||
Hitchens is critical of moves towards ] government and the erosion of ], whether they come from the Right or the Left of the political spectrum. Accordingly, he has been highly critical of the British government's desire for ], its attempts to abolish ], to centralise the police, and its creation of a national law enforcement body in the form of the ] (SOCA). He describes these developments as facets of governmental desire for permanent, irreversible constitutional revolution, and an attack on ] in general. | |||
{{See also|Euroscepticism in the United Kingdom}} | |||
Hitchens is critical of the ] and argued for many years, before ], that Britain would be better off outside it.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Zinsmeister |first1=Karl |last2=Kauffmann |first2=Bill|date=December 2002|title=A prominent British editorialist and conservative takes a pessimistic look at the future of an increasingly centralized and socialist Europe. ("Live" with TAE: Peter Hitchens)|url=https://go.gale.com/ps/anonymous?id=GALE%7CA94335044&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=10473572&p=AONE&sw=w}}</ref> In 2017 he endorsed the ] model proposed by ] and ] as the most sensible and moderate way to leave the EU while remaining in the ] to preserve the economic benefits of EU membership.<ref name="corbyn">{{cite web|author=Adam Payne|date=31 July 2017|title=Peter Hitchens: I have got 'a lot of pleasure' out of Corbyn's success|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/peter-hitchens-interview-jeremy-corbyn-theresa-may-brexit-2017-7|work=Business Insider}}</ref> However, he did not vote in the ] because he is critical of referendums.<ref name="corbyn" /> Instead of a referendum, he argued that a leave decision would be best done by voting into power a political party whose manifesto committed the country to withdrawal by an act of Parliament.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Walther|first=Matthew|date=29 March 2019|title=Brexit was designed to fail|website=] |url=https://theweek.com/articles/832142/brexit-designed-fail}}</ref> | |||
===Vaccination=== | |||
Hitchens is opposed to the ] against the possession of ] ]. He argues that the law's active disapproval of drug taking is an essential counterweight to the "pro-drug propaganda" of ]. He has said that attempts to combat drug use by restricting supply and persecuting drug dealers are invariably futile, unless possession and ] are punished as well. He counters claims that the "]" has failed by suggesting that the state has made no serious efforts to reduce or eliminate illegal drug consumption for many years. Hitchens has said that the prevailing approach, known as "]", is ] and counter-productive. He was among the earliest commentators to argue that ] presents a major ] risk to users. | |||
{{Further|MMR vaccine and autism|Vaccine hesitancy}} | |||
Hitchens was against the ] following the ].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Boyce |first1=Tammy |title=Health, Risk and News |date=2007 |publisher=Peter Lang |isbn=978-0-8204-8838-7 |page=63 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2whS9tXKLn4C&pg=PA63 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Ritchie |first1=Stuart |title=Science Fictions: Exposing Fraud, Bias, Negligence and Hype in Science |date=16 July 2020 |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-1-4735-6425-1 |page=168 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oWizDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT168 |language=en}}</ref> He asked in a 2001 article: "Is it really our duty to risk our children's lives with this jab?"<ref name="BMJLetter">{{cite journal |last1=Struthers |first1=Mark |title=Re: MMR, measles, and the South Wales Evening Post |journal=] |date=2013 |url=https://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f2598/rr/643958 |access-date=29 October 2020 |language=en}}</ref> In 2013, he defended this earlier article, saying he was criticising "State bossiness in an age that has seen a catalogue of mistakes, panics and mysteries in the world of disease and medicine" and referred to the ]. He has defended discredited former doctor ].<ref name="BMJLetter" /> | |||
After being ] against ] in 2021, Hitchens rejected accusations he is an anti-vaxxer, but said that he was "more or less forced to have an immunisation I would not normally have bothered with".<ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-02-28|title=Peter Hitchens: I've had the Covid jab - and all it cost me was my freedom |url=https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2021/02/peter-hitchens-ive-had-the-covid-jab-and-all-it-cost-me-was-my-freedom.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20210228094538/https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2021/02/peter-hitchens-ive-had-the-covid-jab-and-all-it-cost-me-was-my-freedom.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2021-02-28|access-date=2021-05-09|website=archive.is}}</ref> | |||
=== Foreign policy === | |||
Hitchens opposed the ] and 2003 Iraq Wars on the grounds that neither was in the interests of either Britain or the United States. He has not, however, associated himself with the Left-dominated ] campaigns, not least as he remains a strong supporter of the ]. He also opposes the ], arguing that it is destined to fail and has no achievable aim. Hitchens made a live appearance on BBC News in November 2009 during which he stated, in a response to Gordon Brown's announcement that more troops would be sent to Afghanistan, that a ridiculous position had been reached in which none of the front bench politicians of any of the three main British parties were prepared to say that the British mission to the country had failed.<ref>BBC News interview with Nick Owen, November 2009</ref> | |||
=== War on drugs === | |||
<!-- Paragraph here on his current stance vis-a-vis UK military involvement in Afghanistan --> | |||
Hitchens has written about the enforcement of drug laws, most notably in his book '']'' (2012). He advocates harsher penalties properly enforced for possession and illegal use of ],<ref name="york">{{cite web |author=Jack Staples-Butler |url=http://theyorker.co.uk/politics/york/14107-the-yorker-meets-peter-hitchens |title=The Yorker Meets... Peter Hitchens |work=Theyorker.co.uk |date=27 June 2013 |access-date=7 June 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140710041617/http://www.theyorker.co.uk/politics/york/14107-the-yorker-meets-peter-hitchens |archive-date=10 July 2014 }}</ref> claiming that "cannabis has been mis-sold as a soft and harmless substance when in fact it's potentially extremely dangerous."<ref name="york"/> He is opposed to the ] of ] in general. In 2012, Hitchens gave evidence to the Parliamentary ] as part of its inquiry into drugs policy, and called for the British government to introduce a more hard-line policy on drugs.<ref name=":6">{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17829394 |title=Hitchens urges tough drugs policy |work=BBC News |date=24 April 2012 |access-date= 28 April 2012}}</ref> Hitchens disagrees with the notion of ], arguing that it goes against the notion of ]. He says: "People take drugs because they enjoy it."<ref name=":5">{{cite news |last1=Aitkenhead |first1=Decca |title=Peter Hitchens: 'I don't believe in addiction. People take drugs because they enjoy it' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/oct/21/peter-hitchens-addiction-drugs-war |access-date=29 October 2020 |work=] |date=21 October 2012}}</ref> | |||
On ], Hitchens argues that the ] should negotiate an amicable departure from the European Union, whose laws and traditions he regards as incompatible with the laws and liberties of England, and with the ] of the United Kingdom as a whole. He also believes that the interests of the European Union are often different from—and in many cases hostile to—those of the UK. ] of governmental powers to ] and ] was, for Hitchens, not a step towards true independence for those countries, but rather part of an EU-inspired strategy to dissolve the UK into statelets and regions, as a preliminary step to its complete absorption into a ]. For the same reason, he has opposed attempts to ]. | |||
In October 2023, Hitchens was interviewed by ] and podcast host ] for the latter's ''Cosmic Skeptic Philosophy Podcast;'' in the midst of recording, Hitchens abruptly stood up and declared to O'Connor "I really have decided in the past hour I really do not like you at all I had no opinions of you before, and now I actively dislike you," after which he reportedly lingered by the door while expressing his contempt for O'Connor for about 15 minutes prior to "storming" out of the recording studio.<ref name=":14">{{Cite web |date=2023-10-10 |title=Famous journalist tells Oxford podcaster 'I don't like you' before storming off |url=https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/23845400.peter-hitchens-storms-oxford-cosmic-skeptic-podcast/ |access-date=2024-10-30 |website=Oxford Mail |language=en}}</ref> According to O'Connor, the subject of the podcast was "...issues pertaining to drug decriminalisation, whether we are experiencing a moral decline in society and the influence of secularism on this question, and the state of monarchy in the UK."''<ref name=":14" />'' | |||
==== World War II ==== | |||
For most of his career, Hitchens took the view that ] was "the part of British history which provides the ultimate justification and vindication of this country's existence, its heroic and solitary battle against Nazi tyranny".<ref name="Hitchens-52">{{harvnb |Hitchens|2000| p=52}}</ref> However, in 2008 he publicly reversed this view,<ref name="WW2-daily_mail">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-560700/Was-World-War-Two-just-pointless-self-defeating-Iraq-asks-Peter-Hitchens.html | |||
| date = 19 April 2008 | |||
| title = Was World War Two just as pointless and self-defeating as Iraq, asks Peter Hitchens | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 13 March 2009 | |||
}}</ref> referring in particular to the declaration of war made against ] (after the ]) which had, in his opinion, disastrous consequences for Britain. A subsequent analysis that Hitchens made of this issue in one of his columns was described by ] of '']'' as being "as melancholy a cry of pain about the modern world as I have recently encountered".<ref name="white_melancholy">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2009/sep/02/second-world-war-michael-white | |||
| date = 2 September 2009 | |||
| title = The second world war: the honourable road to ruin | |||
| author = ] | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 15 January 2010 | |||
}}</ref> | |||
Hitchens has also written critically about the Allied policy of ] of German cities during the second world war,<ref name="bombs_look_different">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2010/02/bombs-look-different-when-theyre-falling-on-you.html | |||
| date = 25 February 2010 | |||
| title = Bombs look different when they're falling on you | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 15 March 2010 | |||
}}</ref><ref name="one_last_raid">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2010/02/one-last-raid-on-the-bombing-issue.html | |||
| date = 22 February 2010 | |||
| title = One last raid on the bombing issue | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 17 March 2010 | |||
}}</ref> citing in particular the ] book ''Among the Dead Cities'', which in Hitchens's view makes "the case against the bombing of German civilians unanswerable".<ref name="among_dead_cities">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2010/02/among-the-dead-cities.html | |||
| date = 15 February 2010 | |||
| title = Among the Dead Cities | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 18 March 2010 | |||
}}</ref> | |||
=== |
=== LGBT rights and marriage === | ||
Hitchens has criticised the ], claiming that it promotes ] and that changes in traditional ] in society are "destroying truth itself".<ref name="McCormick">{{cite news |last1=McCormick |first1=Joseph |title=Mail columnist says 'trans zealots' are 'destroying truth itself' |url=https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2017/11/19/tabloid-columnist-says-trans-zealots-are-destroying-truth-itself/ |access-date=30 October 2020 |work=] |date=19 November 2017}}</ref> | |||
Hitchens condemned the 1998 ] as a ] to the ] and a "collapse and a surrender to lawlessness".<ref name="Hitchens-AOB359">{{harvnb |Hitchens|2000| p=359}}</ref> He believes that the best approach to solving ]'s problems would have been the full integration of ] into the United Kingdom, arguing that creating a Northern Irish Parliament at ] impeded this. He believes that the achievements of ] over Northern Ireland, not least in removing ] against ]s, have been greatly underestimated. He maintains that Northern Ireland is now only a provisional part of the UK since, under the terms of the agreement, it can be transferred to ] by a single, irreversible referendum.<ref name="Hitchens-AOB362">{{harvnb |Hitchens|2000| p=362}}</ref> | |||
Hitchens was one of the most outspoken opponents of ] in 2013, the year before ].<ref name="McCormick" /> In speaking to ''Guardian'' journalist ] in 2015, he said his real issue was with the decline of heterosexual ] in society and the legalisation "of what was in effect ]", and that same-sex marriage is "a side-effect ... It's a consequence of the collapse of heterosexual marriage, and I regret now getting involved in the argument about same-sex marriage, because it was a Stalingrad, a diversion. Why is one worrying about a few thousand people who want to have same-sex marriages, without being at all concerned about the collapse of heterosexual marriage, which involves millions of people, and millions of children?"<ref name=":4">{{cite news |last1=Duffy |first1=Nick |title=Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens 'regrets' opposing same-sex marriage |url=https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2015/09/12/mail-columnist-peter-hitchens-regrets-opposing-same-sex-marriage/ |access-date=29 October 2020 |work=] |date=12 September 2015}}</ref> | |||
=== Education === | |||
Hitchens condemns ], the ] reforms of primary schooling and modern ], seeing them as ] political projects with no educational justification and many educational disadvantages. He bases his case on John Marks's ''The Betrayed Generation'', (] 2001), the ]'s survey of changing undergraduate maths skills in 2000, and ]'s unvarying annual general ability test, and has also cited a 2004 article by ] in ''The Guardian''<ref name="Jenni_Russell_Guardian">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2008/02/why-do-people-s.html | |||
| date = 20 August 2004 | |||
| title = Drilled, not educated | |||
| author = Jenni Russell | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 17 December 2009 | |||
}}</ref> which draws attention to this issue. Hitchens has also contended that comprehensive education has brought about a general dilution of education and of examination standards,<ref name="exams_devalued">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2008/02/why-do-people-s.html | |||
| date = 21 February 2008 | |||
| title = Why do people still pretend that exams have not been devalued? | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 17 May 2008 | |||
}}</ref> and explores in detail the history and consequences of this development in Chapter Eleven of ''The Broken Compass''—'The Fall of the Meritocracy'. He believes a further consequence of egalitarian schooling is serious damage to the national culture, and fears that lowered standards in technical, scientific and mathematical education, combined with poor teaching of English and the resulting ] in literacy, threaten to leave Britain lagging behind ] such as ] and ]. | |||
In 2019, the ] organised a "free-speech society" after Hitchens' "]" by the ] over his views on gay rights, which they believed would cause conflict with ] events on campus.<ref name="O'Sullivan">{{cite news |last1=O'Sullivan |first1=Sascha |title=Students speak up to join campaign for free speech |url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/students-speak-up-to-join-campaign-for-free-speech-jlxsbmc8p |access-date=29 October 2020 |work=] |date=23 November 2019 |language=en}} {{subscription required}}</ref> Hitchens was the first guest invited by the society to address students.<ref>{{cite news |author1=Leading article |title=The Times view on Buckingham University's free speech society: Resisting Tyranny |url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-times-view-on-buckingham-universitys-free-speech-society-resisting-tyranny-6rhxrgspj |access-date=29 October 2020 |work=] |date=23 November 2019}}</ref> In response to his being no-platformed by the University of Portsmouth, Hitchens was invited by the Archivist and the Head of History and Politics at The Portsmouth Grammar School to give a short talk on "The myth of Russian aggression" to Sixth Form pupils.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-47156907|title=Peter Hitchens' Portsmouth University speech cancelled|date=7 February 2019|work=BBC News}}</ref> | |||
As a means of improving standards in the UK, Hitchens supports a return to the academically selective ] system which has been gradually dismantled by successive British governments since the issuing of ] by ] in 1965 (though Hitchens prefers the German system of selection to the ]).<ref name="ripostes">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2007/01/ripostes_retort.html | |||
| date = 17 January 2007 | |||
| title = Ripostes, retorts and responses | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 17 January 2007 | |||
}}</ref> | |||
=== Environment === | |||
As a supporter of ] Christian morality, Hitchens opposes ] in schools. He argues that the general introduction of sex education in schools has incontrovertibly been accompanied by an increase in sexual activity among the young, with a resultant rise in ], abortions and instances of ]s—the very things that sex education is ostensibly intended to prevent. He argues that its real purpose is the undermining of Christian sexual morality, based on stable ] marriage. | |||
Hitchens has claimed that "]" and that the ] has not been proven, describing it as "modish dogma".<ref>{{Cite web|last=Derler|first=Zak|title=Peter Hitchens|url=https://www.desmog.com/peter-hitchens/|access-date=2021-08-09|website=DeSmog|language=en-US}}</ref><ref> Published in the New Statesman, accessed via The Wayback machine 25 August 2022</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2004-04-27|title=George Monbiot: Climate change|url=http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2004/apr/27/media.pressandpublishing|access-date=2021-08-09|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref> He has criticised ] and argued in 2015 that its expansion put the UK at risk of blackouts.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2015-11-12|title=Wind is not driving the UK towards power blackouts|author1=Chris Goodall |author2=Mark Lynas |url=http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/nov/12/wind-is-not-driving-the-uk-towards-power-blackouts|access-date=2021-03-23|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":10">{{Cite web |date=2021-01-27 |title=Covid lies cost lives – we have a duty to clamp down on them {{!}} George Monbiot |url=http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/27/covid-lies-cost-lives-right-clamp-down-misinformation |access-date=2021-03-23 |website=The Guardian |language=en}}</ref> | |||
=== |
=== COVID-19 pandemic === | ||
Hitchens has repeatedly criticised the ] to the ].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Klooz|first=David|title=The Covid-19 Conundrum|publisher=David Klooz|year=2020|pages=25}}</ref><ref name=":12">{{Cite web|date=2022-02-05|title=It was lonely opposing the first lockdown, but the day will come when no one remembers backing it|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/02/05/lonely-opposing-first-lockdown-day-will-come-no-one-remembers/|website=The Telegraph|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-12-16|title=How did COVID-19 become the culture war of 2020?|url=https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/religionandethicsreport/peter-hitchens-how-did-covid-19-become-the-culture-war-of-2020/12989032|access-date=2021-03-23|website=ABC Radio National|language=en}}</ref> He has particularly criticised ] in the UK, suggesting they would have negative consequences and questioning their epidemiological efficacy.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Patrick|first=Philip|date=8 April 2020|title=We need to look carefully at the consequences of coronavirus lockdown|url=https://reaction.life/we-need-to-look-carefully-at-the-consequences-of-coronavirus-lockdown/|access-date=2 September 2020}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|last=Dugmore|first=Oli|date=9 April 2020|title=Peter Hitchens on COVID-19: Is the government lockdown reasonable?|url=https://www.joe.co.uk/news/243271-243271|website=]}}</ref> Critics have described him as a "lockdown sceptic".<ref name=":2" /> ] evaluated his statement, where he said it was "not possible" for the first lockdown in March to cause the peak in daily infections and deaths to decline, in a ] article, and concluded that this was "wrong" based on available evidence.<ref name=":2" /> Hitchens' view was also disputed by ] in the ''].''<ref name=":7">{{Cite web|title=The Covid deniers have been humiliated but they are still dangerous|url=https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2021/01/covid-deniers-have-been-humiliated-they-are-still-dangerous|access-date=2021-03-23|website=www.newstatesman.com|date=6 January 2021 |language=en}}</ref> ] in '']'' also critiqued Hitchens' views.<ref name=":10" /> ] meanwhile expressed agreement with Hitchens in '']''.<ref name=":12" /> A tweet by Hitchens stating four fifths of cases were asymptomatic was also described as "misleading" by '']''.<ref name=":11" /> Hitchens criticised ], which suggested that there could be up to 500,000 COVID-19 deaths if the government did not impose a ].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Mumford|first=Peter|date=29 April 2020|title=First fully digital Union debate explores global lockdown strategies|url=https://www.varsity.co.uk/news/19099|website=]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Ward|first=Bob|date=6 May 2020|title=It's not just Neil Ferguson – scientists are being attacked for telling the truth|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/06/neil-ferguson-scientists-media-government-adviser-social-distancing|website=www.theguardian.com}}</ref> | |||
Hitchens contends that the modern version of the Labour party was "formed mainly by struggles in the 1980s" and in a programme of "social liberalism, egalitarian education and the sexual revolution" envisaged at the end of the 1950s by figures such as Anthony Crosland and ];<ref name="happened_labour">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2010/01/whatever-happened-to-the-labour-party.html | |||
| date = 11 January 2010 | |||
| title = Whatever happened to the Labour Party? | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 18 February 2010 | |||
}}</ref> the latter Hitchens has written critically of at considerable length, and has likened his short book ''The Labour Case'' (1959) to "a revolutionary manifesto".<ref name="Hitchens-305">{{harvnb |Hitchens|2000| p=305}}</ref> | |||
He has supported ].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Scullion|first=David|date=21 April 2020|title=The Lockdown Sceptics|url=https://thecritic.co.uk/the-lockdown-sceptics/|website=thecritic.co.uk}}</ref> He has opposed the mandatory wearing of ],<ref>{{Cite news|last=Evans|first=Martin|date=14 July 2020|title=Police leaders warn new rules around face masks in shops will be 'impossible' to enforce|work=The Daily Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/14/police-leaders-warn-new-rules-around-face-masks-shops-will-impossible/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/14/police-leaders-warn-new-rules-around-face-masks-shops-will-impossible/ |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Sheridan|first=Danielle|date=5 August 2020|title=Face mask rules: compulsory coverings in shops, fines and who is exempt from wearing one|work=The Daily Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/body/face-mask-rules-uk-shops-exempt/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/body/face-mask-rules-uk-shops-exempt/ |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live}}{{cbignore}}</ref> referring to them as "muzzles".<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Ball|first=Philip|date=15 July 2020|title=How mask-wearing became a new culture war|url=https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2020/07/how-mask-wearing-became-new-culture-war|website=New Statesman}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Lo|first=Joe|date=23 July 2020|title=Nearly 90% of Brits say masks are important|url=https://leftfootforward.org/2020/07/nearly-90-of-brits-say-masks-are-important/}}</ref> He also believes that government mandates to wear face coverings are oppressive.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Conversation |first=The |date=3 August 2020 |title=Face Mask Rules: Do They Really Violate Personal Liberty? |url=https://www.snopes.com/news/2020/08/03/face-mask-rules-do-they-really-violate-personal-liberty/}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> He has been accused of promoting ] and public health restrictions by several sources.<ref name=":11">{{Cite web|title=The Infodemic: Plandemic 2 is Another COVID-19 Conspiracy Theory Video {{!}} Voice of America - English|url=https://www.voanews.com/covid-19-pandemic/infodemic/infodemic-plandemic-2-another-covid-19-conspiracy-theory-video|access-date=2021-03-24|website=www.voanews.com|date=19 August 2020 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |date=2020-12-18 |title=Can we believe the lockdown sceptics? |url=https://fullfact.org/health/can-we-believe-lockdown-sceptics/ |access-date=2021-03-23 |website=Full Fact |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":7" /><ref name=":0" /> | |||
Hitchens is critical of ] for what he describes as "attacks on the ]", and has described ] ]'s ] as a "slow-motion coup d'état".<ref name="Hitchens-343">{{harvnb |Hitchens|2000| p=343}}</ref> He has also asserted that the New Labour ] was a "slow motion ]".<ref name="putsch_labour">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1224335/PETER-HITCHENS-The-slow-motion-New-Labour-putsch-swept-nation-away.html | |||
| date = 1 November 2009 | |||
| title = The slow-motion New Labour putsch that swept our nation away: | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 18 December 2009 | |||
}}</ref> Hitchens believes that the most profound changes brought about by New Labour were designed to concentrate power in the hands of the ], to debauch ] neutrality, and to turn Parliament into a mere tool of ], with Blair himself as ].<ref name="Hitchens-357">{{harvnb |Hitchens|2000| p=357}}</ref> In Hitchens's view, the most significant single action in this programme was the passing of ] allowing ] and ], both political appointees, to give orders to civil servants. This signalled, in his view, a general attempt to politicise Whitehall, which has continued ever since. Hitchens claims to have detected a parallel effort to appropriate some of the trappings of monarchy and to diminish the Crown's significance and standing, which he sees as embryonic ]. | |||
=== English independence === | |||
Hitchens has also often caricatured Blair as "Princess Tony". This is a reference to Blair's use of the expression "The People's Princess" to eulogise ] after her ]. Hitchens has also been very critical of Blair's activity subsequent to his stepping down as Prime Minister.<ref name="blair_90K">{{Cite news | |||
Hitchens has spoken in favour of ], arguing that the ] should be dissolved and ] should become an independent country once again.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Peter Hitchens backs English independence in Daily Mail column |url=https://www.thenational.scot/news/20150389.peter-hitchens-backs-english-independence-daily-mail-column/ |access-date=2022-05-21 |work=The National}}</ref> | |||
| url = http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2009/12/a-dedicated-foe-of-tyrannyuntil-theres-a-90k-speaking-fee-up-for-grabs-.html | |||
| date = 12 December 2009 | |||
| title = A dedicated foe of tyranny...until there’s a £90k speaking fee up for grabs | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 20 December 2009 | |||
}}</ref> Hitchens has described Blair's successor, ], as a "boring, dismal ]",<ref name="Brown_marxoid">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2007/03/ | |||
| date = 27 March 2007 | |||
| title = Is this war? | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 22 August 2008 | |||
}}</ref> whose public performances were "horribly like ]'s portrayal of the tormented ] in '']''".<ref name="future_to_miss">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2008/08/80m-britons-and.html | |||
| date = 31 August 2008 | |||
| title = 80m Britons, and no one you can trust. A future I'm glad to miss | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 1 January 2009 | |||
}}</ref> However, Hitchens criticised what he saw as a "prejudiced, shallow" attempt to destroy Brown by the media after the latter became Prime Minister in 2007.<ref name="future_to_miss"/><ref>See also Chapter One, 'Guy Fawkes Gets a Blackberry', of '']''</ref> | |||
=== |
=== Russia and Ukraine === | ||
Hitchens is dismissive of the modern ], frequently deriding the party's leadership as the "useless Tories".<ref name="useless_Tories">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2007/10/the-tories-are-.html | |||
| date = 16 October 2007 | |||
| title = The Tories are still useless, and if you really want to get Labour out, you should not vote Tory | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 25 January 2009 | |||
}}</ref> He has often been at odds with fellow conservatives, and has argued that the Conservative Party has a consistent record of ill-considered parliamentary acts and policies that cannot be dismissed as accidents or mistakes. He cites as examples: the ], the ], the introduction of the ] exam, the ] of 1991, the negotiation and signing of the ] and the signing of the ], the severe reduction in defence spending at the end of the Cold War, the ] of the ], the Iraq War and the final abandonment of all attempts to re-introduce ].<ref name="shameless_Dave">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/columnists/mailonsunday.html?in_page_id=1791&in_article_id=456453&in_author_id=224 | |||
| date = 20 May 2007 | |||
| title = What Tory could back shameless Dave now? | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 20 May 2007 | |||
}}</ref> | |||
In 2010, Hitchens argued that ] should be part of ] rather than ], stating that the peninsula is historically Russian.<ref name="Lucas_Economist">{{Cite news |last=Lucas |first=Edward |date=29 September 2010 |title=Foggy at the bottom |newspaper=] |url=https://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2010/09/western_media_and_its_lapses |access-date=}}</ref> In November, 2022, he said that there exists a "virulent" nationalism in Ukraine, and that it is easier "to be a non-Scot in Scotland" than "an ethnic Russian in Ukraine" due to the "ugly strain of Ukrainian nationalism that made life difficult for ethnic Russians in Ukraine."<ref>{{cite news |last=Nelson |first=Fraser |date=4 November 2022 |title=Is now the time to make peace in Ukraine? |newspaper=] |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/is-now-the-time-to-make-peace-in-ukraine/ |access-date=}}</ref> | |||
He is also critical of what he considers to be a continuing ] of ] among many Conservative Party supporters. Thatcher, in his view, weakened Britain's institutions and singularly failed to address moral or cultural questions. | |||
Hitchens has stated that Ukraine should not join ].<ref>{{cite news |last=Hitchens |first=Peter |date=5 July 2023 |title=Ukraine Shouldn't Join NATO |newspaper=] |url=https://compactmag.com/article/ukraine-shouldn-t-join-nato |access-date=}}</ref> He is also against providing military aid to Ukraine,<ref>{{cite news |last=Stephens |first=Bret |date=2 May 2023 |title=The Curious Conservative Case Against Defending Ukraine |work=] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/02/opinion/republican-ukraine-russia.html |access-date=}}</ref> having stated: "The conflict in Ukraine was always unnecessary. It has done nothing but harm to Ukraine and Ukrainians. Ukraine has been used as a battering ram in someone else's quarrel."<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Warmongers are Losing Heart in Ukraine. Plus, how did Suella Braverman Fail to Spot that the Police are Left Wing? |url=https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/4196539/posts |access-date=2024-05-23 |website=freerepublic.com}}</ref> Hitchens called for peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.<ref>{{cite news |date=16 May 2023 |title='Stop whining': Piers Morgan clashes with Peter Hitchens on Ukraine-Russia war |work=] |url=https://www.skynews.com.au/opinion/piers-morgan/stop-whining-piers-morgan-clashes-with-peter-hitchens-on-ukrainerussia-war/video/c6732165d6fae707f3db5c2b2205f981 |access-date=}}</ref> | |||
Hitchens has expressed contempt for ], the current party leader, regarding him as a member of the "]" with little conception of the challenges facing modern Britain. He argues that the Conservatives have indiscriminately adopted the policies of their opponents over the last century out of an unprincipled desire for office at all costs, a process, he maintains, that has accelerated under Cameron's leadership. | |||
Hitchens has been a vocal supporter of pro-Russian British journalist ] in his fight against being ]. Although expressing criticism of Phillips and his work, Hitchens has been strongly critical of the British government, describing Phillips's fight against sanctions as "liberty fighting tyranny" and "one of the most important court cases of our time".<ref>{{cite news |last=Morello |first=Sebastian |date=20 November 2022 |title=Frozen Bank Accounts, Again: The Arrival of a New Tyranny |work=] |url=https://europeanconservative.com/articles/commentary/frozen-bank-accounts-again-the-arrival-of-a-new-tyranny/ |access-date= 23 March 2024}}</ref> Writing in support of Phillips, and ], in March 2024, Hitchens described Phillips as a "prisoner of the (UK) state".<ref>{{cite news |date=13 March 2024|title=Assange, Phillips, and the End of Rights |url=https://www.theamericanconservative.com/assange-phillips-and-the-end-of-rights/ |access-date=14 March 2024}}</ref> | |||
In March 2007 Hitchens wrote and presented a television programme for ], ''Toff at the Top'', in which he argued this view. Hitchens views Cameron's social, educational, and foreign policies as being indistinguishable from those of New Labour. Cameron, having declined previous interview requests from Hitchens, also declined to participate in the broadcast. Subsequent to the programme's airing the Conservative leader described Hitchens as "a maniac" at a public meeting in ]. | |||
== Publications == | |||
Hitchens has called for the establishment of a new ] in the UK, representing the traditionalist conservative strand of opinion that he espouses, and which would, in his own words, be "neither bigoted nor politically correct".<ref name="blue-labour-or-new-labour">{{Cite news | |||
Hitchens is the author of '']'' (1999) and '']'' (2003), both critical of changes in British society since the 1960s. A compendium of his '']'' columns was published as ''Monday Morning Blues'' in 2000. ''A Brief History of Crime'' was reissued as ''The Abolition of Liberty'' in April 2004, with an additional chapter on ] ("Your papers, please"), and with two chapters – on gun control ("Out of the barrel of a gun") and capital punishment ("Cruel and unusual") – removed. | |||
| url = http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2009/03/what-does-it-matter-if-we-are-governed-by-blue-labour-or-new-labour.html | |||
| date = 23 March 2009 | |||
| title = What does it matter if we are governed by Blue Labour or New Labour? | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 25 November 2009 | |||
}}</ref> He believes that such a movement cannot come into being until the Conservative Party collapses,<ref name="tory_collapse"/> arguing that many millions of Britons habitually vote for this and other political parties out of tribal loyalty, from which they cannot be detached by reasoned argument. | |||
'']'' was published in May 2009, and '']'' was published in Britain in March 2010, and in the US in May. Hitchens's book '']'', about what he sees as the non-existence of the ], was published by Bloomsbury in the autumn of 2012.<ref name="war on drugs">{{Cite news | url = https://www.educationumbrella.com/curriculum-vital/book-review-the-war-we-never-fought-the-british-establishments-surrender-to-drugs-by-peter-hitchens | title = The War We Never Fought The British Establishment's Surrender to Drugs By Peter Hitchens | last = Ross | work = educationumbrella.com | access-date = 22 August 2018 | archive-date = 13 July 2019 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190713173447/https://www.educationumbrella.com/curriculum-vital/book-review-the-war-we-never-fought-the-british-establishments-surrender-to-drugs-by-peter-hitchens | url-status = dead }}</ref> | |||
=== Poverty and wealth distribution === | |||
Hitchens believes there to be a correlation between adherence to strong ethical standards, including conscientious labour, deferred gratification, self-denial and thrift, and ] status (and the material well-being it generally brings). He has stated that "The middle classes are not good because they are better off. They are better off because they are good." He rejects the belief that any ] which exists in Britain is anything other than relative. "The British 'poor' of today do not starve, do not freeze, do not go without ]—as truly poor people across the world undoubtedly still do." He argues that the claim that absolute ] continues to exist in Britain is "a lie the Left uses to destroy the middle class".<ref name="lie_the_Left_use">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2009/01/poverty-its-jus.html | |||
| date = 17 January 2009 | |||
| title = Poverty? It's just a lie the Left uses to destroy the middle class | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 20 March 2009 | |||
}}</ref> | |||
In June 2014, Hitchens published his first e-book, ''Short Breaks in Mordor'', a compendium of foreign reports.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Aspinall|first1=John|title=A Misunderstood Man: ''Short Breaks in Mordor'' by Peter Hitchens|url=http://my.telegraph.co.uk/jaydeeay/asp/311/a-misunderstood-man-short-breaks-in-mordor-by-peter-hitchens/|work=The Telegraph|date=24 July 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304053316/http://my.telegraph.co.uk/jaydeeay/asp/311/a-misunderstood-man-short-breaks-in-mordor-by-peter-hitchens/|archive-date=4 March 2016}}</ref> '']'' was published in August 2018 by I.B. Tauris.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ibtauris.com/books/humanities/history/history%20specific%20events%20%20topics/social%20%20cultural%20history/the%20phoney%20victory%20the%20world%20war%20ii%20delusion |title=I.B.Tauris Publishers |publisher=Ibtauris.com |date=29 August 2018 |access-date=6 January 2019}}</ref> It addresses what Hitchens views as the national myth of the ], which he believes did long-term damage to Britain and its position in the world. It was negatively reviewed by the historian ] in the ''New Statesman'', who described the book as "riddled with errors".<ref>{{cite news |last=Evans |first=Richard J. |date=26 September 2018 |title=Peter Hitchens's Eurosceptic take on the Second World War is riddled with errors and bizarre theories |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/Peter-Hitchens-Phoney-Victory-World-War-II-Delusion |access-date= |work=New Statesman |authorlink=Richard J. Evans}}</ref> | |||
=== Transport === | |||
Hitchens has criticised the ] in the 1990s, and mocks ] for their belief that ], heavily state ], is in some way more conservative than railways. He has also bemoaned the ] made to Britain's ] in the 1960s, and the subsequent increased focus on the ] as the central plank of transport policy. Hitchens explores this issue in depth in 'The age of the train', chapter twelve of his book ''The Broken Compass''.<ref name="Hitchens-163">{{harvnb |Hitchens|2009| p=163}}</ref> | |||
=== Global warming === | |||
Hitchens is sceptical of the alleged extent of man made global warming, has described the fuss surrounding it as "alarmist" and the facts presented as false or misleading or using data selectively. In particular, he praises the ] work '']'' as being an effective exposé of many of what he sees as myths surrounding the theory.<ref name=" Global warming ">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2009/11/the-inconvenient-truths-mr-gore-and-his-fanatical-friends-didnt-tell-you-about-climate-change.html | |||
| date = 30 November 2009 | |||
| title = The inconvenient truths Mr Gore and his fanatical friends DIDN'T tell you about climate change | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 30 December 2010 | |||
}}</ref> | |||
== Relationship with elder brother Christopher == | |||
Hitchens's elder brother is the prominent US-based writer and polemicist ]. Christopher has said that the main difference between the two is a belief in God.<ref name="meet">{{Cite news| last = Katz | first = Ian | title = When Christopher met Peter | work = ] | url = http://books.guardian.co.uk/hay2005/story/0,15880,1495897,00.html | date=2005-05-31}}</ref> Peter himself has said "we inhabit separate worlds"<ref name="dailymail.co.uk">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-459427/Hitchens-vs-Hitchens.html | |||
| date = 2 June 2007 | |||
| title = Hitchens vs Hitchens: Am I My Brother's Reviewer? | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 15 December 2009 | |||
}}</ref> and "We're not close. We're different people, we have different lives, we have entirely different pleasures, we live in different continents. If we weren't brothers we wouldn't know each other."<ref name=" guardian Question time ">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/may/14/peter-hitchens-interview | |||
| date = 14 May 2009 | |||
| title = Question time: Peter Hitchens on the trouble with modern politics, his move from left to right, and the enduring rivalry with his brother Christopher | |||
| author = Hannah Pool | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 15 December 2010 | |||
}}</ref> | |||
The brothers had a protracted falling out after Peter wrote an article in 2001 in '']'' alleging that his brother had said he "didn't care if the ] watered its horses at ]"—a claim denied by Christopher.<ref name="meet"/> After the birth of Peter's third child, the two brothers reconciled, although Christopher said "There is no longer any official ], but there's no official—what's the word?—], either."<ref name="warofwords">{{Cite news| last = Katz | first = Ian | title = War of Words | work = ] | url = http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1933179,00.html | date=2006-10-28}}</ref> | |||
Peter's review of ''God Is Not Great'' led to public argument between the brothers but not to any renewed estrangement.<ref>James Macintyre, , ''The Independent'', 11 June 2007. Retrieved 11 June 2007.</ref> In the review, Peter wrote that his brother’s book was misguided, "mostly in the way that it blames faith for so many bad things and gives it no credit for any of the good it may have done. I think it misunderstands religious people and their aims and desires. And I think it asserts a number of things as true and obvious that are nothing of the sort".<ref name="dailymail.co.uk"/> | |||
In June 2007, the brothers appeared as panellists on ] TV's '']'',<ref>Peter Hitchens's account of events leading up to the ''Question Time'' programme with his brother Christopher, as well as a summary of the programme itself, can be found here </ref> where they clashed over a number of issues, most notably the intervention in ]. | |||
In April 2008, on US soil, they debated the ] and the ], respectively.<ref name="US_debate">{{cite web| url=http://www.gvsu.edu/hauenstein/index.cfm?id=3425B4C3-DA0C-48A1-FDE23503A04A3318 | title=Hitchens v. Hitchens: Faith, Politics & War | publisher=Grand Valley State University| accessdate=30 February 2010}}</ref> Peter Hitchens indicated that the occasion would mark the last time he would participate in such events with his brother,<ref name="peace_at_last">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-557443/Hitchens-vs-Hitchens--Peace-lifelong-feud-brothers-laid-rest.html | |||
| date = 5 April 2008 | |||
| title = Hitchens vs Hitchens … Peace at last as a lifelong feud between brothers is laid to rest | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 28 February 2009 | |||
}}</ref> "because of the danger that they might turn into gladiatorial combat in which nothing would be resolved and enmity could be created."<ref name="enmity_avoided_with CH">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2010/03/how-i-found-god-and-peace-with-my-atheist-brother.html | |||
| date = 11 March 2010 | |||
| title = How I found God and peace with my atheist brother | |||
| author = Peter Hitchens | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 30 March 2010 | |||
}}</ref> | |||
However, in October 2010 at the ], the brothers again had a debate—described as a conversation with the press—over the nature of God in civilisation. The two clashed over the main issues, with Peter lamenting the decline in civility to levels "not far the Stone Age." However, when the subject of Christopher's illness in concert with religion was brought up, Peter defended his brother's choice of beliefs, stating that he thought "it would be quite grotesque to imagine someone would have to get cancer to see the merits of religion."<ref name="Hitchens brothers debate if civilization can survive without God">{{Cite news | |||
| url = http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/13/hitchens-brothers-square-off-in-debate-over-god-in-civilization/ | |||
| date = 13 October 2010 | |||
| title = Hitchens brothers debate if civilization can survive without God | |||
| author = Eric Marrapodi | |||
| work = ] | |||
| accessdate = 14 October 2010 | |||
}}</ref> | |||
== Publications == | |||
Hitchens is the author of '']'' (1999, ISBN 978-0-7043-8140-7) and '']'' (2003, ISBN 978-1-84354-148-6), both critical of changes in British society since the 1960s. A compendium of his ''Daily Express'' columns was published under the title '']'' in 2000. | |||
An updated edition of ''A Brief History of Crime'' (2003 ISBN 978-1-84354-148-6), re-titled ''The Abolition of Liberty: The Decline of Order and Justice in England'' (ISBN 978-1-84354-149-3) and featuring a new chapter on ], was published in April 2004. '']'' (Continuum ISBN 978-1-84706-405-9), was published in May 2009, and '']'' (Continuum ISBN 978-1-4411-0572-1), was published in Britain in March 2010, and was due to be published in the US (Zondervan ISBN 978-0-310-32031-9) in May 2010. | |||
== Bibliography == | == Bibliography == | ||
{{external media| float = right| video2 = , ]}} | |||
* '']'' (1999) | |||
* {{cite book | |||
* ''Monday Morning Blues'' (2000) | |||
| last = Hitchens | |||
* '']'' (2003), updated in paperback as ''The Abolition of Liberty: The Decline of Order and Justice in England'' (2004) | |||
| first = Peter | |||
* '']'' (2009), updated in paperback as ''The Cameron Delusion'' (2010) | |||
| title = The Abolition of Britain | |||
* '']'' (2010) | |||
| publisher = Quartet Books; New edition (1 April 2000) | |||
* '']'' (2012) | |||
| year = 2000 | |||
* ''Short Breaks in Mordor'' (2014) | |||
| isbn = 9780704381407 | |||
* '']'' (2018) {{ISBN|9781788313292}} | |||
| ref = harv | |||
* ''Unconventional Wisdom'' (2020) | |||
}} | |||
* ''A Revolution Betrayed: How Egalitarians Wrecked the British Education System'' (2022) | |||
* {{Cite book|author=Hitchens, Peter|title=]: How British Politics Lost its Way |publisher=Continuum international Publishing Group Ltd|year=2009|isbn=978-1-84706-405-9}} | |||
* {{Cite book|author=Hitchens, Peter|title=]|publisher=Continuum Publishing Corporation|year=2010|isbn=978-1-4411-0572-1}} | |||
== See also == | == See also == | ||
{{Portal|Biography|Conservatism}} | |||
* ] | * ] | ||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
== References == | == References == | ||
{{reflist |
{{reflist}} | ||
== Further reading == | |||
* Article on a debate about Britain's future with brother ], 15 October 1999. Includes some short, selected audio clips from the event. | |||
* - December 2002. Karl Zinsmeister interviews Peter Hitchens at his home in Oxford. | |||
* - Guardian interview, 20 September 1999. | |||
== External links == | == External links == | ||
{{Wikiquote}} | |||
;Regular features | |||
* {{IMDb name|1510102}} | |||
* | |||
* {{C-SPAN|34951}} | |||
* {{cite web | url = http://st-michaels.org.uk/Sermons%202005/Peter%20Hitchens%20-%20City%20New%20Year%20service.pdf | first = Peter | last = Hitchens | type = address | title = City New Year Service, The Parish Church | place = ], London | date = January 2005 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081002035916/http://st-michaels.org.uk/Sermons%202005/Peter%20Hitchens%20-%20City%20New%20Year%20service.pdf | archive-date = 2 October 2008 | df = dmy-all }} | |||
* {{Cite news | url = http://www.theamericanconservative.com/author/peter-hitchens/ | first = Peter | last = Hitchens | type = archive | title = Articles | newspaper = ] }} | |||
* {{Cite news | url = http://iai.tv/video/drug-culture|last=Hitchens|first=Peter|title=Drug Culture|publisher=]|access-date=3 January 2014}} | |||
{{Peter Hitchens}} | |||
;Book Reviews | |||
{{Christopher Hitchens}} | |||
* Reviews of ''A Brief History of Crime'' in: , and | |||
{{Conservatism navbox}} | |||
{{Authority control}} | |||
;TV Reviews | |||
''Reviews of ''Toff at the Top'' in:'' | |||
* ; and | |||
* . | |||
* | |||
;Video | |||
* ''Pop-up window with embedded ] plugin'' | |||
;Debates | |||
* | |||
;Sermon | |||
* | |||
{{Persondata | |||
|NAME=Hitchens, Peter | |||
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Hitchens, Peter Jonathan (full name) | |||
|SHORT DESCRIPTION=Author, journalist | |||
|DATE OF BIRTH=28 October 1951 | |||
|PLACE OF BIRTH=], ] | |||
}} | |||
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hitchens, Peter}} | {{DEFAULTSORT:Hitchens, Peter}} | ||
] | ] | ||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | ] | ||
] | ] | ||
] | ] | ||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | ] | ||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | ] | ||
] | |||
] | ] | ||
] | ] | ||
] | ] | ||
] | ] | ||
] | ] | ||
] | ] | ||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] |
Latest revision as of 14:06, 19 December 2024
English journalist and author (born 1951)
Peter Hitchens | |
---|---|
Hitchens in 2015 | |
Born | Peter Jonathan Hitchens (1951-10-28) 28 October 1951 (age 73) Sliema, Crown Colony of Malta |
Nationality | British |
Alma mater | University of York (BA) |
Occupations |
|
Political party |
|
Spouse |
Eve Ross (m. 1983) |
Children | 3, including Dan Hitchens |
Relatives | Christopher Hitchens (brother) |
Awards | Orwell Prize (2010) |
Website | hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk |
Peter Jonathan Hitchens (born 28 October 1951) is an English conservative author, broadcaster, journalist, and commentator. He writes for The Mail on Sunday and was a foreign correspondent reporting from both Moscow and Washington, D.C. Peter Hitchens has contributed to The Spectator, The American Conservative, The Guardian, First Things, Prospect, and the New Statesman. His books include The Abolition of Britain, The Rage Against God, The War We Never Fought and The Phoney Victory.
Previously a socialist and supporter of the Labour Party, Hitchens became more conservative during the 1990s. He joined the Conservative Party in 1997 and left in 2003, and has since been deeply critical of the party, which he views as the biggest obstacle to true conservatism in the UK. Hitchens describes himself as a Burkean conservative, social democrat, and Anglo Gaullist. He advocates conservative Christian political views, such as opposition to same-sex marriage and support of stricter recreational drug policies. Hitchens criticised the UK's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, especially lockdowns and mandates that the public wear face masks.
Background
Early life and family
Peter Hitchens was born in Malta, where his father, Eric Ernest Hitchens (1909–1987), a naval officer, was stationed as part of the then Mediterranean Fleet of the Royal Navy. His mother, Yvonne Jean Hitchens (née Hickman; 1921–1973), had met Eric while serving in the Women's Royal Naval Service (Wrens) during the Second World War. Hitchens has Jewish descent via his maternal grandmother, a daughter of Polish Jewish migrants. His grandmother revealed this fact upon meeting his wife Eve Ross. Though his brother Christopher was quick to embrace his Jewish identity following the principle of matrilineal descent, Peter noted that they were only one-32nd Jewish by descent and has not identified as Jewish himself.
As a youth, Hitchens wanted to be an officer in the Royal Navy, following his father. However, when he was 10, he learned he had a lazy eye that could not be corrected, thereby barring him from serving in the Royal Navy.
Hitchens attended Mount House School, Tavistock, The Prebendal School, Chichester, The Leys School, and the Oxford College of Further Education before being accepted at the University of York, where he studied Philosophy and Politics and was a member of Alcuin College, graduating in 1973.
Hitchens married Eve Ross in 1983. They have a daughter and two sons. Their elder son, Dan, was editor of the Catholic Herald, a London-based Roman Catholic newspaper. Hitchens lives in Oxford.
Religion
Hitchens was brought up in the Christian faith and attended Christian boarding schools but became an atheist, beginning to leave his faith at 15. He returned to church later in life, and is now an Anglican and a member of the Church of England.
Relationship with his brother
External videos | |
---|---|
Debate with Christopher and Peter Hitchens on The Abolition of Britain, 14 October 1999, C-SPAN |
Hitchens' only sibling was the journalist and author Christopher Hitchens, who was two years older. Christopher said in 2005 that the main difference between the two was belief in the existence of God. Peter was a member of the International Socialists (forerunners of the modern Socialist Workers' Party) from 1968 to 1975 (beginning at age 17) after Christopher introduced him to them. The brothers fell out after Peter wrote a 2001 article in The Spectator which allegedly characterised Christopher as a Stalinist.
After the birth of Peter's third child, the two brothers reconciled. Peter's review of his brother's book God Is Not Great led to a public argument between the brothers but no renewed estrangement.
In 2007, the brothers appeared as panellists on BBC TV's Question Time, where they clashed on a number of issues. In 2008, in the US, they debated the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the existence of God. In 2010 at the Pew Research Center, the pair debated the nature of God in civilisation. At a memorial service for Christopher after his death in 2011, Peter read St Paul's Epistle to the Philippians 4:8 which Christopher had read at their father's funeral.
Journalism
Christopher Hitchens helped his brother began his career in journalism at the Socialist Worker. Its editor, Roger Protz, recalled that Hitchens "was as dry as a stick, and had no personality of any sort".
Hitchens joined the Labour Party in 1977 but left shortly after campaigning for Ken Livingstone in 1979, thinking it was wrong to carry a party card when directly reporting politics, and coinciding with a culmination of growing personal disillusionment with the Labour movement.
Hitchens worked for the local press in Swindon and then at the Coventry Evening Telegraph. He then worked for the Daily Express between 1977 and 2000, initially as a reporter specialising in education and industrial and labour affairs, then as a political reporter, and subsequently as deputy political editor. Leaving parliamentary journalism to cover defence and diplomatic affairs, he reported on the decline and collapse of communist regimes in several Warsaw Pact countries, which culminated in a stint as Moscow correspondent and reporting on life there during the final months of the Soviet Union and the early years of the Russian Federation in 1990–92. He took part in reporting the UK 1992 general election, closely following Neil Kinnock. He then became the Daily Express Washington correspondent. Returning to Britain in 1995, he became a commentator and columnist.
Hitchens reported from Somalia at the time of the United Nations intervention in the Somali Civil War.
In 2000, Hitchens left the Daily Express after its acquisition by Richard Desmond, stating that working for him would have represented a moral conflict of interest. Hitchens joined The Mail on Sunday, where he has a weekly column and weblog in which he debates directly with readers. Hitchens has also written for The Spectator and The American Conservative magazines, and occasionally for The Guardian, Prospect, and the New Statesman.
After being shortlisted in 2007 and 2009, Hitchens won the Orwell Prize in political journalism in 2010. Peter Kellner, one of the Orwell Prize judges, described Hitchens's writing as being "as firm, polished and potentially lethal as a Guardsman's boot."
A regular on British radio and television, Hitchens has been on Question Time, Any Questions?, This Week, The Daily Politics and The Big Questions. He has authored and presented four documentaries; one on the BBC about Euroscepticism, and three on Channel 4, including one on the surveillance state, and critical examinations of Nelson Mandela and David Cameron. In the late 1990s, Hitchens co-presented a programme on Talk Radio UK with Derek Draper and Austin Mitchell.
In 2010, Hitchens was described by Edward Lucas in The Economist as "a forceful, tenacious, eloquent and brave journalist. He lambasts woolly thinking and crooked behaviour at home and abroad." In 2009, Anthony Howard wrote of Hitchens, "the old revolutionary socialist has lost nothing of his passion and indignation as the years have passed us all by. It is merely the convictions that have changed, not the fervour and fanaticism with which they continue to be held."
Political views
Hitchens describes himself as a Burkean conservative, a social democrat and more recently, a British Gaullist. In 2010, Michael Gove, writing in The Times, asserted that, for Hitchens, what is more important than the split between the Left and the Right is "the deeper gulf between the restless progressive and the Christian pessimist." Hitchens joined the Conservative Party in 1997 and left in 2003. This was when he challenged Michael Portillo for the Conservative nomination in the Kensington and Chelsea seat in 1999.
He has been consistently dismissive of the modern UK Conservative Party since the 1990s. This is because he believes that the party has since then abandoned true social conservatism. His view is that conservatism should embody a Burkean sense of public duty, conscience and the rule of law, which he sees as the best guarantee of liberty. Furthermore, this view holds a general hostility to hasty reforms and adventurism. This was central to his criticism of many policy proposals by the New Labour government, which he viewed as attacks on liberty and facets of a constitutional revolution. He believes the Conservative Party should be a defender of establishment institutions such as the Church of England and the Monarchy, but has shifted to social liberalism instead. He believes that atheism, along with cultural liberalism, are the causes of the systematic undermining of Christianity. Hitchens has written "The left's real interests are moral, cultural, sexual and social. They lead to a powerful state. This is not because they actively set out to achieve one." He also believes that the First World War and the devolution of marriage are the causes of the demise of Christianity in Europe.
In his book The Cameron Delusion, Hitchens argues that in the last few decades, the party has become virtually "indistinguishable from Blairite New Labour". He thinks the Conservative Party is now just a vehicle for "obtaining office for the sons of gentlemen" and he loathes the party. Hitchens's claim that the "Conservatives are now the main Left-wing party in the country" in his Mail on Sunday column has been met with criticism.
He is in favour of capital punishment, and was the only British journalist to attend and write about the execution of British-born Nicholas Ingram in America in 1995. He supports first-past-the-post voting. He is opposed to the privatisation of railways.
Hitchens has been a member of the campaign to clear the name of Bishop of Chichester, George Bell, from allegations of child sexual abuse. He has argued that the Church of England convicted him in what he described as a kangaroo court, and stated his wish that allegations are not treated as proven facts.
Hitchens "completely" opposes the Right to Buy scheme introduced by Margaret Thatcher, describing it as a "grave mistake" and advocates for replacing the UK's system of Housing Benefit, which he describes as an "absolute scandal", with a substantial increase in public housing.
He is a supporter of grammar schools. Hitchens describes himself as a "lifelong trade unionist".
Writings and thought
War and terrorism
He was opposed to the NATO intervention in Kosovo and 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, arguing that neither was in the interests of either Britain or the United States, and opposed the war in Afghanistan.
He believes that the UK should never have participated in World War I, and is very critical of the view that World War II was "The Good War". His view on World War II is laid out in his book The Phoney Victory, in which he argues that the UK entered World War II too early, and that the UK overly glorifies World War II. He argues that while the allies were fighting a radical evil, they sometimes used immoral methods, such as the carpet bombing of German civilians. He believes that Britain's entry into World War II led to its rapid decline after the war. This was because, among other things, it could not finance the war and was not prepared for it. As a result, it had to surrender much of its wealth and power to avoid bankruptcy. Hitchens' views on the UK in World War II have been met with criticism by historians, with Richard J. Evans describing his book The Phoney Victory as 'riddled with errors'. Hitchens responded to Evans' review on his online web-blog.
Hitchens is not anti-war, since he believes that this position often leaves countries defenceless in times of war. Instead, he argues that military power and the threat of war can be deterrents against war. Hitchens wrote about his concern of the use of security (anti-terrorism) legislation and increased police powers under New Labour, and how it has been used to suppress civil liberties. In Channel 4's Dispatches, Hitchens said the result of this legislation was that Britain ended up "sleepwalking into a Big Brother state".
European Union
See also: Euroscepticism in the United KingdomHitchens is critical of the European Union and argued for many years, before Brexit, that Britain would be better off outside it. In 2017 he endorsed the Flexcit model proposed by Richard North and Christopher Booker as the most sensible and moderate way to leave the EU while remaining in the European Economic Area to preserve the economic benefits of EU membership. However, he did not vote in the 2016 UK EU referendum because he is critical of referendums. Instead of a referendum, he argued that a leave decision would be best done by voting into power a political party whose manifesto committed the country to withdrawal by an act of Parliament.
Vaccination
Further information: MMR vaccine and autism and Vaccine hesitancyHitchens was against the MMR vaccine following the Lancet MMR autism fraud. He asked in a 2001 article: "Is it really our duty to risk our children's lives with this jab?" In 2013, he defended this earlier article, saying he was criticising "State bossiness in an age that has seen a catalogue of mistakes, panics and mysteries in the world of disease and medicine" and referred to the thalidomide scandal. He has defended discredited former doctor Andrew Wakefield.
After being vaccinated against COVID-19 in 2021, Hitchens rejected accusations he is an anti-vaxxer, but said that he was "more or less forced to have an immunisation I would not normally have bothered with".
War on drugs
Hitchens has written about the enforcement of drug laws, most notably in his book The War We Never Fought (2012). He advocates harsher penalties properly enforced for possession and illegal use of cannabis, claiming that "cannabis has been mis-sold as a soft and harmless substance when in fact it's potentially extremely dangerous." He is opposed to the decriminalisation of recreational drugs in general. In 2012, Hitchens gave evidence to the Parliamentary Home Affairs Select Committee as part of its inquiry into drugs policy, and called for the British government to introduce a more hard-line policy on drugs. Hitchens disagrees with the notion of drug addiction, arguing that it goes against the notion of free will. He says: "People take drugs because they enjoy it."
In October 2023, Hitchens was interviewed by YouTuber and podcast host Alex O'Connor for the latter's Cosmic Skeptic Philosophy Podcast; in the midst of recording, Hitchens abruptly stood up and declared to O'Connor "I really have decided in the past hour I really do not like you at all I had no opinions of you before, and now I actively dislike you," after which he reportedly lingered by the door while expressing his contempt for O'Connor for about 15 minutes prior to "storming" out of the recording studio. According to O'Connor, the subject of the podcast was "...issues pertaining to drug decriminalisation, whether we are experiencing a moral decline in society and the influence of secularism on this question, and the state of monarchy in the UK."
LGBT rights and marriage
Hitchens has criticised the transgender rights movement, claiming that it promotes zealotry and that changes in traditional gender roles in society are "destroying truth itself".
Hitchens was one of the most outspoken opponents of same-sex marriage in 2013, the year before same-sex marriage was legal in Britain. In speaking to Guardian journalist Owen Jones in 2015, he said his real issue was with the decline of heterosexual marriage in society and the legalisation "of what was in effect no-fault divorce", and that same-sex marriage is "a side-effect ... It's a consequence of the collapse of heterosexual marriage, and I regret now getting involved in the argument about same-sex marriage, because it was a Stalingrad, a diversion. Why is one worrying about a few thousand people who want to have same-sex marriages, without being at all concerned about the collapse of heterosexual marriage, which involves millions of people, and millions of children?"
In 2019, the University of Buckingham organised a "free-speech society" after Hitchens' "no-platforming" by the University of Portsmouth over his views on gay rights, which they believed would cause conflict with LGBT events on campus. Hitchens was the first guest invited by the society to address students. In response to his being no-platformed by the University of Portsmouth, Hitchens was invited by the Archivist and the Head of History and Politics at The Portsmouth Grammar School to give a short talk on "The myth of Russian aggression" to Sixth Form pupils.
Environment
Hitchens has claimed that "the greenhouse effect probably doesn't exist" and that the scientific consensus linking global warming to human activity has not been proven, describing it as "modish dogma". He has criticised wind power in the United Kingdom and argued in 2015 that its expansion put the UK at risk of blackouts.
COVID-19 pandemic
Hitchens has repeatedly criticised the British government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He has particularly criticised COVID-19 lockdowns in the UK, suggesting they would have negative consequences and questioning their epidemiological efficacy. Critics have described him as a "lockdown sceptic". Full Fact evaluated his statement, where he said it was "not possible" for the first lockdown in March to cause the peak in daily infections and deaths to decline, in a fact-checking article, and concluded that this was "wrong" based on available evidence. Hitchens' view was also disputed by Paul Mason in the New Statesman. George Monbiot in The Guardian also critiqued Hitchens' views. Daniel Hannan meanwhile expressed agreement with Hitchens in The Daily Telegraph. A tweet by Hitchens stating four fifths of cases were asymptomatic was also described as "misleading" by Voice of America. Hitchens criticised Imperial College London modelling, which suggested that there could be up to 500,000 COVID-19 deaths if the government did not impose a lockdown.
He has supported Sweden's response to the pandemic. He has opposed the mandatory wearing of face masks during the pandemic, referring to them as "muzzles". He also believes that government mandates to wear face coverings are oppressive. He has been accused of promoting misinformation about the pandemic and public health restrictions by several sources.
English independence
Hitchens has spoken in favour of English nationalism, arguing that the United Kingdom should be dissolved and England should become an independent country once again.
Russia and Ukraine
In 2010, Hitchens argued that Crimea should be part of Russia rather than Ukraine, stating that the peninsula is historically Russian. In November, 2022, he said that there exists a "virulent" nationalism in Ukraine, and that it is easier "to be a non-Scot in Scotland" than "an ethnic Russian in Ukraine" due to the "ugly strain of Ukrainian nationalism that made life difficult for ethnic Russians in Ukraine."
Hitchens has stated that Ukraine should not join NATO. He is also against providing military aid to Ukraine, having stated: "The conflict in Ukraine was always unnecessary. It has done nothing but harm to Ukraine and Ukrainians. Ukraine has been used as a battering ram in someone else's quarrel." Hitchens called for peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.
Hitchens has been a vocal supporter of pro-Russian British journalist Graham Phillips in his fight against being sanctioned by the government of the United Kingdom. Although expressing criticism of Phillips and his work, Hitchens has been strongly critical of the British government, describing Phillips's fight against sanctions as "liberty fighting tyranny" and "one of the most important court cases of our time". Writing in support of Phillips, and Julian Assange, in March 2024, Hitchens described Phillips as a "prisoner of the (UK) state".
Publications
Hitchens is the author of The Abolition of Britain (1999) and A Brief History of Crime (2003), both critical of changes in British society since the 1960s. A compendium of his Daily Express columns was published as Monday Morning Blues in 2000. A Brief History of Crime was reissued as The Abolition of Liberty in April 2004, with an additional chapter on identity cards ("Your papers, please"), and with two chapters – on gun control ("Out of the barrel of a gun") and capital punishment ("Cruel and unusual") – removed.
The Broken Compass: How British Politics Lost its Way was published in May 2009, and The Rage Against God was published in Britain in March 2010, and in the US in May. Hitchens's book The War We Never Fought: The British Establishment's Surrender to Drugs, about what he sees as the non-existence of the war on drugs, was published by Bloomsbury in the autumn of 2012.
In June 2014, Hitchens published his first e-book, Short Breaks in Mordor, a compendium of foreign reports. The Phoney Victory: The World War II Illusion was published in August 2018 by I.B. Tauris. It addresses what Hitchens views as the national myth of the Second World War, which he believes did long-term damage to Britain and its position in the world. It was negatively reviewed by the historian Richard Evans in the New Statesman, who described the book as "riddled with errors".
Bibliography
Booknotes interview with Hitchens on The Abolition of Britain, 31 December 2000, C-SPAN |
- The Abolition of Britain (1999)
- Monday Morning Blues (2000)
- A Brief History of Crime (2003), updated in paperback as The Abolition of Liberty: The Decline of Order and Justice in England (2004)
- The Broken Compass (2009), updated in paperback as The Cameron Delusion (2010)
- The Rage Against God (2010)
- The War We Never Fought (2012)
- Short Breaks in Mordor (2014)
- The Phoney Victory (2018) ISBN 9781788313292
- Unconventional Wisdom (2020)
- A Revolution Betrayed: How Egalitarians Wrecked the British Education System (2022)
See also
References
- ^ White, JT. "Why I respect Peter Hitchens" Archived 23 September 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Spectre 27 December 2014
- ^ Rentoul, John (20 November 2013). "Peter Hitchens: One-way tweets". The Independent. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
- Jackson, Julian T. (14 August 2021). "The problem with Anglo-Gaullism | The Spectator". www.spectator.co.uk. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
- ^ Aitkenhead, Decca (21 October 2012). "Peter Hitchens: 'I don't believe in addiction. People take drugs because they enjoy it'". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
- ^ "Hitchens urges tough drugs policy". BBC News. 24 April 2012. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
- "The War We Never Fought by Peter Hitchens – review". The Guardian. 26 October 2012. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
- Cook, Tom (23 October 2012). "The other Hitchens boy". New Statesman. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
- ^ Walsh, John (27 May 2010). "Hitch-22: a memoir by Christopher Hitchens". The Independent. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 28 May 2010.
- Barber, Lynn (14 April 2002). "Look who's talking". The Observer. Archived from the original on 10 April 2019. Retrieved 30 June 2015.
- "Peter Hitchens on his life". YouTube.
- "The River of God". The Lamp Magazine. 17 June 2024. Retrieved 19 August 2024.
- "Toffs at the top". Press Gazette. 16 June 2006. Archived from the original on 16 June 2011. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
- ^ "Peter Hitchens | Nigel Farndale". www.nigelfarndale.com. Archived from the original on 15 February 2021. Retrieved 7 October 2015.
- Inside The Married Life Of Peter Hitchens And Wife Eve Ross: Everything To Learn About Them Archived 25 August 2022 at the Wayback Machine Published on 6 March 2022
- Martinson, Jane (21 April 2019). "Wanted: newsrooms that truly reflect modern Britain". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
The awarding of an internship to the son of the well-known journalist, Peter Hitchens...
- "The trouble with Catholic politicians" Archived 18 August 2018 at the Wayback Machine Published by Catholic Herald, 12 July 2018, retrieved 18 August 2018
- Peter Hitchens on living in Hampstead and having his bike stolen by a ‘geezer in a tweed jacket’ Published by Hampstead Highgate Express on 22 December 2016
- Only a benevolent dictator can save Oxford Published by The Spectator on 11 December 2021
- "How an atheist journalist became a Christian believer". Premier Christianity. 30 March 2016.
- Hitchens, Peter (2010). The Rage Against God. Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-4411-6285-4. OCLC 727649562.
- Letters (8 March 2018). "Peter Hitchens: I'm no zealot | Letters". The Guardian.
As it happens, I am a soppy, broad-church Anglican who dislikes any sort of religious enthusiasm or sectarianism, given to hiding behind a pillar during Evensong.
- ^ Katz, Ian (31 May 2005). "When Christopher met Peter". The Guardian.
- Jones, Owen (9 September 2015). "Peter Hitchens got me thinking: do lefties always have to turn right in old age?". The Guardian.
- "O Brother, Where Art Thou?". The Spectator Archive. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
- Katz, Ian (28 October 2006). "War of Words". The Guardian.
- James Macintyre, The Hitchens brothers: Anatomy of a row Archived 29 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine, The Independent, 11 June 2007. Retrieved 11 June 2007.
- Tryhorn, Chris (22 June 2007). "Boris steals Question Time's Hitchens show". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 August 2018.
- "Hitchens vs Hitchens Debate – On God, War, Politics, and Culture". cfimichigan.org. 7 May 2008. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
- Eric Marrapodi (13 October 2010). "Hitchens brothers debate if civilization can survive without God". CNN. Archived from the original on 15 October 2010. Retrieved 14 October 2010.
- "Hitch Quotes St. Paul". Tablet Magazine. 20 April 2012. Retrieved 12 April 2022.
- "Christopher Hitchens remembered at memorial service in NYC". The Washington Post. 20 April 2012. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
- ^ "Media families; 3. The Hitchens". The Independent. 3 March 1997. Retrieved 6 November 2024.
- ^ Silver, James (14 November 2005). "Look forward in anger". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 April 2007.
- Maguire, Kevin (7 June 2000). "How 'Bonkers' launched the battle for Britain". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 August 2018.
- His first cited article from the latter paper on the British Newspaper Archive is "Stoke to Build Alpine Engine", 28 June 1976
- Ainslee, Jonny (20 February 2018). "Peter Hitchens - News is what somebody, somewhere, wants suppressed". journalistsontruth.com. Retrieved 17 October 2018.
- Hattenstone, Simon (20 September 1999). "Raging bulldog: Peter Hitchens". The Guardian.
- Silver, James (14 November 2005). "Look forward in anger". The Guardian.
- "Peter Hitchens: The UK is an 'atrophied' nation". radionz.co.nz. 17 February 2018. Retrieved 22 August 2018.
- Hodgson, Jessica (7 December 2000). "Hitchens quits Express". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
- "Veteran columnist quits Express" (report). BBC News. 9 December 2000. Retrieved 2 November 2006.
- Martin Moore for the Frontline Club. 1 May 2007 The Orwell Prize 2007. Quote: "...judge Francis Wheen congratulated a strong field that included ...Peter Hitchens – more for his delightfully frank foreign dispatches than his 'fire and brimstone' Mail columns (read, for example, his article on 'Iran – a nation of nose jobs, not nuclear war')."
- Amos, Owen (26 March 2009). "Shortlists announced for Orwell Prize for political writing". Press Gazette. UK. Archived from the original on 28 April 2011.
- Trilling, Daniel (20 May 2010). "Peter Hitchens wins the Orwell Prize". New Statesman. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
- Goligher, Kate (25 May 2010). "University of York graduate Peter Hitchens wins Orwell prize for foreign correspondence". Nouse. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
- "Peter Hitchens on why we should leave Russia be and how the Second World War was 'phoney'". The Irish Times. Dublin. 8 March 2018. Retrieved 23 August 2018.
- "Peter Hitchens". This Week. News. The BBC. 6 October 2006. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
- "The Big Questions Comments". tvguide.co.uk. 8 April 2018. Retrieved 23 August 2018.
- Hitchens, Peter (8 August 2015). "@cynicalyoubet Much appreciated. No, I have made four full-length documentaries, otherwise there are various clips that others put up" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- Sampson, Anthony (15 May 2004). "Mandela is not a saint, but he could teach Blair and Bush about peace-making". The Independent. UK. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 1 May 2012.
- "Last night's TV: Dispatches: Cameron - Toff at the Top". The Guardian. 27 March 2007. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
- "Hear me roar". The Guardian. 3 April 2000. Retrieved 17 March 2008.
- ^ Lucas, Edward (29 September 2010). "Foggy at the bottom". The Economist.
- Howard, Anthony (21 May 2009). "The Broken Compass: How British Politics Lost Its Way by Peter Hitchens". New Statesman. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
- Jackson, Julian T. (14 August 2021). "The problem with Anglo-Gaullism | The Spectator". www.spectator.co.uk. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
- Gove, Michael (5 May 2009). "Dazzling divisions of the Hitchens brothers". The Times. UK. Retrieved 30 March 2010.
- Ward, Lucy (17 September 1999). "Byelection contender denounces 'liberal' Portillo". The Guardian. UK. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
- Payne, Adam (31 July 2017). "Peter Hitchens: I have got 'a lot of pleasure' out of Corbyn's success". Business Insider.
- Keith Sutherland (2000). The Rape of the Constitution?. Imprint Academic. p. 93. ISBN 978-0-907845-70-6.
- White, JT. "Why I respect Peter Hitchens" Archived 23 September 2018 at the Wayback Machine Spectre|27 December 2014.
- "The Foul Tornado". The American Spectator. Archived from the original on 1 July 2016. Retrieved 26 May 2016.
- "Marriage Debate". Oxford Union. 10 February 2016. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
- "The Cameron Delusion". Bloomsbury Publishing.
- Staker, Jay (14 January 2019). "Peter Hitchens Talks Jeremy Corbyn, Brexit And The Tories".
- "THE CHAMELEON NATURE OF THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY". 31 May 2020.
- Alexander Scott, Callum (30 May 2020). "Johnson and Cummings are waging information war on the UK".
- Hasan, Mehdi (31 August 2009). "Peter Hitchens, the BBC and me The right is in denial about the Beeb".
- "Amnesty TV: Peter Hitchens and the death penalty". The Guardian. 5 October 2011. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
- Says, Sharon (19 May 2011). "Hitchens on the death penalty". Oxford student. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
- Rose, David (13 April 2003). "Hanging's too good for 'em". The Observer. UK. Retrieved 31 August 2018.
- Too Late to Replace Tories with Real conservative party, 4 January 2023, retrieved 8 January 2023
- O'Grady, Jack (25 February 2018). "The Church of England should stand up for Bishop Bell". oxfordstudent.com. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
- Wolfson, Sam (15 December 2017). "The Day the Church Stopped Believing Victims". Vice Media. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
- Sherwood, Harriet (15 December 2017). "Anglican church 'rushed to judgment' in George Bell child abuse case". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
- Parkinson, Justin (5 May 2016). "George Bell: The battle for a bishop's reputation". BBC News. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwEPcO8pDww
- Jones, Owen (18 December 2013). "Anachronistic and iniquitous, grammar schools are a blot on the British education system". The Independent. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
- Devon, Natasha (24 May 2017). "'Separating children according to perceived academic talent won't address the inequalities in education'". Times Educational Supplement. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
- https://www.bigissue.com/opinion/peter-hitchens-i-trade-unionist-i-favour-nationalization/
- "Hitchens on Iraq: 'slow decline'". News. Channel 4. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
- "Afghan war effort 'has failed'". BBC News. 25 June 2010. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
- ^ Evans, Richard J. (26 September 2018). "Peter Hitchens's Eurosceptic take on the Second World War is riddled with errors and bizarre theories".
- Coutinho, Charles (12 December 2018). "The Phoney Victory - The World War II Illusion". New Books Network.
- ^ Johnson, Daniel (2 October 2018). "A martial nation needs Churchill to inspire us". Archived from the original on 6 August 2020. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
- West, Andrew (5 June 2019). "The Religion and Ethics Report". Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
- Giovanni, Charles (14 January 2019). "The Phoney Victory - Reviewed by Charles Giovanni, Vanzan Coutinho, New York".
- Hitchens, Peter (27 September 2018). "A Reply to the Knighted Professor. His Review of My Book is a Very Poor Piece of Work". Peter Hitchens Blog. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
- Maiolo, Joseph (2 November 2018). "Myth understanding - Trying to make sense of the Second World War".
- Burgh, Hugo de (27 May 2008). Investigative Journalism. Routledge. p. 81. ISBN 978-1-134-06871-5. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
- Zinsmeister, Karl; Kauffmann, Bill (December 2002). "A prominent British editorialist and conservative takes a pessimistic look at the future of an increasingly centralized and socialist Europe. ("Live" with TAE: Peter Hitchens)".
- ^ Adam Payne (31 July 2017). "Peter Hitchens: I have got 'a lot of pleasure' out of Corbyn's success". Business Insider.
- Walther, Matthew (29 March 2019). "Brexit was designed to fail". The Week.
- Boyce, Tammy (2007). Health, Risk and News. Peter Lang. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-8204-8838-7.
- Ritchie, Stuart (16 July 2020). Science Fictions: Exposing Fraud, Bias, Negligence and Hype in Science. Random House. p. 168. ISBN 978-1-4735-6425-1.
- ^ Struthers, Mark (2013). "Re: MMR, measles, and the South Wales Evening Post". British Medical Journal. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
- "Peter Hitchens: I've had the Covid jab - and all it cost me was my freedom". archive.is. 28 February 2021. Archived from the original on 28 February 2021. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
- ^ Jack Staples-Butler (27 June 2013). "The Yorker Meets... Peter Hitchens". Theyorker.co.uk. Archived from the original on 10 July 2014. Retrieved 7 June 2014.
- ^ "Famous journalist tells Oxford podcaster 'I don't like you' before storming off". Oxford Mail. 10 October 2023. Retrieved 30 October 2024.
- ^ McCormick, Joseph (19 November 2017). "Mail columnist says 'trans zealots' are 'destroying truth itself'". PinkNews. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
- Duffy, Nick (12 September 2015). "Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens 'regrets' opposing same-sex marriage". PinkNews. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
- O'Sullivan, Sascha (23 November 2019). "Students speak up to join campaign for free speech". The Times. Retrieved 29 October 2020. (subscription required)
- Leading article (23 November 2019). "The Times view on Buckingham University's free speech society: Resisting Tyranny". The Times. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
- "Peter Hitchens' Portsmouth University speech cancelled". BBC News. 7 February 2019.
- Derler, Zak. "Peter Hitchens". DeSmog. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
- First Thoughts: Act now on the climate emergency, "I’m with Bonkers", and the perils of altruism Published in the New Statesman, accessed via The Wayback machine 25 August 2022
- "George Monbiot: Climate change". The Guardian. 27 April 2004. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
- Chris Goodall; Mark Lynas (12 November 2015). "Wind is not driving the UK towards power blackouts". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
- ^ "Covid lies cost lives – we have a duty to clamp down on them | George Monbiot". The Guardian. 27 January 2021. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
- Klooz, David (2020). The Covid-19 Conundrum. David Klooz. p. 25.
- ^ "It was lonely opposing the first lockdown, but the day will come when no one remembers backing it". The Telegraph. 5 February 2022.
- "How did COVID-19 become the culture war of 2020?". ABC Radio National. 16 December 2020. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
- Patrick, Philip (8 April 2020). "We need to look carefully at the consequences of coronavirus lockdown". Retrieved 2 September 2020.
- Dugmore, Oli (9 April 2020). "Peter Hitchens on COVID-19: Is the government lockdown reasonable?". Joe.
- ^ "Can we believe the lockdown sceptics?". Full Fact. 18 December 2020. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
- ^ "The Covid deniers have been humiliated but they are still dangerous". www.newstatesman.com. 6 January 2021. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
- ^ "The Infodemic: Plandemic 2 is Another COVID-19 Conspiracy Theory Video | Voice of America - English". www.voanews.com. 19 August 2020. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
- Mumford, Peter (29 April 2020). "First fully digital Union debate explores global lockdown strategies". Varsity.
- Ward, Bob (6 May 2020). "It's not just Neil Ferguson – scientists are being attacked for telling the truth". www.theguardian.com.
- Scullion, David (21 April 2020). "The Lockdown Sceptics". thecritic.co.uk.
- Evans, Martin (14 July 2020). "Police leaders warn new rules around face masks in shops will be 'impossible' to enforce". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022.
- Sheridan, Danielle (5 August 2020). "Face mask rules: compulsory coverings in shops, fines and who is exempt from wearing one". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022.
- ^ Ball, Philip (15 July 2020). "How mask-wearing became a new culture war". New Statesman.
- Lo, Joe (23 July 2020). "Nearly 90% of Brits say masks are important".
- Conversation, The (3 August 2020). "Face Mask Rules: Do They Really Violate Personal Liberty?".
- "Peter Hitchens backs English independence in Daily Mail column". The National. Retrieved 21 May 2022.
- Nelson, Fraser (4 November 2022). "Is now the time to make peace in Ukraine?". The Spectator.
- Hitchens, Peter (5 July 2023). "Ukraine Shouldn't Join NATO". Compact.
- Stephens, Bret (2 May 2023). "The Curious Conservative Case Against Defending Ukraine". The New York Times.
- "The Warmongers are Losing Heart in Ukraine. Plus, how did Suella Braverman Fail to Spot that the Police are Left Wing?". freerepublic.com. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
- "'Stop whining': Piers Morgan clashes with Peter Hitchens on Ukraine-Russia war". Sky News. 16 May 2023.
- Morello, Sebastian (20 November 2022). "Frozen Bank Accounts, Again: The Arrival of a New Tyranny". The European Conservative. Retrieved 23 March 2024.
- "Assange, Phillips, and the End of Rights". 13 March 2024. Retrieved 14 March 2024.
- Ross. "The War We Never Fought The British Establishment's Surrender to Drugs By Peter Hitchens". educationumbrella.com. Archived from the original on 13 July 2019. Retrieved 22 August 2018.
- Aspinall, John (24 July 2014). "A Misunderstood Man: Short Breaks in Mordor by Peter Hitchens". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.
- "I.B.Tauris Publishers". Ibtauris.com. 29 August 2018. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
- Evans, Richard J. (26 September 2018). "Peter Hitchens's Eurosceptic take on the Second World War is riddled with errors and bizarre theories". New Statesman.
External links
- Peter Hitchens at IMDb
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Hitchens, Peter (January 2005). "City New Year Service, The Parish Church" (PDF) (address). St. Michael's Cornhill, London. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 October 2008.
- Hitchens, Peter. "Articles". American Conservative (archive).
- Hitchens, Peter. "Drug Culture". Institute of Art and Ideas. Retrieved 3 January 2014.
Books by Peter Hitchens | |
---|---|
|
- 1951 births
- Living people
- 20th-century English writers
- 21st-century English writers
- Alumni of the University of York
- English anti-communists
- English male bloggers
- English male journalists
- British people of Polish-Jewish descent
- Conservatism in the United Kingdom
- Conservative Party (UK) people
- Converts to Anglicanism from atheism or agnosticism
- Criticism of science
- Critics of New Atheism
- British critics of atheism
- Critics of multiculturalism
- Daily Express people
- Daily Mail journalists
- English Anglicans
- English anti-same-sex-marriage activists
- English anti–Iraq War activists
- English bloggers
- English columnists
- English nationalists
- Former Marxists
- Labour Party (UK) people
- People educated at Mount House School, Tavistock
- People educated at The Leys School
- People from Sliema
- Socialist Workers Party (UK) members