Peter Hitchens

{{Infobox person

| name = Peter Hitchens

| image = Peter Hitchens at SidneySussex (cropped).jpg

| caption = Hitchens in 2015

| birth_name = Peter Jonathan Hitchens

| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1951}}

| birth_place = Sliema, Crown Colony of Malta

| nationality = British

| alma_mater = University of York (BA)

| occupation = {{dotlist|Journalist|author}}

| party = {{ubl|International Socialists (1969–1975)|Labour (1977–1983)|Conservative (1997–2003)}}

| spouse = {{marriage|Eve Ross|1983}}

| children = 3, including Dan Hitchens

| relatives = Christopher Hitchens (brother)

| awards = Orwell Prize (2010)

| website = {{URL|http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/|hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk}}

}}

Peter Jonathan Hitchens (born 1951){{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}} 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. 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 foremost obstacle to true conservatism in Britain. Hitchens describes himself as a Burkean conservative, a social democrat, and an Anglo-Gaullist.White, JT. [http://spectre-online.org/why-i-respect-peter-hitchens/ "Why I respect Peter Hitchens"] {{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{{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}}{{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}} He advocates conservative Christian political views, such as opposition to same-sex marriage and support of stricter recreational-drug policies.{{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}} Hitchens criticised the British government’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.{{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}} Hitchens has Jewish ancestry via his maternal grandmother, a daughter of Polish Jewish migrants. His grandmother revealed this fact upon meeting his wife Eve Ross. Though his older 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.{{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}}

In his youth Hitchens wanted to be an officer in the Royal Navy, like his father. However, when he was 10, he learned he had a lazy eye that could not be corrected, thereby barring him from service.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Peter Hitchens on his life|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt5NF9bKtoo|access-date=|website=YouTube}}

Hitchens attended Mount House School, Tavistock, The Prebendal School, Chichester,{{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}} The Leys School, and the Oxford College of Further Education{{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 }} before being accepted at the University of York, where he studied Philosophy and Politics and was a member of Alcuin College, graduating in 1973.{{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}}

Hitchens married Eve Ross in 1983.[https://esajaelina.com/inside-the-married-life-of-peter-hitchens-and-wife-eve-ross-everything-to-learn-about-them/ Inside The Married Life Of Peter Hitchens And Wife Eve Ross: Everything To Learn About Them] {{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 They have a daughter and two sons. Their elder son, Dan,{{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...}} was editor of the Catholic Herald, a London-based Roman Catholic newspaper.[http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/issues/july-13th-2018/the-trouble-with-catholic-politicians/ "The trouble with Catholic politicians"] {{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 Hitchens lives with his wife in Oxford.[https://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/peter-hitchens-on-living-in-hampstead-and-having-his-bike-3539894 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[https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/only-a-benevolent-dictator-can-save-oxford Only a benevolent dictator can save Oxford] Published by The Spectator on 11 December 2021

= 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.{{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=Premier Christianity}}{{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}}{{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=The Guardian |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.}}

= Relationship with his brother =

{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?153240-1/the-abolition-britain 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 the belief in the existence of God.{{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}} Peter was a member of the International Socialists (forerunners of the modern Socialist Workers' Party){{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}} 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.{{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}}

After the birth of Peter's third child the two brothers reconciled.{{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}} Peter's review of his brother's book God Is Not Great led to a public argument between the brothers, but no renewed estrangement.James Macintyre, [http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article2640860.ece The Hitchens brothers: Anatomy of a row] {{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.

In 2007 the brothers appeared as panellists on BBC TV's Question Time, where they clashed on a number of issues.{{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}} In 2008 in the United States they debated the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the existence of God.{{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}} In 2010 at the Pew Research Center, the pair debated the nature of God in civilisation.{{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 }} At a memorial service for Christopher after his death in 2011, Peter read St Paul's Epistle to the Philippians 4:8{{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}} which Christopher had read at their father's funeral.{{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}}

Journalism

Christopher helped Peter to begin a career in journalism at the Socialist Worker.{{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}} Its editor Roger Protz recalled that Peter "was as dry as a stick, and had no personality of any sort".{{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}}

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,{{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}} and coinciding with a culmination of growing personal disillusionment with the Labour movement.{{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}}

Hitchens worked for the local press in Swindon and then at the Coventry Evening Telegraph.His first cited article from the latter paper on the British Newspaper Archive is "Stoke to Build Alpine Engine", 28 June 1976 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{{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}} 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 1992 general election, closely following Neil Kinnock.{{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}} He then became the Daily Express Washington correspondent.{{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}} Returning to Britain in 1995, he became a commentator and columnist.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}

Hitchens reported from Somalia at the time of the United Nations intervention in the Somali Civil War.{{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}}

In 2000 Hitchens left the Daily Express after its acquisition by Richard Desmond,{{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}} stating that working for him would have represented a moral conflict of interest.{{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}} 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 2007Martin Moore for the Frontline Club. 1 May 2007 [http://www.frontlineclub.com/the_orwell_prize_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')." and 2009,{{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}} Hitchens won the Orwell Prize in political journalism in 2010.{{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}} 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."{{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}}

A regular on British radio and television, Hitchens has been on Question Time,{{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}} Any Questions?, This Week,{{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}} The Daily Politics, and The Big Questions.{{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}} He has authored and presented four documentaries;{{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}}{{Primary source inline|date=February 2024}} one on the BBC about Euroscepticism, and three on Channel 4, including one on the surveillance state, and critical examinations of Nelson Mandela{{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}} and David Cameron.{{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}} In the late 1990s Hitchens co-presented a programme on Talk Radio UK with Derek Draper and Austin Mitchell.{{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}}

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."{{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 = New Statesman | access-date = 2 May 2012}}

Political views

Hitchens describes himself as a Burkean conservative, a social democrat and more recently, a British Gaullist.{{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}} 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."{{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.com/uk/politics/article/dazzling-divisions-of-the-hitchens-brothers-69wv0qf6qpz|url-access=subscription|access-date=30 March 2010}} 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.{{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}}

In 2025 a profile in the Oxford University student newspaper Cherwell asserted that:

"Like Edmund Burke, he [Hitchens] possesses an instinctive preference towards ideas and systems which have evolved naturally, over time, from the bottom-up, and he views with suspicion their shiny premanufactured counterparts. Thus, common law, imperial measurements, grammar schools, and the first-past-the-post system are always preferable to civil law, metric measurements, comprehensive schools, and proportional representation... By ruling out conventional perspectives and accepting that not all progress is good, Hitchens attains a clear-sightedness which more mainstream commentators have missed."{{cite web|last=Akram|first=Hassan|date=31 March 2025|title=Character of Mr Hitchens|url=https://cherwell.org/2025/03/31/peter-hitchens-profile-2025/|access-date=24 April 2025|work=Cherwell|location=UK}}

He has been consistently dismissive of the modern Conservative Party since the 1990s. This is because he believes that the party has since abandoned true social conservatism.{{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=Business Insider |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/peter-hitchens-interview-jeremy-corbyn-theresa-may-brexit-2017-7?r=US&IR=T}} 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.{{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}} 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 and 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."White, JT. [http://spectre-online.org/why-i-respect-peter-hitchens/ "Why I respect Peter Hitchens"] {{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. He also believes that the First World War and the devolution of marriage are the causes of the demise of Christianity in Europe.{{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}}{{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 }}

In his book The Cameron Delusion Hitchens argues that in the last few decades, the Conservative Party has become virtually "indistinguishable from Blairite New Labour".{{Cite web|url=https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-cameron-delusion-9781441183026/|title=The Cameron Delusion|website=Bloomsbury Publishing}} He thinks the Conservative Party is now just a vehicle for "obtaining office for the sons of gentlemen" and he loathes the party.{{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/}}{{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/}} 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.{{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/}}{{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}}

He is in favour of capital punishment,{{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}}{{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}} and was the only British journalist to attend and write about the execution of British-born Nicholas Ingram in America in 1995.{{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}} He supports first-past-the-post voting.{{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}} 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.{{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}}{{cite web|last=Wolfson|first=Sam|date=15 December 2017|title=The Day the Church Stopped Believing Victims|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-day-the-church-stopped-believing-victims/|access-date=30 August 2018|publisher=Vice Media}} He has argued that the Church of England convicted him in what he described as a kangaroo court,{{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}} and stated his wish that allegations are not treated as proven facts.{{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}}

Hitchens "completely" opposes the Right to Buy scheme introduced by Margaret Thatcher, describing it as a "grave mistake" and advocates for replacing Housing Benefit, which he describes as an "absolute scandal", with a substantial increase in public housing.{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwEPcO8pDww | title=Margaret Thatcher made a 'GRAVE MISTAKE' and 'destroyed' the housing market - Peter Hitchens | website=YouTube | date=22 January 2024 }}

He is a supporter of grammar schools.{{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}}{{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=Times Educational Supplement |date=24 May 2017 |language=en}} Hitchens describes himself as a "lifelong trade unionist".{{cite web | url=https://www.bigissue.com/opinion/peter-hitchens-i-trade-unionist-i-favour-nationalization/ | title=Peter Hitchens: I am a Trade Unionist and I favour nationalization | date=7 May 2015 }}

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,{{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}} and opposed the war in Afghanistan.{{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}}

Hitchens has argued that Britain should never have participated in the First World War, and is very critical of the view that the Second World War was "The Good War". His view on the latter war is laid out in his book The Phoney Victory, in which he argues that Britain entered too early, and that Britain overly glorifies its role within the war.{{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}}{{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/}}{{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}} He argues that while the Allies were fighting a radical evil, they sometimes used immoral methods, such as the carpet bombing of German civilians.{{Cite web|last=West|first=Andrew|date=5 Jun 2019|title=The Religion and Ethics Report|website=Australian Broadcasting Corporation |url=https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/religionandethicsreport/the-phoney-victory/11180854}} He believes that Britain's entry into the Second World War led to the country’s subsequent rapid decline. This was because, among other matters, 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.{{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}} Hitchens' views on the UK in World War II have been criticised by historians; Richard J. Evans described Hitchens’ book The Phoney Victory as 'riddled with errors'. Hitchens responded to Evans' review on Hitchens’ blog.{{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}}

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.{{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/}} 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".{{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}}

= European Union =

Hitchens is critical of the European Union (EU) and argued for many years, before Brexit, that Britain would be better off outside it.{{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)|work=The American Enterprise |volume=13 |issue=8 |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}} 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.{{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}} However, he did not vote in the 2016 EU membership 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.{{Cite web|last=Walther|first=Matthew|date=29 March 2019|title=Brexit was designed to fail|website=The Week |url=https://theweek.com/articles/832142/brexit-designed-fail}}

=Vaccination=

Hitchens was against the MMR vaccine following the Lancet MMR autism fraud.{{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}}{{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}} He asked in a 2001 article: "Is it really our duty to risk our children's lives with this jab?"{{cite journal |last1=Struthers |first1=Mark |title=Re: MMR, measles, and the South Wales Evening Post |journal=British Medical Journal |date=2013 |url=https://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f2598/rr/643958 |access-date=29 October 2020 |language=en}} 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 the 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".{{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}}

= 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,{{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 }} saying 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.{{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}} 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."{{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=The Guardian |date=21 October 2012}}

In October 2023 Hitchens was interviewed by the YouTuber and podcast host Alex O'Connor for the latter's Within Reason 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 leaving the recording studio.{{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}} According to O'Connor, the subjects of the podcast were supposed to be "...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", but only the topic of drugs was discussed due to the abrupt ending of the conversation.

= LGBT rights and marriage =

Hitchens was one of the most outspoken opponents of same-sex marriage in 2013, the year before same-sex marriage was made legal in England, Wales, and Scotland.{{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=PinkNews |date=19 November 2017}} In speaking to the 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?"{{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=PinkNews |date=12 September 2015}}

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.{{cite news |last1=O'Sullivan |first1=Sascha |title=Students speak up to join campaign for free speech |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/education/article/students-speak-up-to-join-campaign-for-free-speech-jlxsbmc8p |access-date=29 October 2020 |work=The Times |date=23 November 2019 |language=en}} {{subscription required}} Hitchens was the first guest invited by the society to address students.{{cite news |author1=Leading article |title=The Times view on Buckingham University's free speech society: Resisting Tyranny |url=https://www.thetimes.com/comment/article/the-times-view-on-buckingham-universitys-free-speech-society-resisting-tyranny-6rhxrgspj |access-date=29 October 2020 |work=The Times |date=23 November 2019}} 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.{{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}}

= 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".{{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}}[https://web.archive.org/web/20210923122453/https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2021/07/first-thoughts-act-now-climate-emergency-i-m-bonkers-and-perils 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{{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}} He has criticised wind power in the United Kingdom and argued in 2015 that its expansion put Britain at risk of blackouts.{{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}}{{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}}

= COVID-19 pandemic =

Hitchens has repeatedly criticised the British government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.{{Cite book|last=Klooz|first=David|title=The Covid-19 Conundrum|publisher=David Klooz|year=2020|pages=25}}{{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}}{{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}} He has particularly criticised COVID-19 lockdowns in the UK, suggesting they would have negative consequences and questioning their epidemiological efficacy.{{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}}{{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=Joe}} 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.{{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}} 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.{{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=Varsity}}{{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}}

He supported the Swedish government’s response to the pandemic.{{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}} He opposed the mandatory wearing of face masks during the pandemic,{{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}}{{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}} referring to them as "muzzles".{{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}}{{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/}} Hitchens also believes that government mandates to wear face coverings are oppressive.{{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/}} He has been accused of promoting misinformation about the pandemic and public health restrictions by several sources.{{Cite web|title=The Infodemic: Plandemic 2 is Another COVID-19 Conspiracy Theory Video|url=https://www.voanews.com/a/covid-19-pandemic_infodemic_infodemic-plandemic-2-another-covid-19-conspiracy-theory-video/6194657.html|access-date=2021-03-24|website=Voice of America|date=19 August 2020 |language=en}}{{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}}

= 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.{{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}}

= Russia and Ukraine =

In 2010 Hitchens argued that Crimea should be part of Russia rather than Ukraine, stating that the peninsula is historically Russian.{{Cite news |last=Lucas |first=Edward |date=29 September 2010 |title=Foggy at the bottom |newspaper=The Economist |url=https://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2010/09/western_media_and_its_lapses |access-date=}} 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."{{cite news |last=Nelson |first=Fraser |date=4 November 2022 |title=Is now the time to make peace in Ukraine? |newspaper=The Spectator |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/is-now-the-time-to-make-peace-in-ukraine/ |access-date=}}

Hitchens has stated that Ukraine should not join NATO.{{cite news |last=Hitchens |first=Peter |date=5 July 2023 |title=Ukraine Shouldn't Join NATO |newspaper=Compact |url=https://compactmag.com/article/ukraine-shouldn-t-join-nato |access-date=}} He is also against providing military aid to Ukraine,{{cite news |last=Stephens |first=Bret |date=2 May 2023 |title=The Curious Conservative Case Against Defending Ukraine |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/02/opinion/republican-ukraine-russia.html |access-date=}} 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."{{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}} Hitchens called for peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.{{cite news |date=16 May 2023 |title='Stop whining': Piers Morgan clashes with Peter Hitchens on Ukraine-Russia war |work=Sky News |url=https://www.skynews.com.au/opinion/piers-morgan/stop-whining-piers-morgan-clashes-with-peter-hitchens-on-ukrainerussia-war/video/c6732165d6fae707f3db5c2b2205f981 |access-date=}}

Hitchens has been a vocal supporter of the 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".{{cite news |last=Morello |first=Sebastian |date=20 November 2022 |title=Frozen Bank Accounts, Again: The Arrival of a New Tyranny |work=The European Conservative |url=https://europeanconservative.com/articles/commentary/frozen-bank-accounts-again-the-arrival-of-a-new-tyranny/ |access-date= 23 March 2024}} Writing in support of Phillips, and Julian Assange, in March 2024 Hitchens described Phillips as a "prisoner of the (UK) state".{{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}}

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 1950s. 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 America 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.{{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 }}

In June 2014, Hitchens published his first e-book, Short Breaks in Mordor, a compendium of foreign reports.{{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}} The Phoney Victory: The World War II Illusion was published in August 2018 by I.B. Tauris.{{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}} 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".{{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}}

Bibliography

{{external media| float = right| video2 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?159943-1/the-abolition-britain 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)

References

External links

{{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 = St. Michael's Cornhill, 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 = American Conservative }}
{{Cite news | url = http://iai.tv/video/drug-culture|last=Hitchens|first=Peter|title=Drug Culture|publisher=Institute of Art and Ideas|access-date=3 January 2014}}