65 Facts About Peter Hitchens

Peter Jonathan Hitchens was born on 28 October 1951 and is an English conservative author, broadcaster, journalist, and commentator.

Peter Hitchens writes for The Mail on Sunday and was a foreign correspondent reporting from both Moscow and Washington, DC Hitchens has contributed to The Spectator, The American Conservative, The Guardian, First Things, Prospect, and the New Statesman.

Peter Hitchens's 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.

Peter Hitchens 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.

Peter Hitchens describes himself as a Burkean conservative, a social democrat, and an Anglo-Gaullist.

Peter Hitchens criticised the British government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, especially lockdowns and mandates that the public wear face masks.

Peter Hitchens was born in Malta, where his father, Eric Ernest Hitchens, a naval officer, was stationed as part of the then Mediterranean Fleet of the Royal Navy.

Peter Hitchens has Jewish ancestry via his maternal grandmother, a daughter of Polish Jewish migrants.

Peter Hitchens's grandmother revealed this fact upon meeting his wife Eve Ross.

Peter 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.

Peter Hitchens was brought up in the Christian faith and attended Christian boarding schools but became an atheist, beginning to leave his faith at 15.

Peter Hitchens returned to church later in life, and is an Anglican and a member of the Church of England.

Peter Hitchens was a member of the International Socialists from 1968 to 1975 after Christopher introduced him to them.

The brothers fell out after Peter Hitchens wrote a 2001 article in The Spectator which allegedly characterised Christopher as a Stalinist.

At a memorial service for Christopher after his death in 2011, Peter Hitchens read St Paul's Epistle to the Philippians 4:8 which Christopher had read at their father's funeral.

Christopher helped Peter Hitchens to begin a career in journalism at the Socialist Worker.

Peter 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.

Peter Hitchens worked for the local press in Swindon and then at the Coventry Evening Telegraph.

Peter Hitchens 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.

Peter Hitchens took part in reporting the 1992 general election, closely following Neil Kinnock.

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

In 2000 Peter Hitchens left the Daily Express after its acquisition by Richard Desmond, stating that working for him would have represented a moral conflict of interest.

Peter Hitchens joined The Mail on Sunday, where he has a weekly column and weblog in which he debates directly with readers.

Peter Hitchens has written for The Spectator and The American Conservative magazines, and occasionally for The Guardian, Prospect, and the New Statesman.

Peter Hitchens 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.

Peter Hitchens describes himself as a Burkean conservative, a social democrat and more recently, a British Gaullist.

Peter Hitchens has been consistently dismissive of the modern Conservative Party since the 1990s.

Peter Hitchens's 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.

Peter Hitchens 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.

Peter Hitchens believes that atheism and cultural liberalism are the causes of the systematic undermining of Christianity.

Peter Hitchens thinks the Conservative Party is just a vehicle for "obtaining office for the sons of gentlemen" and he loathes the party.

Peter Hitchens 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.

Peter Hitchens 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.

Peter Hitchens 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.

Peter 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".

Peter Hitchens argues that while the Allies were fighting a radical evil, they sometimes used immoral methods, such as the carpet bombing of German civilians.

Peter Hitchens believes that Britain's entry into the Second World War led to the country's subsequent rapid decline.

Peter Hitchens is not anti-war, since he believes that this position often leaves countries defenceless in times of war.

Peter Hitchens wrote about his concern of the use of security legislation and increased police powers under New Labour, and how it has been used to suppress civil liberties.

In Channel 4's Dispatches, Peter Hitchens said the result of this legislation was that Britain ended up "sleepwalking into a Big Brother state".

Peter Hitchens is critical of the European Union and argued for many years, before Brexit, that Britain would be better off outside it.

Peter Hitchens was against the MMR vaccine following the Lancet MMR autism fraud.

Peter Hitchens has defended the discredited former doctor Andrew Wakefield.

Peter Hitchens has written about the enforcement of drug laws, most notably in his book The War We Never Fought.

In 2012 Peter 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.

Peter Hitchens disagrees with the notion of drug addiction, arguing that it goes against the notion of free will.

Peter 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".

Peter 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.

Peter Hitchens was the first guest invited by the society to address students.

Peter 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".

Peter Hitchens has criticised wind power in the United Kingdom and argued in 2015 that its expansion put Britain at risk of blackouts.

Peter Hitchens has repeatedly criticised the British government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Peter Hitchens has particularly criticised COVID-19 lockdowns in the UK, suggesting they would have negative consequences and questioning their epidemiological efficacy.

Peter Hitchens' view was disputed by Paul Mason in the New Statesman.

Peter 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.

Peter Hitchens supported the Swedish government's response to the pandemic.

Peter Hitchens opposed the mandatory wearing of face masks during the pandemic, referring to them as "muzzles".

Peter Hitchens believes that government mandates to wear face coverings are oppressive.

Peter Hitchens has been accused of promoting misinformation about the pandemic and public health restrictions by several sources.

Peter Hitchens has spoken in favour of English nationalism, arguing that the United Kingdom should be dissolved and England should become an independent country .

In 2010 Peter Hitchens argued that Crimea should be part of Russia rather than Ukraine, stating that the peninsula is historically Russian.

Peter 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.

Peter Hitchens is the author of The Abolition of Britain and A Brief History of Crime, both critical of changes in British society since the 1950s.

In June 2014, Peter Hitchens published his first e-book, Short Breaks in Mordor, a compendium of foreign reports.