Peter Hitchens

Peter Jonathan Hitchens born 28 October 1951 is an English author, broadcaster, journalist, as well as commentator. He writes for The Mail on Sunday as well as was a former 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. He has published numerous books, including 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. His conservative Christian political views, such(a) as his opposition to same-sex marriage and assistance of stricter recreational drug policies, create been met with criticism and debate in the United Kingdom.

Peter Hitchens has criticised the UK's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly lockdowns and mandates that the public wear face masks. He has been accused of promoting misinformation about the pandemic and public health restrictions by several sources.

Writings and thought

Hitchens often comments on current issues and wider political and philosophical subjects.

He is a supporter of grammar schools.

Hitchens takes a critical stance on many wars. He was opposed to the Kosovo and 2003 Iraq War, on the grounds 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 name joined in World War I, and is very critical of the image that World War II was "The benefit War". His theory 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, indeed, fighting a radical evil, they sometimes used immoral methods, such as the allies’ carpet bombing of German civilians. He believes that Britain's programs into World War II led to its rapid decline after the war. This was because, among other things, it could non finance the war and was non prepared. 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 been met with criticism by historians, with Richard J. Evans describing his book The Phoney Victory as 'riddled with errors'.

However, Hitchens is not anti-war since he believes that this position often leaves countries unprotected and defenceless in times of war. Instead, he argues that military power to direct or develop and the threat of war can be essential deterrents against war.

Hitchens wrote about his concern of the usage 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 or situation. of this legislation was that Britain ended up "sleepwalking into a Big Brother state".

Peter Hitchens is very critical of the European Union and has argued for many years that Britain would be better off external it. In 2017 he endorsed the Flexcit good example presented by Richard North and Christopher Booker as the nearly 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.

Hitchens was against the MMR vaccine following the Lancet MMR autism fraud. He call 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 subjected 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".

Hitchens has written about the enforcement of drug laws, nearly notably in his book The War We Never Fought 2012. He advocates harsher penalties properly enforced for possession and illegal ownership 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 submitted evidence to the Parliamentary Home AffairsCommittee as factor 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."

Hitchens has strongly criticised the transgender rights movement, claiming that it promotes zealotry and that make different 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. However, in speaking to Guardian journalist Owen Jones in 2015, he said his real case was with the decline of heterosexual marriage in society and the legalisation "of what was in issue 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 clash with LGBT events on campus. Hitchens was the first guest call by the society to reference 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 provide a short talk on "The myth of Russian aggression" to Sixth Form pupils.

Hitchens rejects the scientific consensus on climate change. He has criticised wind power in the United Kingdom and argued in 2015 that its expansion add the UK at risk of blackouts.

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