Difference between revisions of "Peter Hitchens"

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'''Peter Jonathan Hitchens''' (28 October 1951, [[Malta]]) is a [[British]] [[journalist]], [[author]] and broadcaster. He currently writes for the British weekly [[newspaper]], [[The Mail on Sunday]]. He is the younger brother of journalist [[Christopher Hitchens]]. Hitchens was a former [[Trotskyism|Trotskyist]] and member of the [[International Socialists]] from 1969 to 1975, later joining the British [[Labour Party]] from 1979 to 1983. He left the party 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" /> He also studied politics at [[York University]] between 1970 and 1973.  
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'''Peter Jonathan Hitchens''' (28 October 1951, [[Malta]]) is a [[British]] [[journalist]], [[author]] and broadcaster. He currently writes for the British weekly [[newspaper]], [[The Mail on Sunday]]. Hitchens was a former [[Trotskyism|Trotskyist]] and member of the [[International Socialists]] from 1969 to 1975, later joining the British [[Labour Party]] from 1979 to 1983. He left the party 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" /> He also studied politics at [[York University]] between 1970 and 1973.  
  
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However, in his early 30's he returned to the conservatism and Anglicanism of his upbringing<ref>'''Katz, Ian''' ''When Christopher met Peter'' [http://web.archive.org/web/20080517104151/http://books.guardian.co.uk/hay2005/story/0,15880,1495897,00.html The Guardian, May 31 2005] (Archived)</ref> and in 1997 he joined the [[Conservative Party]], believing it to be the democratic resistance to [[Tony Blair]]'s ''New Labour''. Dissatisfied with the lack of direction of the Conservative Party, he left it in 2003 and now asserts that the only way forward is to completely dismantle and rebuild the party. Politically, Hitchens supports social, moral and cultural conservatism, and classic liberalism, not dissimilar to those of [[American]] [[paleoconservative]]s. Hitchens describes himself as a [[Edmund Burke|Burkean]] conservative.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19211869 |title= Five Minutes With Peter Hitchens |publisher= The BBC | location = UK |date=10 August 2012 |accessdate= 11 August 2012}}</ref>
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However, in his early 30's he returned to the [[conservatism]] and [[Anglicanism]] of his upbringing<ref>'''Katz, Ian''' ''When Christopher met Peter'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20080517104151/http://books.guardian.co.uk/hay2005/story/0,15880,1495897,00.html The Guardian, May 31 2005] (Archived)</ref> and in 1997 he joined the [[Conservative Party]], believing it to be the democratic resistance to [[Tony Blair]]'s ''New Labour''. Dissatisfied with the lack of direction of the Conservative Party, he left it in 2003 and now asserts that the only way forward is to completely dismantle and rebuild the party. Politically, Hitchens supports social, moral and cultural conservatism, and [[classic liberal]]ism, not dissimilar to those of [[American]] [[paleoconservative]]s. Hitchens describes himself as a [[Edmund Burke|Burkean]] conservative.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19211869 |title= Five Minutes With Peter Hitchens |publisher= The BBC | location = UK |date=10 August 2012 |accessdate= 11 August 2012}}</ref>
  
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He has been a journalist for over 25 years, much of that time writing for the [[Daily Express]], which he left after it was taken over by '''Richard Desmond''', who had generated his wealth as a publisher of [[pornography|pornographic]] magazines. Hitchens was morally opposed to this, and moved to the [[Daily Mail|Daily Mail's]] sister publication, The Mail On Sunday. He has also worked as a political reporter, a diplomatic and defence specialist, and as a foreign correspondent in both [[Moscow]] and [[Washington, D.C.]]
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He has been a journalist for over 25 years, much of that time writing for the [[Daily Express]], which he left after it was taken over by '''Richard Desmond''', who had generated his wealth as a publisher of [[pornography|pornographic]] magazines. Hitchens was [[moral]]ly opposed to this, and moved to the [[Daily Mail|Daily Mail's]] sister publication, The Mail On Sunday. He has also worked as a [[political]] reporter, a [[diplomatic]] and defence specialist, and as a foreign correspondent in both [[Moscow]] and [[Washington, D.C.]]
  
 
He is a frequent critic of [[political correctness]]. He is the younger brother of the late [[Militant atheism|antitheist]] writer [[Christopher Hitchens]].
 
He is a frequent critic of [[political correctness]]. He is the younger brother of the late [[Militant atheism|antitheist]] writer [[Christopher Hitchens]].
  
 
==Political and moral stance==
 
==Political and moral stance==
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He has been described by the [[left-wing]] [[The Guardian|Guardian]] newspaper as: "The Mail on Sunday's fulminator-in-chief" and his columns as "molten [[Old Testament]] fury shot through with visceral wit."<ref name="anger">'''Silver, James''' ''Look forward in anger'' [http://web.archive.org/web/20131220001434/http://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/nov/14/mailonsunday.mondaymediasection The Guardian, November 14 2005] (archived)</ref> Hitchens is uncompromising with his moral and political stance, describing Britain as a land of "burglaries, muggings, swearing, pools of vomit, [[Multiple-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus|MRSA]], rave parties and traveller encampments"; [[Social housing|council estates]] as "surrounded by the tattooed, with their pit bulls and serial partners, crack dens, joy-riders, open-all-hours pubs," and the police as "wooden, officious twerps in dayglo jackets" who have sided with the lawless and given up on crime. Of single mothers, he wrote: "It cannot be long before Britain has its first 24-year-old granny. When you abolish husbands and fathers that is what you get. As the rules of civilised life are swept away and the only people interested in getting married are lesbian clergywomen, there will soon be thousands of them." Hitchens lays the blame at the door of the [[liberal]] left-wing: "Like several governments before it, Labour has actively encouraged promiscuity by undermining marriage, promoting 'alternative lifestyles' and preaching immorality in schools - and, of course, by continuing to subsidise the results." He has also criticised [[immigration]], which is "limitless" and "unmonitored"; [[Tony Blair]]'s ''New Labour'' - "a horrible rabble of fakes, wreckers and frauds" who are "dismantling Britain as a free country"; the Conservative Party - "the Useless party"; the [[EU]] - "horrible", "a monster", "anti-British"; and liberal left-wing intellectuals - "hell-bent on turning the UK into a meaningless, history-free and cultureless wilderness".<ref name="anger" /> However, Hitchens has also criticized Conservative politicians, describing free trade and privatization as "the con that ruined Britain." On Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, he was critical, and wrote "I am so sorry now that I fell for the great Thatcher-Reagan promise. I can’t deny that I did. I believed all that stuff about privatisation and free trade and the unrestrained market. I think I may even have been taken in by the prophecies of a great share-owning democracy." <ref>{{cite web|url= http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2016/04/privatisation-free-trade-shares-for-all-the-great-con-that-ruined-britain.html |title= Privatisation! Free trade! Shares for all! The great con that ruined Britain |publisher= The Mail on Sunday | location = UK |date=3 April 2016 |accessdate= 18 December 2016}}</ref>
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He has been described by the [[left-wing]] [[The Guardian|Guardian]] newspaper as: "The Mail on Sunday's fulminator-in-chief" and his columns as "molten [[Old Testament]] fury shot through with visceral wit."<ref name="anger">'''Silver, James''' ''Look forward in anger'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20131220001434/https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/nov/14/mailonsunday.mondaymediasection The Guardian, November 14 2005] (archived)</ref> Hitchens is uncompromising with his moral and political stance, describing Britain as a land of "burglaries, muggings, swearing, pools of vomit, [[Multiple-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus|MRSA]], rave parties and traveller encampments"; [[Social housing|council estates]] as "surrounded by the tattooed, with their pit bulls and serial partners, crack dens, joy-riders, open-all-hours pubs," and the police as "wooden, officious twerps in dayglo jackets" who have sided with the lawless and given up on crime. Of single mothers, he wrote: "It cannot be long before Britain has its first 24-year-old granny. When you abolish husbands and fathers that is what you get. As the rules of civilised life are swept away and the only people interested in getting married are lesbian clergywomen, there will soon be thousands of them." Hitchens lays the blame at the door of the [[liberal]] left-wing: "Like several governments before it, Labour has actively encouraged promiscuity by undermining marriage, promoting 'alternative lifestyles' and preaching immorality in schools - and, of course, by continuing to subsidise the results." He has also criticised [[immigration]], which is "limitless" and "unmonitored"; [[Tony Blair]]'s ''New Labour'' - "a horrible rabble of fakes, wreckers and frauds" who are "dismantling Britain as a free country"; the Conservative Party - "the Useless party"; the [[EU]] - "horrible", "a monster", "anti-British"; and liberal left-wing intellectuals - "hell-bent on turning the UK into a meaningless, history-free and cultureless wilderness".<ref name="anger" /> However, Hitchens has also criticized Conservative politicians, describing free trade and privatization as "the con that ruined Britain." On Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, he was critical, and wrote "I am so sorry now that I fell for the great Thatcher-Reagan promise. I can’t deny that I did. I believed all that stuff about privatisation and free trade and the unrestrained market. I think I may even have been taken in by the prophecies of a great share-owning democracy." <ref>{{cite web|url= http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2016/04/privatisation-free-trade-shares-for-all-the-great-con-that-ruined-britain.html |title= Privatisation! Free trade! Shares for all! The great con that ruined Britain |publisher= The Mail on Sunday | location = UK |date=3 April 2016 |accessdate= 18 December 2016}}</ref>
  
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His outspoken criticism has predictably made him unpopular with many politicians as well as the left-wing press: [[Gerry Adams]], leader of the [[IRA]]'s political wing ([[Sinn Féin]]) called for him to be "decommissioned"; Tony Blair, while [[Prime Minister]], told him to "sit down and stop being bad" for daring to ask him a difficult question; and Conservative Party leader [[David Cameron]] refused to allow him an interview, a rebuff Hitchens took as a compliment. Hitchens' book "The Abolition of Britain" has been described as "the most sustained, internally logical and powerful attack on Tony Blair and all his works".<ref>''Peter Hitchens' biog'' [http://web.archive.org/web/20060429043055/http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2006/02/peter_hitchens_.html The Mail on Sunday, 28 February 2006] (Archived)</ref>
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His outspoken criticism has predictably made him unpopular with many politicians as well as the left-wing press: [[Gerry Adams]], leader of the [[IRA]]'s political wing ([[Sinn Féin]]) called for him to be "decommissioned"; Tony Blair, while [[Prime Minister]], told him to "sit down and stop being bad" for daring to ask him a difficult question; and Conservative Party leader [[David Cameron]] refused to allow him an interview, a rebuff Hitchens took as a compliment. Hitchens' book "The Abolition of Britain" has been described as "the most sustained, internally logical and powerful attack on Tony Blair and all his works".<ref>''Peter Hitchens' biog'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20060429043055/http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2006/02/peter_hitchens_.html The Mail on Sunday, 28 February 2006] (Archived)</ref>
  
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He has made a detailed study of the [[United Kingdom|UK]]'s [[crime]] problem and the negative changes in policing and the police force, leading to his book "The Abolition of Liberty". He is strongly critical of the use of drugs to control the behaviour of children, and has vigorously questioned the existence of the disorder [[Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder|ADHD]]. He has argued that parents who want single [[vaccination]]s for their children rather than the controversial [[Combination vaccine|triple]] [[Measles, Mumps, Rubella vaccine controversy|MMR]] should be given them on the [[National Health Service|NHS]], and has challenged Tony Blair and Prime Minister [[Gordon Brown]] to say openly if their own young sons have been given the MMR they are forcing on others.<ref>''If MMR is safe, why persecute its critics?'' [http://web.archive.org/web/20150715125431/http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2007/07/if-mmr-is-safe-.html The Mail on Sunday, 10 July 2007] Accessed July 19, 2007</ref> He has opposed the introduction of identity cards and attacked what he believes is the Labour government's assault on ancient English liberties.<ref>''Big Brother Watches Britain'' [http://www.amconmag.com/2006/2006_05_08/article.html The American Conservative, May 8 2006] (Archived)</ref>  
+
He has made a detailed study of the [[United Kingdom|UK]]'s [[crime]] problem and the negative changes in policing and the police force, leading to his book "The Abolition of Liberty". He is strongly critical of the use of drugs to control the behaviour of children, and has vigorously questioned the existence of the disorder [[Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder|ADHD]]. He has argued that parents who want single [[vaccination]]s for their children rather than the controversial [[Combination vaccine|triple]] [[Measles, Mumps, Rubella vaccine controversy|MMR]] should be given them on the [[National Health Service|NHS]], and has challenged Tony Blair and Prime Minister [[Gordon Brown]] to say openly if their own young sons have been given the MMR they are forcing on others.<ref>''If MMR is safe, why persecute its critics?'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20150715125431/http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2007/07/if-mmr-is-safe-.html The Mail on Sunday, 10 July 2007] Accessed July 19, 2007</ref> He has opposed the introduction of identity cards and attacked what he believes is the Labour government's assault on ancient English liberties.<ref>''Big Brother Watches Britain'' [http://www.amconmag.com/2006/2006_05_08/article.html The American Conservative, May 8 2006] (Archived)</ref>  
  
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He describes [[intelligent design]] as being valuable as a sceptical current critical of [[Darwinism|Darwinist]] orthodoxy and intolerance, although not as a free-standing theory, but says: "I am not a scientist... My own view on the controversy...can be summarised in the words 'I have no idea who is right, and nor have they'."<ref>''Intelligence and design'' [http://web.archive.org/web/20150425064731/http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2006/12/intelligence_an.html The Mail on Sunday, December 5 2006] (Archived)</ref>
+
He describes [[intelligent design]] as being valuable as a sceptical current critical of [[Darwinism|Darwinist]] orthodoxy and intolerance, although not as a free-standing theory, but says: "I am not a scientist... My own view on the controversy...can be summarised in the words 'I have no idea who is right, and nor have they'."<ref>''Intelligence and design'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20150425064731/http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2006/12/intelligence_an.html The Mail on Sunday, December 5 2006] (Archived)</ref>
  
 
==References==
 
==References==
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*[http://www.arts.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2003/04/13/bohit13.xml&sSheet=/arts/2003/04/13/bomain.html "The victims of liberalism"] Review of Hitchens' book ''A Brief History of Crime'' in ''[[The Sunday Telegraph]]'' by Theodore Dalrymple April 13, 2003.
 
*[http://www.arts.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2003/04/13/bohit13.xml&sSheet=/arts/2003/04/13/bomain.html "The victims of liberalism"] Review of Hitchens' book ''A Brief History of Crime'' in ''[[The Sunday Telegraph]]'' by Theodore Dalrymple April 13, 2003.
 
*[http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3724/is_200304/ai_n9222415 "An end to cant and defeatism"] Review of ''A Brief History of Crime'' in ''[[The Spectator]]'' by Neil Clark.
 
*[http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3724/is_200304/ai_n9222415 "An end to cant and defeatism"] Review of ''A Brief History of Crime'' in ''[[The Spectator]]'' by Neil Clark.
−
*[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=%2Farts%2F2003%2F04%2F20%2Fbohit20.xml&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=123189 "The case of the disappearing policeman"] Review of ''A Brief History of Crime'' in ''[[Daily Telegraph|The Daily Telegraph]]'', by Joshua Rozenberg.
+
*[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=%2Farts%2F2003%2F04%2F20%2Fbohit20.xml&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=123189 "The case of the disappearing policeman"] Review of ''A Brief History of Crime'' in ''[[Daily Telegraph|The Daily Telegraph]]'', by Joshua Rozenberg.
 
*[http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_25_52/ai_68163660/pg_1 "Goodbye to All That?"] Review of ''The Abolition of Britain'' by John O'Sullivan.
 
*[http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_25_52/ai_68163660/pg_1 "Goodbye to All That?"] Review of ''The Abolition of Britain'' by John O'Sullivan.
 
;Audio
 
;Audio
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*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/bh/1714079.stm Debating the format of a potential Oath of Allegiance for the UK] December 16, 2001  
 
*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/bh/1714079.stm Debating the format of a potential Oath of Allegiance for the UK] December 16, 2001  
 
*''Today Programme''  
 
*''Today Programme''  
−
**[http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ram/today5_religion_20070419.ram Should religious people have a privileged position in society?] - 19 April 2007
+
**[https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ram/today5_religion_20070419.ram Should religious people have a privileged position in society?] - 19 April 2007
−
**[http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ram/today5_metric_20060223.ram Should Britain Convert its Road Signs to Metric?] - February 23, 2006
+
**[https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ram/today5_metric_20060223.ram Should Britain Convert its Road Signs to Metric?] - February 23, 2006
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**[http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/audio/0820disco080206.ram Is the Left Wing obsolete in British politics?] - February 8, 2006
+
**[https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/audio/0820disco080206.ram Is the Left Wing obsolete in British politics?] - February 8, 2006
−
**[http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ram/today5_violence_20050526.ram Were the Victorians as benign and civilised as we assume?] - May 26, 2005
+
**[https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ram/today5_violence_20050526.ram Were the Victorians as benign and civilised as we assume?] - May 26, 2005
−
**[http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ram/today3_british_20041215.ram What should people applying for British citizenship know about the UK?] - December 15, 2004
+
**[https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ram/today3_british_20041215.ram What should people applying for British citizenship know about the UK?] - December 15, 2004
−
**[http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ram/today5_dalrym_20040818.ram The Way We Talk about Islam] - August 18, 2004
+
**[https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ram/today5_dalrym_20040818.ram The Way We Talk about Islam] - August 18, 2004
−
**[http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ram/today5_id_20040426.ram Will ID Cards Mean an End to Our Liberty?] - 26 April 26, 2004
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**[https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ram/today5_id_20040426.ram Will ID Cards Mean an End to Our Liberty?] - 26 April 26, 2004
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**[http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ram/today4_paraskeva_20030825.ram The "Compensation Culture"] - August 25, 2003
+
**[https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ram/today4_paraskeva_20030825.ram The "Compensation Culture"] - August 25, 2003
 
;Video
 
;Video
 
*''Question Time''
 
*''Question Time''
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hitchens, Peter}}
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[[Category:Former Atheists|Hitchens, Peter]]
 
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[[Category:Journalists]]

Latest revision as of 23:23, April 29, 2025

Peter Hitchens

Peter Jonathan Hitchens (28 October 1951, Malta) is a British journalist, author and broadcaster. He currently writes for the British weekly newspaper, The Mail on Sunday. Hitchens was a former Trotskyist and member of the International Socialists from 1969 to 1975, later joining the British Labour Party from 1979 to 1983. He left the party when he became a political reporter at the Daily Express, thinking it wrong to carry a party card when directly reporting politics.[1] He also studied politics at York University between 1970 and 1973.

However, in his early 30's he returned to the conservatism and Anglicanism of his upbringing[2] and in 1997 he joined the Conservative Party, believing it to be the democratic resistance to Tony Blair's New Labour. Dissatisfied with the lack of direction of the Conservative Party, he left it in 2003 and now asserts that the only way forward is to completely dismantle and rebuild the party. Politically, Hitchens supports social, moral and cultural conservatism, and classic liberalism, not dissimilar to those of American paleoconservatives. Hitchens describes himself as a Burkean conservative.[3]

He has been a journalist for over 25 years, much of that time writing for the Daily Express, which he left after it was taken over by Richard Desmond, who had generated his wealth as a publisher of pornographic magazines. Hitchens was morally opposed to this, and moved to the Daily Mail's sister publication, The Mail On Sunday. He has also worked as a political reporter, a diplomatic and defence specialist, and as a foreign correspondent in both Moscow and Washington, D.C.

He is a frequent critic of political correctness. He is the younger brother of the late antitheist writer Christopher Hitchens.

Political and moral stance

He has been described by the left-wing Guardian newspaper as: "The Mail on Sunday's fulminator-in-chief" and his columns as "molten Old Testament fury shot through with visceral wit."[1] Hitchens is uncompromising with his moral and political stance, describing Britain as a land of "burglaries, muggings, swearing, pools of vomit, MRSA, rave parties and traveller encampments"; council estates as "surrounded by the tattooed, with their pit bulls and serial partners, crack dens, joy-riders, open-all-hours pubs," and the police as "wooden, officious twerps in dayglo jackets" who have sided with the lawless and given up on crime. Of single mothers, he wrote: "It cannot be long before Britain has its first 24-year-old granny. When you abolish husbands and fathers that is what you get. As the rules of civilised life are swept away and the only people interested in getting married are lesbian clergywomen, there will soon be thousands of them." Hitchens lays the blame at the door of the liberal left-wing: "Like several governments before it, Labour has actively encouraged promiscuity by undermining marriage, promoting 'alternative lifestyles' and preaching immorality in schools - and, of course, by continuing to subsidise the results." He has also criticised immigration, which is "limitless" and "unmonitored"; Tony Blair's New Labour - "a horrible rabble of fakes, wreckers and frauds" who are "dismantling Britain as a free country"; the Conservative Party - "the Useless party"; the EU - "horrible", "a monster", "anti-British"; and liberal left-wing intellectuals - "hell-bent on turning the UK into a meaningless, history-free and cultureless wilderness".[1] However, Hitchens has also criticized Conservative politicians, describing free trade and privatization as "the con that ruined Britain." On Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, he was critical, and wrote "I am so sorry now that I fell for the great Thatcher-Reagan promise. I can’t deny that I did. I believed all that stuff about privatisation and free trade and the unrestrained market. I think I may even have been taken in by the prophecies of a great share-owning democracy." [4]

His outspoken criticism has predictably made him unpopular with many politicians as well as the left-wing press: Gerry Adams, leader of the IRA's political wing (Sinn Féin) called for him to be "decommissioned"; Tony Blair, while Prime Minister, told him to "sit down and stop being bad" for daring to ask him a difficult question; and Conservative Party leader David Cameron refused to allow him an interview, a rebuff Hitchens took as a compliment. Hitchens' book "The Abolition of Britain" has been described as "the most sustained, internally logical and powerful attack on Tony Blair and all his works".[5]

He has made a detailed study of the UK's crime problem and the negative changes in policing and the police force, leading to his book "The Abolition of Liberty". He is strongly critical of the use of drugs to control the behaviour of children, and has vigorously questioned the existence of the disorder ADHD. He has argued that parents who want single vaccinations for their children rather than the controversial triple MMR should be given them on the NHS, and has challenged Tony Blair and Prime Minister Gordon Brown to say openly if their own young sons have been given the MMR they are forcing on others.[6] He has opposed the introduction of identity cards and attacked what he believes is the Labour government's assault on ancient English liberties.[7]

He describes intelligent design as being valuable as a sceptical current critical of Darwinist orthodoxy and intolerance, although not as a free-standing theory, but says: "I am not a scientist... My own view on the controversy...can be summarised in the words 'I have no idea who is right, and nor have they'."[8]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Silver, James Look forward in anger The Guardian, November 14 2005 (archived)
  2. ↑ Katz, Ian When Christopher met Peter The Guardian, May 31 2005 (Archived)
  3. ↑ Five Minutes With Peter Hitchens. The BBC (10 August 2012). Retrieved on 11 August 2012.
  4. ↑ Privatisation! Free trade! Shares for all! The great con that ruined Britain. The Mail on Sunday (3 April 2016). Retrieved on 18 December 2016.
  5. ↑ Peter Hitchens' biog The Mail on Sunday, 28 February 2006 (Archived)
  6. ↑ If MMR is safe, why persecute its critics? The Mail on Sunday, 10 July 2007 Accessed July 19, 2007
  7. ↑ Big Brother Watches Britain The American Conservative, May 8 2006 (Archived)
  8. ↑ Intelligence and design The Mail on Sunday, December 5 2006 (Archived)

Further reading

External links

Regular features
Selected articles by Hitchens
Book Reviews
Audio
Video
  • Question Time
  • Booknotes: The Abolition of Britain - Broadcast December 31, 2000, Hitchens interviewed for the Booknotes series about The Abolition of Britain.
Sermons
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