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[[Image:Peter_Hitchens.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Peter Hitchens]]

[[Image:Peter_Hitchens.jpg|right|thumb|250px|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]]. 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">{{Cite news | last = Silver | first = James | title = Look forward in anger |work=The Guardian | url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2005/nov/14/mailonsunday.mondaymediasection | date=14 November 2005|accessdate= 2 April 2007}}</ref> He also studied politics at [[York University]] between 1970 and 1973.  

'''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.  

However, in his early 30's he returned to the conservatism and Anglicanism of his upbringing<ref>'''Katz, Ian''' ''When Christopher met Peter'' [http://books.guardian.co.uk/hay2005/story/0,15880,1495897,00.html The Guardian, May 31 2005] Accessed July 19 2007</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>

However, in his early 30's he returned to the conservatism and Anglicanism of his upbringing<ref>'''Katz, Ian''' ''When Christopher met Peter'' [http://books.guardian.co.uk/hay2005/story/0,15880,1495897,00.html The Guardian, May 31 2005] Accessed July 19 2007</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>

==Political and moral stance==

==Political and moral stance==

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>'''Silver, James''' ''Look forward in anger'' [http://www.valhayes.com/Look_forward_in_anger.html The Guardian, November 14 2005] mirrored; accessed July 19 2007</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 squarely 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>''Ibid.''</ref>  

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://www.valhayes.com/Look_forward_in_anger.html The Guardian, November 14 2005] mirrored; accessed July 19 2007</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 squarely 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" />

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://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2006/02/peter_hitchens_.html The Mail on Sunday, 28 February 2006] Accessed July 19 2007</ref>

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://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2006/02/peter_hitchens_.html The Mail on Sunday, 28 February 2006] Accessed July 19 2007</ref>