Changes

==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 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= <ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19211869 |title= Privatisation! Free trade! Shares for all! The great con that ruined Britain |publisher= The Mail on Sunday | location = UK |date=03 April 2016 |accessdate= 18 December 2016}}</ref> |title= Five Minutes With Peter Hitchens |publisher= The BBC | location = UK |date=10 August 2012 |accessdate= 11 August 2012}}</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://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=03 April 2016 |accessdate= 18 December 2016}}</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://web.archive.org/web/20060429043055/http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2006/02/peter_hitchens_.html The Mail on Sunday, 28 February 2006] (Archived)</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://web.archive.org/web/20060429043055/http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2006/02/peter_hitchens_.html The Mail on Sunday, 28 February 2006] (Archived)</ref>