This is an accepted version of this page Peter Jonathan Hitchens (born 28 October 1951) is a British conservative author, broadcaster, journalist, and commentator.

He writes for The Mail on Sunday and was a 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.

[1][2][3] He advocates conservative Christian political views, such as opposition to same-sex marriage and support of stricter recreational drug policies.

[4][5][6] Hitchens criticised the UK's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, especially lockdowns and mandates that the public wear face masks.

His mother, Yvonne Jean Hitchens (née Hickman; 1921–1973), had met Eric while serving in the Women's Royal Naval Service (Wrens) during the Second World War.

[33] Leaving parliamentary journalism to cover defence and diplomatic affairs, he reported on the decline and collapse of communist regimes in several Warsaw Pact countries, which culminated in a stint as Moscow correspondent and reporting on life there[36] during the final months of the Soviet Union and the early years of the Russian Federation in 1990–92.

[citation needed] Hitchens reported from Somalia at the time of the United Nations intervention in the Somali Civil War.

[39] In 2000, Hitchens left the Daily Express after its acquisition by Richard Desmond,[40] stating that working for him would have represented a moral conflict of interest.

[44] Peter Kellner, one of the Orwell Prize judges, described Hitchens's writing as being "as firm, polished and potentially lethal as a Guardsman's boot.

[48] He has authored and presented four documentaries;[49][non-primary source needed] one on the BBC about Euroscepticism, and three on Channel 4, including one on the surveillance state, and critical examinations of Nelson Mandela[50] and David Cameron.

[51] In the late 1990s, Hitchens co-presented a programme on Talk Radio UK with Derek Draper and Austin Mitchell.

[55] In 2010, Michael Gove, writing in The Times, asserted that, for Hitchens, what is more important than the split between the Left and the Right is "the deeper gulf between the restless progressive and the Christian pessimist.

[58] His 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.

This was central to his criticism of many policy proposals by the New Labour government, which he viewed as attacks on liberty and facets of a constitutional revolution.

[59] He 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.

[61][62] In his book The Cameron Delusion, Hitchens argues that in the last few decades, the party has become virtually "indistinguishable from Blairite New Labour".

[64][65] Hitchens's claim that the "Conservatives are now the main Left-wing party in the country" in his Mail on Sunday column has been met with criticism.

[66][67] He is in favour of capital punishment,[68][69] and was the only British journalist to attend and write about the execution of British-born Nicholas Ingram in America in 1995.

[1] Hitchens has been a member of the campaign to clear the name of Bishop of Chichester, George Bell, from allegations of child sexual abuse.

[72][73] He has argued that the Church of England convicted him in what he described as a kangaroo court,[74] and stated his wish that allegations are not treated as proven facts.

[86] Hitchens' views on the UK in World War II have been met with criticism by historians, with Richard J. Evans describing his book The Phoney Victory as 'riddled with errors'.

[88] Hitchens wrote about his concern of the use of security (anti-terrorism) legislation and increased police powers under New Labour, and how it has been used to suppress civil liberties.

[91] 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.

"[95] 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 referred to the thalidomide scandal.

[98] According to O'Connor, the subject of the podcast was "...issues pertaining to drug decriminalisation, whether we are experiencing a moral decline in society and the influence of secularism on this question, and the state of monarchy in the UK.

"[98] 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".

[103] 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".

[114] Full Fact evaluated his statement, where he said it was "not possible" for the first lockdown in March to cause the peak in daily infections and deaths to decline, in a fact-checking article, and concluded that this was "wrong" based on available evidence.

[116][114][115][122] Hitchens has spoken in favour of English nationalism, arguing that the United Kingdom should be dissolved and England should become an independent country once again.

[130] Hitchens has been a vocal supporter of pro-Russian British journalist Graham Phillips in his fight against being sanctioned by the government of the United Kingdom.