He began speaking out against invading Iraq, notably in a series of debates with Christopher Hitchens, Leon Wieseltier, Michael Ignatieff, David Frum, William Kristol and others.

Hitchens believes that no party he could support will be created until the Conservative Party disintegrates, an event he first began calling for in 2006.

Hitchens was born in the village of Rawnsley, Staffordshire, near Cannock, and began his career as a coal miner.

Christopher Hitchens, in his autobiography, describes a dinner with Christie and her husband, Max Mallowan, that became increasingly uncomfortable as the night wore on, where " The anti-Jewish flavour of the talk was not to be ignored or overlooked, or put down to heavy humour or generational prejudice.

D ' Souza has debated several atheists and critics of Christianity at programs at various universities, including Peter Singer, Bart Ehrman, Christopher Hitchens, and David Silverman, on issues including whether there can be morality without God, how a benevolent God can allow suffering, the concept of religion in general, and whether Christianity is good for America, among others.

Hitchens died on December 15, 2011, from complications arising from oesophageal cancer, a disease that he acknowledged was likely due to his lifelong predilection for smoking and drinking.

Hitchens was " bowled over " in his adolescence by Richard Llewellyn's How Green Was My Valley, Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon, Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, R. H. Tawney's critique on Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, and the works of George Orwell.

Hitchens argues that the tactic " has a deplorable effect on both the plot and the dialogue " in that it creates " The need for Rowling to play catch-up with her many convolutions ".

Christopher Hitchens is often mentioned in connection with Cockburn as ideological differences on various issues caused bitter moments between the two men.

In a Counterpunch article in August 2005, Cockburn referred to Hitchens as: " A guy who called Sid Blumenthal one of his best friends and then tried to have him thrown into prison for perjury ; a guy who waited til his friend Edward Said was on his death bed before attacking him in the Atlantic Monthly ; a guy who knows perfectly well the role Israel plays in US policy but who does not scruple to flail Cindy Sheehan as a LaRouchie and anti-Semite because, maybe, she dared mention the word Israel.

Hitchens mentioned that he had recently attended a Cockburn family wedding in which Alexander officiated, and that he and Cockburn used to see each other more frequently when they had both lived on the same coast of the United States.

In the case of Hitchens ' criticisms of Said on his death bed, Hitchens replied, " It's actually rather silly of Alexander to say that ... he's often written counter-obituaries of people who have been overpraised and has chosen precisely the moment when there's a lot of sentimental garbage being published to say, ' come on, this guy wasn't so great!

The author and journalist Christopher Hitchens and the German magazine Stern have alleged that Mother Teresa did not focus the money on alleviating poverty or improving the conditions of her hospices, but on opening new convents and increasing missionary work.

* Tariq Ali and Christopher Hitchens – took opposing sides in two debates over the Iraq War, on December 4, 2003 and October 12, 2004.

* Eric Alterman and Christopher Hitchens on Bloggingheads, October 12, 2008.

* Eric Alterman on Charlie Rose, discussing the Iraq war with Christopher Hitchens.

Traditionalist conservative columnist and author Peter Hitchens has written that, " Mr Cameron has abandoned the last significant difference between his party and the established left ", by embracing social liberalism and has dubbed the party under his leadership " Blue Labour ", a pun on New Labour.

Hitchens writes for Britain's The Mail on Sunday newspaper, and describes himself as a Burkean conservative.

Hitchens joined The Mail on Sunday, where he has a weekly column and weblog in which he debates directly with readers.

In 2011, Hitchens was booed by the audience for a Question Time programme, on which he appears regularly, when he said that sex education was causing teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

During the same programme, chairman David Dimbleby quoted to Hitchens comments made by John Bercow that The Mail on Sunday was " a bigoted, sexist, homophobic comic strip ".

" Hitchens is also heard on Any Questions ?, This Week, The Daily Politics and The Big Questions.

Hitchens has authored and presented several documentaries on Channel 4, including critical examinations of Nelson Mandela and David Cameron.

" His numerous editorials in support of the Iraq War caused some to label him a neoconservative, although Hitchens insisted he was not " a conservative of any kind ", and his friend Ian McEwan described him as representing the anti-totalitarian left.

In the 1960s, Hitchens joined the political left, drawn by his anger over the Vietnam War, nuclear weapons, racism, and " oligarchy ", including that of " the unaccountable corporation ".

In 2000, Hitchens left the Daily Express after its acquisition by Richard Desmond ; Hitchens stated that working for Desmond would have represented a moral conflict of interest.

* The Broken Compass, a 2009 book By Peter Hitchens that discusses at length how the British political right and left jostle for position in the centre

Becoming a journalist in 1990, he rose to the position of Assistant Editor of The Observer newspaper which he joined in 2000 after having worked with Peter Hitchens and Peter Oborne as Media Editor for Daily Express editor Rosie Boycott, and the London Evening Standard under editor and mentor Max Hastings, who like him had left Oxford after two years, and other magazines.

He became a well-known activist in international circles, co-authoring papers and giving joint speaking engagements with American political dissident Noam Chomsky, and winning plaudits from Jean Paul Sartre, Gore Vidal, Christopher Hitchens and Edward Said.

In 2012 Peter Hitchens described the address as, " one of the most overwhelming pieces of political prose ever crafted in any language ".

Hitchens worked for the Daily Express between 1977 and 2000, initially as a reporter specialising in education and industrial and labour affairs, then as a political reporter, and subsequently as Deputy Political Editor.

Hitchens continued to espouse a conservative viewpoint, despite the publication's move towards the political centre in the mid-90s and its decision before the 1997 general election to support the Labour Party under Tony Blair.

After being shortlisted in 2007 and 2009, Hitchens won the Orwell Prize in political journalism in 2010.

Hitchens mainly commentates on political and religious issues, and generally espouses a social conservative viewpoint.

Hitchens views comprehensive education, the Plowden reforms, and modern child-centred teaching methods as misguided egalitarian political projects that have diluted educational standards and decreased social mobility.

Author and political commentator Peter Holding called Hitchens ' analogy " hysterical, unfair and offensive ," adding that " some of the criticism directed towards Moore's film displays the very same characteristics for which Moore's film has been criticised ".

He was political correspondent of the New Statesman, where he worked alongside Christopher Hitchens, Julian Barnes and Martin Amis.

The writer Christopher Hitchens, in particular, devotes much of a chapter of his book on Clinton, No One Left to Lie To, for what he regards as the immorality of the then Democratic candidate's decision to condone, and take political advantage of, Rector's execution.

Dennett, Harris, and Hitchens, assert that theist religions and their scriptures are not divinely inspired, but man made to fulfill social, biological, and political needs.

A foreword written by Christopher Hitchens was planned originally, but Hitchens died before it could be finished.

* " Reactionary Prophet: Edmund Burke understood before anyone else that revolutions devour their young — and turn into their opposites " by Christopher Hitchens, The Atlantic Monthly, April 2004.