Seventy-two Minutes of Brilliance

Daniel Hannan at The Centre for Policy Studies

Daniel Hannan is as incandescently brilliant a political orator as the English speaking world can boast today. He has no rivals. For the record here are some of the competition: Jonah Goldberg, George Will and George Galloway. I admire the first two of these unconditionally both for their oratory and their positions. GG is a phenomenon – wrong about everything but an extraordinary speaker.

Please watch this ten point argument for political disengagement from the EU. Imagine him being opposed by Ken Clarke, Leon Britain or Nick Clegg. He could take them on simultaneously and comprehensively defeat them.

He will never be a minister. However, he is too precious a treasure in our political life to make this any cause for serious regret.

This speech is a master class in how to think and how to argue. Who were his masters in rhetoric? Disraeli was long dead before Hannan was born. It is a mystery. It is native brilliance.

One of the points he makes is this. In 1973 what has morphed into the EU accounted for 36% of world GDP. It is now 25% and by 2020 it will be 16%. It is the only trade block in the world which is shrinking. We are specifically forbidden from signing trade agreements with, for example, India. India’s economy is growing at 7% per annum. The language of business in India is English. We have accounting traditions in common. There are over a million Britons of Indian descent. Iceland (pop about 300,000) makes its own trade agreements with India. We cannot. Beyond absurd.

Another point: EU law takes precedence over UK law, not because of treaty obligations but because of judicial activism by EU courts. Democracy?

Do listen. DH is an education.