Latest news with #DanielHannan
The Guardian
19-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Starmer's EU reset triggers outbreak of Brexit derangement syndrome
Euphoric recall. Or more likely PTSD. It was like we were in a time warp. Back in the madness of the Brexit years. When otherwise sensible people lost all sense of reason. And when the mad became madder still. The days of betrayal and surrender. When our closest allies for the previous 70 years became our deadliest enemy. Time to stare them down. Britons never, never, never shall be slaves. We take no shit from anyone. Keir Starmer's EU reset went to the wire. Of course it did. Every negotiation with Brussels always does. It's in the terms and conditions. There was no way the EU was going to give away something on agricultural standards without getting something on fishing in return. You don't want to encourage other countries to believe they will get a better deal by leaving the EU. Even by the time of the final communique there were still plenty of loose ends. Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. Remember that? Argh! Still that didn't stop some of the Brexit lunatics from voicing their opinions long before even an outline of a deal was announced. They already had their narrative. This was a surrender on an unforgivable scale. Daniel – unbelievably now Lord – Hannan was writing on X that Britain had become Europe's very own gimp. Squeezed into a black leather jump suit with a ball in our mouth. Sometimes you wish Danny would keep his fantasies to himself. Then there was David – unbelievably now Lord – Frost. What is it about Brexit that led to so many people who had objectively made British citizens less well off getting promoted to the upper chamber? Frosty the No Man was desperately trying to rewrite history. Again. He has been doing that for more than five years now. Our very own Lady Macbeth trying to wash away the blood. Boris Johnson's Brexit negotiator whose whole life is now devoted to trying to uncover the person who negotiated such a bad deal. He was trying to persuade himself that he had always known his fishing deal was rubbish but that the EU would cut him some slack now because they felt sorry for him. The man needs help. It's as if every Brexiter has had a memory wipe. Has no recollection of how deals are made. That the essence of any negotiation is give and take. That there need to be rules which both sides are obliged to follow. But this was also too much for Boris. He went mad on gimp masks too. God knows what you might find in his internet search history. Let's hope Carrie hasn't been keeping tabs on him. Here was how the world worked. Britain was at the top, telling every other country what to do. Anything else would be a total betrayal of our sovereignty. Come late Monday morning, a deal of sorts had been negotiated and António Costa, the president of the European Council; Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, and Keir Starmer were ready to face the media at the Lancaster House press conference. Costa went first. Trying to put everyone to sleep. He has the air of someone who has grown used to the fact that he seldom says anything interesting. It's how he got the job. Everything was marvellous, he mumbled. This was a new chapter. Von der Leyen was slightly more animated. She was pleased the EU and the UK had reached solutions. We were entering a new era of post-Brexit relations. A security and defence partnership. A deal on energy, fish and food. The youth experience scheme. Downgraded from a youth mobility scheme. A sop to the Brits. On no account should anyone think the UK had backtracked on free movement. Better to think of overseas students living entirely in virtual reality. Then came Keir. Flushed with success after his trade deals with India and the US. This was a triumph. No return to the single market or the customs union. But the next best thing. A reminder that British fishers sell more than 70% of their catch to the EU as we don't like the ones they are selling. It was time to look forward to the future. To move on from the same stale old fights. Though it was the past the British media wanted to interrogate. Hadn't we surrendered to the EU? We had sold out our fishers. We had become a nation of rule-takers. Brexit derangement syndrome had gripped the broadcasters. Keir gently reminded everyone he was creating jobs, facilitating trade and growth. Even after nine years, it was still too soon to say the obvious. That Britain had voted to make itself poorer. That Brexiters had radicalised themselves. No one had been insisting we leave the single market and the customs union during the referendum campaign. That had only become a truth some time later. So all Starmer was trying to do was to make the country just a little bit better off. You'd have thought from the reaction that this was a major schism. GB News could barely contain itself. The Tories were threatening to undo all this, the reporter quavered. Er … How exactly? They aren't about to win an election any time soon. If ever. As if to prove how unserious the Conservatives have become, Kemi Badenoch chose to call a press conference in a broom cupboard in the afternoon. Just to embarrass herself. The broadcasters could barely be bothered to cover it as the sound continued to cut out. We could have been underwater. Not waving but drowning. Priti Patel went first. Luckily for her she was totally inaudible. She will appreciate this in later years. Then came Kemi, declaring that Starmer had broken her five golden rules. Rules that even her own MPs don't know or care about. Rules that even the Victorians would have thought nuts. Most Brexit voters now think Brexit was a bad idea. They just want things to return to how they were without anyone reminding them that they had voted for it. We ended with Victoria Atkins and the fish. Vicky had a pet hake who was determined to gasp out his manifesto. 'I, Harry the Hake, do solemnly declare that I will live and die British. I would rather be left to rot on the jetty than be fed to some Frenchie or Kraut. God save the queen. Sorry king.' It had been that kind of a day.
Telegraph
26-04-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Why the Supreme Court's trans ruling won't lead to an anti-woke backlash
SIR – Daniel Hannan's excellent article warns against an unforgiving anti-woke backlash, but I think he misses a crucial point ('The tide has not turned against woke. If there is a backlash it is an intolerant one', Comment, April 20). Although the more extreme forces of wokery will no doubt fight like terriers to maintain their grip on culture, the recent Supreme Court ruling that biological sex matters has simply reset the balance between them and the rest of us. The vast majority of British people are not xenophobic, racist, transphobic, homophobic thugs who need to be controlled and re-educated – which is how the woke mob portrays them. I suspect, therefore, that there will not be much of an anti-woke backlash. All that has changed is that it is once again possible for people with mainstream opinions to express them, and be protected by the law from persecution in doing so. The hysterical reaction is coming from people who can no longer intimidate, threaten and bully us, not from those relieved at the triumph of common sense. Alison Levinson Hastings, East Sussex SIR – In my experience, so-called liberal middle-class men are the culprits when it comes to unpleasant political encounters – having been rounded on, sworn at and called a racist in Bath city centre while canvassing for Ukip, and then noisily mocked on account of a Reform UK sign in my car window. I can therefore appreciate the reluctance of some women openly to support Reform (report, April 24). The good news is that there are plenty of women and young folk who are no longer intimidated by ignorant slurs and bias, and are using common sense to decide who is worthy of their vote. I saw evidence of this for myself at a meeting held in a remote Somerset village hall on one of the wettest nights in January. Just as the Brexit referendum result appeared to shock our smug, complacent establishment, in my view the results of next week's mayoral elections will demonstrate that democracy is still alive and kicking in Britain. Rosy Drohan Marksbury, Somerset SIR – The plaque on the empty plinth that formerly carried a statue of Edward Colston (Comment, April 20)misses out much that is relevant to the man, particularly the fact that he left equal sums of money to his long-term servants in 1720, one of whom was black. Colston was a highly successful merchant long before his involvement in the slave trade, which came about in 1680 when he became a director of the Royal African Company, which traded in gold, silver, ivory and slaves. In 1689 he was appointed deputy governor, a post he held for just one year. In the same year, he transferred most of his holdings in the company to the new King William III. Colston withdrew from the company completely two years later, and returned to private business. As far as I am aware, thereafter he did not own any slaves or have anything to do with the trade. Significantly, there is no record of Colston being involved in any philanthropic activity in Bristol until the year he resigned from the company. Having embraced philanthropy, Colston gave away, in Bristol alone, the equivalent of many millions of pounds to good causes, including the endowment of schools, hospitals, churches and almshouses. In London and elsewhere he matched these incredibly generous donations to good causes. All this suggests that Colston, a devout Christian, saw the error of his ways and attempted to atone for his sins. Amazing Grace was written by a repentant slave-ship captain; it includes the line '[I] was blind but now I see'. In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, I would suggest that Colston was also blind before seeing the light. All statues of him were intended to praise his philanthropy, not his previous involvement in the slave trade. Nicholas Young London W13
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Free Trade Expert Takes Down the Best Arguments for Tariffs
Can you avoid the cost of tariffs by buying only American-made products? Will tariffs promote domestic manufacturing while filling federal tax coffers? Is free trade killing jobs? No, no, and certainly not, explains Daniel Hannan, a conservative member of the House of Lords in the United Kingdom and president of the Institute for Free Trade. "Tariffs will push up the cost not only of the imported stuff obviously with the tariff but also that the domestic industries will raise their prices as well because they no longer have the competition," Hannan tells Reason. "And what does that mean? It means that every American has less disposable income. They've all got to spend more money to live at the same level that they were living at before without any gain." In an exclusive sit-down with Reason, Hannan debunks some of the most common arguments for tariffs and explains why free trade remains underappreciated—despite a remarkable track record of lifting billions out of poverty and making it possible for human beings to work and live in better conditions than ever. And that's true even if other countries are imposing tariffs on American goods. "Just because somebody else is shooting himself in the foot, the worst possible response is to take aim and blow off a couple of your own toes in order to show them," he says. President Donald Trump has imposed 10 percent tariffs on nearly all imports into the United States (and far higher tariffs on goods from China). Trump says he wants to stop other countries from taking advantage of America, but his trade war is rattling stock markets and threatens to reduce Americans' standard of living. Hannan says protectionism never works, but that's a lesson that politicians and voters seemingly have to learn and relearn periodically. "Free trade is always unpopular, but it always works. What, in the end, convinces people is not theory, but practice," says Hannan. "After the [Smoot-Hawley] tariffs, people understood that protectionism made everybody poorer, especially the people it was most designed to protect, the people on lower incomes. I have a horrible feeling that we're about to go through that learning process again." Music credits: "Goals" by Rex Banner via Artlist; "Daydream" by Audiopanther via Artlist; "Dark Sparks" by Raz Burg via Artlist; "Bubbles Drop" by Cosmonkey via Artlist; "A Girl Can Dream" by Emily Lewis via Artlist; "Big Fat Tummy" by Ge Gilter Fish via Artlist; "Sensation Station" by Novembers via Artlist; "Hey Honey" by The Talbot Brothers via Artlist; "Come Around" by Danya via Artlist; "Valley of Lights" by Romeo via Artlist Video Editor: Danielle Thompson Producer: Daniel Hannan The post Free Trade Expert Takes Down the Best Arguments for Tariffs appeared first on Sign in to access your portfolio
New European
31-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New European
Daniel Hannan, the world's worst television reviewer
That review was on the Conservative Home website, and penned by noted cultural critic and self-styled Brain of Brexit Daniel Hannan. Rather than the script, direction or performances, none of which Hannan appears to have much interest in, the Tory peer was worked up about the story being about a young boy being accused of killing a girl after consuming hateful misogynistic content online, rather than his own personal hobby horse of Muslim grooming gangs. The Netflix drama Adolescence has met with record ratings and pretty much universal acclaim. Except for one TV reviewer, however, who slammed the show for, er, being about something else rather than what he thinks it should have been about. 'It's quite an achievement to write a drama about violence against women set in a post-industrial town and to make the culprit a working-class white boy,' he fulminates. 'Have we truly forgotten the abuse of thousands – almost certainly tens of thousands – of underage girls in the grooming scandal?' He added: 'No, the documentary waiting to be made is about how some immigrant communities cling to attitudes that are at odds with those of their new country, and how pusillanimous the police, social services and local government are in confronting that fact.' Leaving aside that Adolescence is not, actually, a documentary, his entire review is fury that its focus is on something completely different from another, unrelated, scandal. Rats in a Sack eagerly awaits Hannan's review of another recent hit featuring crime in a northern town. 'The makers of Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl are clearly trying to distract from the failures of the grooming scandal by trying to convince a credulous British public the true enemy in our midst is a penguin passing himself off as a chicken by wearing a red rubber glove on his head.'
New European
28-01-2025
- Business
- New European
Are Frost and Hannan hellbent on going back into the EU?
The revolution, they say, devours its own children. And now we can report that the Brexiteers are turning on a pair of sopping wet Remoaners discovered lurking within their own ranks… David Frost and Daniel Hannan! The pair have surprised colleagues by remaining sanguine about the UK possibly joining the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention (Pem), a tariff-free trading scheme which harmonises rules of origin within the EU and beyond to make it easier to export goods. The UK's joining was mooted last week by the EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, who said Brussels would be open to the move, with chancellor Rachel Reeves saying she was 'happy' to look at any proposal to improve trade between Britain and the bloc. The proposal has sparked predictable fury among many senior Brexiteers – Nigel Farage described it as 'self-destructive' while shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel wrote in the Daily Express that it meant Keir Starmer was 'hellbent on dragging us back in [to the EU] through the back door' and that Labour was 'pursing [sic] with ideological gusto their determined plan to reverse our Brexit freedoms'. But others are more relaxed. Frost, Boris Johnson's Brexit negotiator who has spent the interim years rubbishing his own work, has said: 'We didn't see it as raising any issue of principle, but we equally didn't consider it to be particularly in UK interests.' It did not, though, he claimed, cut through any of the Conservative red lines. Hannan, the self-styled 'brains of Brexit' who campaigned for the hardest departure possible, has also said he had no objection, writing in the Times today that 'I find myself disconcerted by the purity spiral that has led fellow Eurosceptics into a mindless dismissal of anything with 'Euro' in the title'. 'Freer trade, even if only marginally freer, is a good thing,' he writes. 'If the EU wants this scheme, should we not at least see what it is prepared to offer in exchange? This shouldn't need spelling out, but Brexit was about democracy, not isolation.' And even GB News, in its online report, was forced to concede that 'trade experts have supported this assessment, indicating the deal would not amount to a fundamental realignment of the UK's trading relationship with the EU.' What is it about 17.4 million voters that they don't understand? You lost – get over it!
