I’m sure many of you have already seen this as it has been spreading on the internet like wildfire:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94lW6Y4tBXs#
He needs to come over here and say the same thing to our current administration.
Brilliant, I had never heard of this guy before. Ron Paul has done to bring liberty to the political process in the US, but imagine what could happen if he had the crisp, articulate veneer and youthful charisma of this guy. Obama would have nothing on him.
Except probable allegations of racism.
Under his wikipedia profile picture it reads: “The picture above is courtesy of the Mises Youth Club”.
Is he a known Misesian? Does anyone have any more info?
I prefer Nigel Farage’s incendiary criticism of him. Brown did nothing but smile the whole time.
Too bad Nigel is for debasing currency
/shrug
They’re not Austrians. It’d be cool if he got on board though.
He also supports RP
Neil Cavuto had a wonderful interview with Hannan on Your World yesterday. He did mention that he loves Ron Paul and would’ve voted for him if he lived here. Judge Napolitano came on right after Hannan and told Neil that he was jumping for joy when he heard Hannan say that.
I’m in awe, pure awe of that speech.
Is this guy popular in the UK? If he wasn’t before is he now? Great speach either way
Not particularly, this was the first time I’d heard of him - he’s a Conservative MEP (Member of the European Parliament) and they tend to have less visibility to the domestic audience. Hopefully that will all change now though, it would be so refreshing to see someone like him in mainstreem interviews, standing up for capitalism.
Hannan has masterfully got the Left in a tizz. A friend of mine sent me the following after he saw my link to the video:
"wow he says things with such conviction that they sound plausible until you realise that he is making things equivalent that are clearly not equivalent, arguing against himself, confusing issues and wheeling out carefully constructed urban myths…
He starts by saying that Brown says opposite things in Britain to the things he says to the Europeans and uses the example of free trade as if free trade is against British jobs for British workers, and says that meanwhile he is pouring on the subsidies to British industry… well yes that is how the French and Germans do it, subsidise their own industry and scream if anyone puts tariffs against their exports… both free trade and subsidies are exactly what Brown has been saying at home… Usually the EU is where each nation fights against the others protection of their own competitiveness and subsidies but here we have a Conservative MEP shooting his own country in the foot! The other countries must be laughing at the UK clawing at its self with party politics abroad. Treason at least! Perhaps he is being paid by the French and Germans? Riling against the “unprecedented” 10% of GDP debt as if it is some monstrous thing. Imagine you had a £50,000 a year income after tax and had a huge mortgage of… wait for it £5,000… terrible state of affairs! And unprecedented?? He obviously doesn’t think people can remember back to black Wednesday! actually the recent Debt peaked under the Tories in 1994 and has been rapidly falling since and got to unprecedented low levels under this Labour continuum. Now it has shot up but less than most of the G20 countries. It was 250% of GDP in 1950. see this for the overall debt as part of GDP with time: http://www.ifs.org.uk/bns/bn26.pdf. but it gets really interesting when compared with the debt of other countries over time, then you see how the conservatives manufactured recession after recession that were only in the UK. So he could well say that it is unprecedented but only in the current unprecedentedly low national debt environment that we have seen under Labour. If this had happened during the John Major administration we would have been looking at more than 20% and after Thatcher had done so much to destroy British Industry I’m not sure if there could have been the possibility of a stimulus plan. It’s so interesting how the conservatives are using the Republican trick of saying opposite and contradictory things with conviction and catch phrases for headlines. It’s difficult to answer an argument that is not an argument and is contradictory at best. All of his rant is similar and it seems of very little use, me spending more time analysing but it was great that you pointed this out!"
Your friend isn’t very well informed.
Our (Britain’s) debt has been estimated at 140-260% of GDP, by non-governmental “experts”. But this is the country’s debt. Considering the governemnt is “only” responsible for 45% of the country’s output here in the UK, that is more like 300-550% of the government’s income The analogy is more like this: imagine a person who manages to steal £50,000 a year under threat of violence. His outgoings are generally £49,000 to £60,000 a year, and he has a debt which he estimates as £60,000 but that most of his friends put in the £150,000 to £275,000 range.
Luckily of course, this friend has a printing press with which he can write off his debts.
I’ve been following Dan Hannan for about a year or so now, reading his blog and watching his youtube channel - he is the only politician in Britain to say that it was central bank interest rate policy that caused the recession, instead of whatever crappy reasons other parties claim. I’m pretty sure he’s an Austrian.
As for his popularity, that video hit 1 million views in 36 hours - Ron Paul style. But he’s not well known.
Brilliant video by the way, I saw it a few hours ago
Great speech! British politicians definitely have the sharpest tounges in Europe. But don’t read more libertarianism into that speech than there actually is.
The European Parliament is a modern version of the Soviet Gulag, in the sense that political parties deport people with uncomfortable views to it. And a difference is of course a golden cage which makes every MEP rich with a huge tax free salary, all private expenses paid including free apartment, and pension payments inherited by their children for life et cetera.
It is a “gulag” because no citizens in Europe ever hear or care anything about what MEPs do, other than that they all get filthy rich on taxpayers money and regulate the curvature of bananas. To Europeans, the EU is a foreign country far away which they know very little about. The European parliament is also quite powerless. It is the commission, which is not elected but run by the member governments directly, which has the real political power.
That’s why you can find rather libertarian views expressed in the European parliament. Their party friends don’t want them to express their views anywhere where they might actually be heared or cared for by anyone.
Too true. I’m crafting him a wordy Misean response. It’s quite difficult navigating through his thought process sometimes though.
Please post it here too.
Sure, no problem