I’m coming bit late onto this, but I have to sau when I saw that video it was a revelation. I live in the UK and most people’s economic views are either leftist, facist, idiotic or all of those. I definitely didn’t think any politicians shared my view until I saw this guy.
I think the left leaning media have got very wound up by his remarks too. The channel 4 special on him was laughable and full of fallacies.
how is the UK media portraying him, and did it get decent coverage? Is it to early to see how many people were positivly efected by his speech?
I think the treatment is eerily familiar to that which Ron Paul initially got in America. The BBC, ITV and Channel 4 did not cover him for 2 days, before channel 4 had him on their evening show. A ot of the media seems to be attacking him, which I can really only assume is a good thing.[:P]
Does anybody know if this guy is an Austrian?
Do you have a source I can use for those percentages? I’m pretty sure my friend is confusing the 9% budget deficit with the total debt. He’s in for a shock.
This is what he said in that interview which led up to him speaking favorably about Ron Paul:
“I don’t think I’m ever going to be Prime Minister. And one of the reasons why is because basically I think that governments shouldn’t do things.”
Those last four words alone make this man by far the closest thing the UK has to Ron Paul
And he also had some brilliant things to say about not bailing out banks.
It’s definitely one to watch. Here’s the second half of the interview with the above statements.
I really hope this man catches on in the UK, at least with populist support if not the media.
The statements in the Cavuto interview seem to point that way. He mentions interest rates were set too low in the boom and now we need to be saving instead of spending. He also called Keynes a “magic wand”. If the shoe fits…
Here he is on Glenn Beck’s show: also very good.
I really like what this guy is saying!
I bet he learned from Ron Paul (and mises.org), because he’s been a MEP for four years, hasn’t he? Sure some “defect views” must have made his party friends deport him to the powerless EU parliament in eternal media shadow to begin with. But now he’s taken resolve and the internet somehow has caught up on it.
There’s an election for EUP in June. This guy’s got his campaign profile clear alright, for all British voters.
“What we’re seeing now is an inexorable correction to the years of easy credit creation by these same governments which kept interest rates too low for too long. That was a political decision and not a market one. And the air that was puffed into the balloon came rushing out.”
Here is what I wrote. I wanted to try and stay away from defending the Tories, but rather correct him where he went wrong.
Thanks for your thoughts on the video and apologies for my somewhat tardy response.
“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”
In his speech to the EU parliament, Brown said the following: “Let us not retreat into protectionism that is the road to ruin”
Contrast this with his earlier “British Jobs for British workers” pander to the BNP audience, and the aforementioned subsidisation of banks and the car industry. So it’s protectionism when at home, and free trade when in the EU.
Here’s what Hannan actually said:
“You’ve spoken here about free trade, and amen to that; who would have guessed, listening to you just now, that you were the author of the phrase ‘British Jobs for British Workers’, and that you have subsidised - where you have not nationalised outright - swathes of our economy, including the car industry and many of the banks.”
“we have a Conservative MEP shooting his own country in the foot!”
Hannan is rightly against spraying (freshly printed or taxpayers) money at bailing out every failing enterprise that moves. Subsidising failure will only lead to more of it in the future.
“Riling against the “unprecedented” 10% of GDP debt as if it is some monstrous thing.”
It is not total debt as a percentage of GDP that Hannan was talking about, it was the government budget deficit which will be running at 9% for 2009’s budget alone.
“We are now running a deficit that touches almost 10% of GDP – an unbelievable figure. More than Pakistan, more than Hungary – countries where the IMF has already been called in.”
The actual percentage of total public sector debt is a different story. That link you provided shows national debt gradually falling since 1950 with a few bumps here and there, ending at around 50% of GDP by 2000.
Fast forward to 2009 after 12 years of this government and the picture is rather different. Taking into account the recent bailouts the debt as a percentage of GDP is well over 100%. Considering that GDP includes government spending, the actual percentage relative to the productive sector of the economy must be even higher!
Perhaps, after all, flash Gordon will be going cap-in-hand to the IMF like Callaghan in the 70s.
Here’s more on the speeches.
In related news: Yes, you can be proactively dismissive! The British media have taken extensive measures to dismiss him. Just watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1bT0RftMM8
So, according to the host, this is some curious but unimportant internet phenomenon (driven by… well, you know, those capricious and stupid folks that use the internet). He does not show the speech in its entirety - but only its “choicest” parts, where Hannan delivers those well-deserved ad hominem remarks. And though he graciously invites Hannan to be interviewed -he also invites some troubled, unkempt, high-strung, stooge so that Hannan is given as little time as possible to put his wit and eloquence to use.
Fox News’ mantra “fair and balanced”, absurd as it is in view of their patent Christian-neo-conservative agenda, suddenly strikes me as reasonably accurate when I take into consideration what we could have instead. At least FN is unabashed about its bias. At least they do invite the lefties. At least they let them speak (albiet with lots of unpleasant interruptions).
It is a powerful speech. And short. Then, it could be a interesting tool for spreading that there is a different way to look at the crisis.
Just in case, I have uploaded a Spanish-subtitled version.
What an excellent aid to my Spanish studies! [:D]
Indeed. If people think American media is bad, they should see European media.
I read a number of articles from his blog today. Hannan’s prose and most of his content is enjoyable, but I do have major gripes about his overt populism and support for democracy…