The viral You-tube clip of Daniel Hannan electrified the blogosphere last night.
Here was a British politician unashamedly speaking the truth, with passion and quiet conviction. The only thing I would argue with is his statement that each child born would carry ‘£20,000 worth of debt’ – I think it is somewhat higher than that. Market Oracle is showing a figure closer to £40,000.
Rarely can a man have lived up to his namesake so succinctly.
His key phrase of ‘a devalued Prime Minister of a devalued government’ was last heard in John Smith’s excellent speech when the UK left the ERM – and was never more appropriate than in Hannan’s hands.
By 10 pm last night, the market maker for political bets at Ladbrookes was saying this:
“If anyone does want to take a flyer on Hannan as next Tory leader, you can have 200/1 at ladbrokes.”
Within 20 minutes the odds had been slashed to 100/1.
You might think that the BBC would or should be reporting such an electrifying atmosphere – but no, those who rely on the BBC for their up-to-the-minute news were (and still are this morning), treated to a catatonic trance inducing re-run of Gordon Browns favourite theme – ‘it’s nae ma fault’.
The only main stream press reporting I can find this morning of Daniel’s riveting performance is in the Telegraph, where he writes his own blog.
Book mark his page, you may or may not agree with his politics, but the man is to be applauded and supported for having the gumption to speak his mind and thus to echo the thoughts of so many of us today. Party politics matter not so much as truth, honesty, and conviction.
More politicians like that and we might just pull out of this crisis.
Anna is the landlady of the Raccoon Arms. She lives in the Monbazillac area of South West France and still takes a keen interest in British politics.
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Anna, I’ve checked all the MSM websites this am, and the Silence is Deafening.
Me too – interesting times……did you see my latest post regarding the Queen (real Queen!) meeting King?
I did, although elswhere I have postulated that if Brown was to meet with King, it would most likely be Jonathan King.
One can only hope that HM is as pissed off with this inept administration as we are.
The new-born baby debt figure is rising all the time, but wily Dan would have stuck to the latest figure he could definitely back-up with concrete evidence.
It’s the way I did it (as I am also a bit wily!) in the Council Chamber here in Medway, using actual (and often official government) data in the huge library of stuff on my portable computer
I would agree with Henry – silence is deafening.
I would have expected similar in honesty because there is increasingly a closing down of alternative views in this country. Freedom of Speech is in their eyes a tag for Shut The Fuck Up. The nation is in crisis and the elites are busy looking after their own – the rest of us can go hang
in the Guardian this am:
* Comment is free
25 Mar 09, 12:44am (about 16 hours ago)
Having run the HMS Brittanic onto the financial iceberg, Captain Brown promptly left in the first available lifeboat to try and recover his reputation by advising other captains how to rescue their passengers.
It was all the fault of the icebergs for being there in the first place, and nothing to do with his faulty navigation. In fact, it was a piece that broke off an American iceberg that caused all the trouble. This ignores the cruel fact that the iceberg has been visible for some time before the collision, and many of the passengers had become agitated about this, but none of the crew bothered about it, least of all the officer class.
Meanwhile, back at HMS Brittanic, the lack of lifeboats is causing fatalities among the poorer passengers, while Browns officers scrabble for places for themselves, and grab what valuables they can, crying that they are just obeying the rules. The northern end of the ship is threatening to break off, and sail away before the rest of the rotting hulk sinks. The crew at this end are of the same nationality as Captain Brown, but he does his best to conceal this fact.
Brown has now arrived back in the vicinity of the sinking ship, keeping a safe distance, and trying to divert attention by claiming that pirates will arrive soon, and the passengers must be vigilant and carry their identity badges. However, he will be leaving soon to advise yet more captains about iceberg control.
A couple of passengers from a privileged background are already on a boat, and shouting that they can get the hulk safely to harbour. Nobody really believes them, but anything is better than Captain Brown, gibbering away about his compass and appealing to God.
http://moridura.blogspot.com
I hadn’t seen that one Blink – thanks for the tip off, excellent stuff.
Can we get Daniel Hannan to defect to America so we can vote him into our Congress? Could he at least, give the same speech to Pres.Obama-he need change nothing but the name! Give him a thumbs up from the Americans!!!!
Perhaps it would be better for the UK if Daniel Hannan winged his way back to the Americas. If he stays here I predict a Demosthenesian downfall for us and him.
“Demosthenesian”
Is that anything to do with Des Lynham??
Blink, not really but I can see why you would get the two mixed up. Both either very old or dead and both silver tongued orators. I’m not sure if Demosthenes was interested in footie though.