Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Daniel Hannan MEP


For English-speaking blog readers who love to engage in debate as much as read the postings by the author, Daniel Hannan MEP runs a very stimulating show on the UK's Telegraph Blogs site.


Hannan himself, a British Conservative, is one of a rare breed among British anti-EU politicians - he is not only eloquent, but actually knows something about what he writes about. He is not above the occasional descent into myth and hyperbole, but he does powerfully point out some of the iniquities of the EU system.


Best of all, he does this with a certain degree of panache; he has an endearing habit of baring his soul (or at least appearing to) to his readers, which makes for a very devoted fan base. Interestingly, he seems to be able to win the admiration of not only his political soul mates, but also of a wide variety of political opponents (from members of the UK's withdrawalist UK Independence Party to tough left-wingers, to passionate advocates of European integration) - a not inconsiderable asset for a politician.


As on every major EU blog that publishes comments, some commentators are, how shall I say, intellectually more exotic than others, but on the whole the clientele is fairly thoughtful. Naturally enough for a very conservative publication, most of the local fauna is well to the right of centre.


Hannan publishes primarily pieces on the EU as he experiences it - i.e. as a Member of the European Parliament. He varies this with the odd posting on cultural or personal topics. Inevitably, I suppose, he is very UK-centric (indeed, he is very Anglo-centric) in his outlook, although, like many anti-Europeans, he is at pains to emphasise his internationalist credentials.


All in all, well worth a read, especially if you are interested in a stereotypically British approach to the EU.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're far too generous, insideur, but thanks all the same. I have replied at length to the question you posted on my blog.

rz said...

I'd say that you are to generous to Mr. Hannan. It is undoubtedly true that he is an intelligent and eloquent man, however his blog is primarily designed to keep the lunatics in a constant state of outrage.

I mean did you ever look at the comments on this blog? There is one New World Order conspiracy Theorist after another.

That is a sad spectacle and nothing to be proud of.

rz said...

By the way, is this blog on a hiatus? That would be pretty sad, there are to few EU related blogs anyhow.

I mean how shall I aggregate my blog if there is nobody else blogging?