The lamps are going out all over EuropeDanielHannan2024-10-22 | The lamps are going out all over EuropeHow China will take over the worldDanielHannan2024-10-17 | And what the rest of us can do to stop it. Hint: we won't stop it by refusing to trade.
From the CPS panel at the 2024 Conservative Party Conference. Full debate here: youtube.com/watch?v=x7AdJsY3uzgShameful surrender of the Chagos IslandsDanielHannan2024-10-09 | Labour has upset our allies, delighted our enemies and betrayed the displaced Chagossians. We are giving away the most strategic base in the Indian Ocean, and have somehow ended up paying for the privilege of doing so. What a disgrace!Why would anyone go into politics?DanielHannan2024-10-04 | A discussion with Giles Dilnot about China, Brexit, candidate selection, Reform UK, over-mighty civil servants and much else. Hosted by ConservativeHome at the 2024 Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham.Ignoring our Brexit opportunitiesDanielHannan2024-09-26 | Africa is growing at an extraordinary rate. Despite our cultural, linguistic and migratory links, we are being very slow to expand our trade there - largely for reasons of domestic protectionism.Hardly anyone understands supply and demandDanielHannan2024-09-16 | Even in the House of Lords.When our midwife didnt show upDanielHannan2024-09-09 | The provision of information matters. Oh, and Cate Blanchett is responsible for more good in this world than she knows.Lockdown was worse than uselessDanielHannan2024-09-03 | As evidence piles up, we can see that the restrictions killed more people than they saved. But don't expect to hear any of that from our farce of an official enquiry.Does Starmer represent a win for the Right?DanielHannan2024-08-05 | Obviously Labour's victory was catastrophic for the Conservative Party. But was it such bad news for the wider conservative movement? Might reforms begin under Labour?
My conversation with Jonah Goldberg. youtube.com/@TheDispatchPodsBuild some sodding houses!DanielHannan2024-07-28 | One of the areas where Labour could potentially be far better than the Conservatives is in building the houses we need.Now what?DanielHannan2024-07-24 | How does the Conservative Party come back from here?
Speech to the PopCon conference on 9 July, 2024Why did the Tories lose?DanielHannan2024-07-19 | My discussion with the brilliant Jonah Goldberg, who understands British politics better than 99 per cent of Brits.
youtube.com/@TheDispatchPodsGod Save The KingDanielHannan2024-07-12 | New Parliament, new oath of allegianceRespectable xenophobiaDanielHannan2024-07-09 | Many people who think of themselves as internationalists, and who decry Brexit as backward, are astonishingly biased against foreign countries when it comes to trade.
The final instalment of my debate with Dr Terence Kealey.
vinsoncentre.com iea.org.uk youtube.com/watch?v=4zEDBzNuIXINo peace with the ayatollahsDanielHannan2024-07-02 | What was their opening act? The siege of the US embassy, an unprecedented violation of national sovereignty. They started as they meant to go on, showing no respect for norms of diplomatic behaviour or for national sovereignty. It is hard to see any lasting regional peace without regime change in Persia.The Hong Kong miracleDanielHannan2024-06-26 | Also: why food self-sufficiency is a terrible idea.
Watch the full debate here: youtube.com/watch?v=4zEDBzNuIXIFaith, family flag: whats the right order?DanielHannan2024-06-18 | A segment from my Freecons versus Natcons debate with Dr James Orr for the Free Market Roadshow, hosted by the Legatum Institute
Watch the whole debate here: youtube.com/watch?v=PvbjxeGbmscHow the EU continues to exert controlDanielHannan2024-06-14 | The Government has announced that it wants to add more folic acid to flour so as to prevent birth defects. The move has been broadly welcomed by campaigners, the industry and all parties. But it can't go ahead in Northern Ireland without the EU's permission. This is how, in reality, all our standards are still anchored to Brussels.More imports please!DanielHannan2024-06-10 | I run vast deficits with most of the pubs in my little corner of the Hampshire-Berkshire borders. Sometimes they engage in dumping, as when they offer a free glass of wine with a meal. Who gets the better end of that deal? Why do we object if taxpayers in another country choose to subsidise us?
Watch the full debate here: youtube.com/watch?v=4zEDBzNuIXIThe Bank of England has been a disasterDanielHannan2024-06-03 | Its forecasts have been woeful, it has become obsessed with woke and its first instinct is to print more money. But, in our current cultural climate, politicians will always end up being blamed for its mistakes.
Milton (Friedman) thou shouldst be living at this hour...No, free trade should not be reciprocalDanielHannan2024-05-31 | If another country places rocks in its harbours, don't retaliate by placing rocks in your own harbours.
Watch the full debate here: youtube.com/watch?v=4zEDBzNuIXIStill subject to the EU courtDanielHannan2024-05-27 | The ruling that measures against illegal immigration do not apply in Northern Ireland makes a nonsense of the entire Windsor Framework.Why so many wars?DanielHannan2024-05-21 | Protectionism and geopolitical instability are more connected than people realise. Since 2011, trade volumes have fallen, autocracies have become more numerous and wars have become more common.
Watch the full debate here: youtube.com/watch?v=4zEDBzNuIXIA Leaver in the LordsDanielHannan2024-05-14 | Welcome to Lord Moynihan, who chaired Vote Leave (in which capacity he had to try to control Dominic Cummings) and who has finally been recognised for his many achievements.Marxs mistakeDanielHannan2024-05-10 | Terence Kealey and I agree that the odious old sponger was wrong, but we disagree about why.The WHO power-grabDanielHannan2024-05-08 | A welcome confirmation from the minister, Lord Markham, that the UK will not surrender any sovereignty to an organisation with such a hopeless recent record.The vaccination scandalDanielHannan2024-05-03 | Ministers now admit that the Covid vaccines did not significantly inhibit transmission. So why the hell did we force them on to young people? Why did we insist on vaccine passports?What Trumpsters get wrongDanielHannan2024-05-01 | It is not trade that is causing pockets of deindustrialisation. It is technological advances - advances which, overall, create more jobs than they destroy.
Watch the full debate here: youtube.com/watch?v=4zEDBzNuIXIStill bound by EU policyDanielHannan2024-04-29 | You say tomayto, I say tomahto. Either way, we are crazily imposing tariffs on a product we are short of - tariffs inherited from the EU and designed to protect Spanish and Italian growers. Why, eight years after voting to leave, are we still doing this? Is it deliberate foot-dragging by Europhile civil servants?No, blue-collar workers are not worse offDanielHannan2024-04-24 | The claim that the living standards of unskilled workers in the West has fallen since the end of the twentieth century just does not stack up.
Watch the full debate here: youtube.com/watch?v=4zEDBzNuIXIStanding by our allies in the Middle EastDanielHannan2024-04-17 | Should Parliament be consulted before each military action in the Middle East? For operational reasons, it would be impractical. The RAF's action in shooting down Iranian drones, defending not just Israel but also our close ally, Jordan, was a case in point.The infant industries fallacyDanielHannan2024-04-15 | Governments are no better at picking winners than they are at anything else. Every time they try, they end up making the sector or industry concerned LESS competitive and LESS efficient.
Watch the full debate here: youtube.com/watch?v=4zEDBzNuIXIWhat if the ANC could get away with it?DanielHannan2024-04-08 | Why do South Africa's leaders refuse to condemn, even in the mildest way, the election-rigging in Zimbabwe? Is it just sentimentality about the war there? Or are they secretly studying it as a template for what to do at home?Chicken and liberty!DanielHannan2024-04-01 | Never mind the eagle. The broiler chicken should have been the national emblem of a nation conceived in liberty.
Listen to the full interview on Dominic Pino's excellent podcast.
Part three of my Vinson Centre debate with the excellent (except on free trade, obvs) Terence Kealey.
youtube.com/@vinsoncentrebuckinghamWasting another Brexit opportunityDanielHannan2024-03-22 | We have been reluctant to scrap even the EU regulations which every single party opposed when they were introduced.What about the workers?DanielHannan2024-03-15 | How, if at all, should we compensate those who lose from free trade?
Part two of my Vinson Centre debate.
See the whole thing here: youtube.com/@vinsoncentrebuckinghamThank you tax havensDanielHannan2024-03-08 | Without low-tax jurisdictions, many of which have harsh rules on secrecy and money-laundering, but just happen to be good at keeping taxes low, just imagine how high rates would be in the rest of the world.Imagine a pill that prevented all illnessDanielHannan2024-03-05 | Would anyone argue that such a pill should be kept out because it was produced by foreigners and would endanger our domestic care home and medical industries?
A debate against the great Terence Kealey, hosted by Buckingham University's Vinson Centre.
More to follow.
vinsoncentre.comHow would you like to live on the minimum wage?DanielHannan2024-02-29 | It has become almost taboo to discuss the costs which the minimum wage imposes on smaller businesses, on those seeking work and, not least, on customers. But we can't keep burdening our economy like this without consequences.
conservativehome.com/2021/03/03/daniel-hannan-there-are-clear-problems-with-raising-the-minimum-wage-but-anger-now-trumps-account-keepingThey are not no fault evictionsDanielHannan2024-02-23 | That phrase suggests to any normal person that a tenant has been thrown out mid-contract, rather than simply meaning that the contract has reached the end of its term and expired.Dont ban conversion therapyDanielHannan2024-02-16 | All the things that opponents of the practice say they dislike are already banned by existing laws. We need to stop reaching for legislation every time we want to signal our disapproval of something. Corruptissima republica plurimae leges.Four economic concepts everyone should learn at schoolDanielHannan2024-02-08 | There are some counterintuitive but basic economic truths, the understanding of which will make us wiser voters and happier citizens.We are still tied to EU trade rulesDanielHannan2024-02-02 | Canada is not alone in resenting the fact that the UK has stuck to unscientific EU food standards, some of which plainly breach WTO rules.Back the Rwanda Bill!DanielHannan2024-01-29 | God knows it's not perfect, but its opponents have failed to come up with any plausible alternatives. The fact that you might end up in Rwanda, even if it's only a chance and not a certainty, is bound to exercise a deterrent effect.Trade not aid!DanielHannan2024-01-11 | British overseas aid tends, if anything, to correlate with a decline in democracy. Bad in itself, and bad for the climate policies that the aid money is notionally there to support.Keep the Elgin Marbles!DanielHannan2023-12-19 | The idea of some ethnic or national claim to artefacts is simply another form of collectivism, and is at odds with the principle of free contract and private ownership.How like a godDanielHannan2023-12-11 | Shakespeare wasn't just our greatest writer. He was, in a sense, our creator.
Speech at UCLA on the 400th anniversary of the publication of the First Folio.The West is losingDanielHannan2023-12-07 | We used to think that other countries liked the whole liberal-democratic package. Turns out that a lot of them were simply overawed by superior Western arms.The collapse of American democracyDanielHannan2023-12-01 | Fewer and fewer people believe in the system enough to uphold it when the other side wins. Interview with the excellent Matt Kibbe of freethepeople.org.
Full interview: youtube.com/watch?v=WfBQxmuDZzwProducer captureDanielHannan2023-11-26 | When the EU passed stringent regulations on investment funds in 2006, every British party, and the whole City of London, opposed them. Now that they have assimilated the compliance costs, the established companies haven't simply lost interest in repeal. they actively favour the measure they used to oppose because they see it as a barrier to entry,