A British Member of the European Parliament, Daniel Hannan, rose to fame around the world last year when he addressed the then British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, in terms that many of us wish that we could use to address our political leaders. Calling him “the devalued Prime Minister of a devalued government,” Mr. Hannan struck a nerve with literally millions who watched his short but devastating speech on YouTube, particularly in America, where the tea party movement was beginning to swell on the back of national frustration with a spendthrift government.
What most of Mr. Hannan’s new admirers over here probably did not know was that Daniel has always been a profound Americophile. Indeed, as he has watched British democracy and ancestral liberties being eviscerated by membership of the European Union, he has always looked fondly at America and the way her liberties are guaranteed by constitution and by custom. Moreover, as those liberties are in most part the liberties of the old English constitution, he views America as a persistent reminder to Britain of what it has lost by being part of the “great European experiment.”
Yet Daniel also realizes that the European experiment is viewed with fondness by many currently in power over here. That is why he has written a short, extremely readable book, published today, called “The New Road to Serfdom: A Letter of Warning to America,” which, at time of writing, was #17 on the Amazon charts. In the book, he defends America from common attacks by the European left, celebrates America’s tradition of liberty, and issues a stern warning: Don’t Europeanize America!
Some will argue that it is odd for a traditionalist British conservative to be defending a revolution against the British crown, but Daniel has an answer for that, culminating in the respective statements made by John Adams and King George III on the presentation of the former as first minister from the United States to the court of the latter. At that moment, one could argue, the Anglosphere was born. Daniel Hannan’s work continues that tradition, and the Anglosphere is better for it. All Anglospherists should buy his book.
Iain Murray is a Vice-President at the Competitive Enterprise Institute
