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.”