Both barrels

Via the Spectator's Coffee House blog, Dan Hannan MEP delivers an excellent rebuttal to the government's exculpatory propaganda barrage concerning its handling of the financial downturn:


The absurdity of insisting on maintaining free-trade to an institution whose trade barriers and export subsidies for agriculture alone forms almost half of its budget is farcical. If - as Hannan points out - Gordon Brown genuinely believed in the internationalist sentiment behind his appeals, there could be no excuse, save political expediency, for belonging to a group that arbitrarily excludes the most efficient producers based solely on their geographical location. For a more consistent advocacy of free trade, see this petition (unfortunately not modelled on the candlemakers') from the Atlas Global Initiative.

Douglas Carswell MP, Hannan's coauthor on 'The Plan: Twelve Months to Renew Britain', discussed other aspects of the deterioration of Britain under New Labour and his preferred strategy to return to limited government, in his talk to the society at the end of Hilary Term. The video is now available, here.