Dan, Dan the Canvassing Man

Those Tories of a Eurosceptic persuasion – and, given the YouTube hits his speech received, many others – have one man in the European Parliament that they can call a straight talking soulmate. He’s Dan Hannan, and he doesn’t like Pa Broon. So there.

So there may be some discomfort at the revelation by the deeply subversive Guardian that Dan, who’s also a fluent speaker of Castellano, has been to Spain to suggest to expat Brits that they cast their Euro-votes for Alternativa Española. This is a party that has previously aligned itself with the Austrian Freedom Party and the French FN. More, it is backed by Blas Piñar, an apologist for Francisco Franco.

AE says it’s aligning itself with the Tories, and the impression is given that this is one of the parties that may form the new right of centre grouping that Young Dave is so keen to promote. But, after Dan found out a little more about their past, he seemed less than keen on the connection.

This surprised me. Because the expectation is that an organisation like the Tory Party would do its homework properly before even going near organisations like AE, or of course sending Dan Hannan to urge support for them.

This apparent lack of foresight may explain why the Tories have opted for some strange bedfellows in their new Euro-grouping, as I mentioned yesterday.

But it’s not an excuse that stands any serious scrutiny.