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Wednesday 23 December 2020

Dan, Dan The Peerage Hypocrisy Man

As if there had not been enough questionable peerages handed out by alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson this year, this week brought news of yet more, including another prize specimen following in the footsteps of “Lord” John Mann - having previously dissed the House of Lords, only to accept the offer of ermine and a £300 daily expense allowance for the benefit of Himself Personally Now.

What am I bid for this used anti-Lords principle?

So who was to be ennobled this time? Well, there was the mildly controversial figure of Tory donor Peter Cruddas, sent to the Lords with Bozo ignoring a recommendation to the contrary, but the real hypocrite was occasional Tory and former MEP Daniel Hannan. Yes, one of the most flagrantly dishonest politicians ever to set foot in a TV studio (and I include Farage, Duncan Cough and Gove in that category) was to become a Lord.


Paul Johnson swiftly identified the hypocrisy. “'David Cameron is doing what Asquith threatened to do in 1910: de-legitimising the House of Lords by flooding it with inconsequential nobodies’ - Daniel Hannan 2015 via [Conservative Home] - Daniel Hannan today accepted a place in the House of Lords”. Ian Fraser was on the same page.


Quite a volte face for Daniel Hannan? 2016: ‘...the right to grow up in an independent country where we can hire and fire our own lawmakers.’ 2020: Accepts peerage in the unelected [House of Lords]”. We could “hire and fire” MEPs. We don’t get a say about hiring peers. And we most certainly can’t fire them once appointed.


As to what kind of individual this concerns, Jonathan Lis had bad news. “I knew m’lord Hannan in Brussels. He is every bit as obnoxious and zealous as you’d fear and wrong about everything. On his most devout obsession, hating the EU, he has neither knowledge nor consistency. The great evangelist of Brexit is the greatest intellectual fraud of our age”.


OUCH! Tom Runnacles had more. “He was in the same year as me at Oxford. A zealot even then, he was thrown out of the Randolph Hotel because he made a scene about the EU flag outside”. Another Tweeter added “Yes, I witnessed this gentleman’s unpleasant behaviour at the upmarket ‘Made in Louise’ hotel in Brussels. Ranting at staff over how long his taxi was taking. Very emotional and angry man”. There was more.


After Jon Worth noted Hannan’s propensity to serial dishonesty, Steve Peers agreed. “The thing about Hannan is not just the high level falsehoods but the additional pointless day to day falsehoods, such as those about walks or restaurants. The Trumpiest man in Britain”. Zelo Street picked up on the minutiae of Dan’s photo whoppers HERE.


Then there was his dishonesty over the Covid-19 pandemic. LBC host James O’Brien noted “Daniel ‘Coronavirus isn’t going to kill you’ Hannan’s peerage has been announced on the day that the UK’s death toll reached 68,307. Seems to sum things up perfectly”.


As to the company Hannan might enjoy when he is duly ennobled, Peter Jukes reminded us “Hannan, master of the 'only 2000 will die of Coronavirus' and endless other fact-free baseless assertions about Brexit, gets suitably rewarded, joining Clare Spiked Fox and Evgeny Kompromat Lebedev in the House of Lords”. Quite the rogues’ gallery.

Is our politics corrupt and broken? You might wish to ask that. I couldn’t possibly comment.


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