The idiot Hannan must have been totally spaced out or completely paralytic when he penned this piece (HERE) in June 2015 for The Telegraph about what Britain would look like in 2020. To say it's Utopian is to make Utopia seem like the Caliphate under ISIS. It's a glowing picture of life in a country that nobody over the age of seven would find even close to believable. If it was a PR exercise he would have had the Advertising Standards Authority down on him like a tonne of finely chiselled York stone blocks.
It is a delusional fantasy written as only a delusional fantasist like Hannan could manage. No sentient humanoid-like being, wearing rose tinted, virtual reality contact lenses and high on mind altering drugs in this or any other universe, parallel or otherwise, could think that the Britain he describes could become reality by 2020 or even by 3030.
I hope he is embarrassed at his predictions but I fear a man like him is well beyond embarrassment.
I hope he is embarrassed at his predictions but I fear a man like him is well beyond embarrassment.
A selection from his cringeworthy, sphincter tightening prose, with my comments in red:
It’s 2020, and the UK is flourishing outside of the EU. The rump Union, now a united bloc, continues its genteel decline, but Britain has become the most successful and competitive knowledge-based economy in the region. [The EU is growing at roughly twice our speed - it is the UK now continuing its genteel decline]
Since 2010, every region in the world has experienced significant economic growth – except Europe. The prosperity of distant continents has spilled over into Britain [The UK, at the top of the G7 growth league in 2016 is now at the bottom]
Waves of young financiers brought their talents from Frankfurt, Paris and Milan to the City [Financial businesses are moving to Frankfurt and Paris]
Other EU regulations, often little known, had caused enormous damage. The Reach Directive, limiting chemical products, imposed huge costs on manufacturers. The bans on vitamin supplements and herbal remedies had closed down many health shops. London’s art market had been brutalised by EU rules on VAT and retrospective taxation. All these sectors have revived. [Industry is pleading to keep closely aligned to EU Regulations - see the Open Europe report HERE]
Unsurprisingly, several other European states opted for a similar deal. Some (Norway, Switzerland) came from the old European Free Trade Association; others (Sweden, Denmark) from the EU; yet others (Turkey, Georgia) from further afield. The United Kingdom leads a 21-state bloc that forms a common market with the EU 25, but remains outside their political structures. [Pro- EU sentiment is at a high throughout Europe, even David Davis admits no one is going to follow us out]
Best of all, we have cast off the pessimism that infected us during our EU years, the sense that we were too small to make a difference. [We are now complaining the EU is bullying us]
It's only mid 2018 and we already know Hannan is completely wrong. Life in Britain in 2020 will not be flourishing. It will in fact be EXACTLY THE SAME AS IT WAS IN 2016 except we will all be worse off and biting our nails, worried sick about the potentially catastrophic damage suffered by the economy. We know this because the "confident, successful and free" Britain had to beg for a transition period because (a) the cabinet still can't decide what we want and (b) we couldn't be sure we would be ready for whatever scraps the EU condescend to let us have.
The trade deal with the USA is not going to happen because Trump is well on the way to launching a full scale trade war between the Americans and the EU. Britain is between the two and every salvo threatens to sink us.
Whatever else Daniel Hannan is, he's certainly no prophet.
Whatever else Daniel Hannan is, he's certainly no prophet.
