Readers know that I am not a particular admirer of the English, denizens of a dank, cramped isle, practitioners (mostly) of a dank, cramped politics, (where have you gone, Mrs. Thatcher?), and adherents of a dank, cramped culture.
Yet, all is not lost, as I see from a fine speech from a British member of the European Parliament, Daniel Hannan, in response to an address from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. MEP Hannan also has a blog, www.hannan.co.uk .
(Note — Hannan felt, all things considered, that Obama was worthy of support in the last election, so he’s of an eclectic politics.)
Here’s Hannan’s reply to Prime Minister Brown’s latest puffery & braggadocio.
One is not supposed — I often hear — to speak so candidly in Whitewater, Wiscconsin. Of course not. Look, though, where this leaves us — less clear, less candid, less honest, less robust, than some of the English. We did not write a Declaration, win a Revolution, establish a Constitution, and adopt a Bill of Rights, from timidity.