what is daniel hannans profession and describe his Praise for Icelands economic miracle?”
Icelanders are rolling in it, says Daniel Hannan. Why? Because they understand that small is beautiful — and have stayed out of the EU Reykjavik Britain, we are forever being told, is a small offshore island, far too puny to survive except as part of a larger European entity. Euro-sceptics have a well-rehearsed retort to this charge, viz. that we are actually rather big. Britain, they point out, is the world’s fourth largest economy and fourth military power, a member of the G8 and the UN Security Council and all that sort of thing. In fact, they add, we are not even a small island in the literal sense: we are the seventh largest non-continental landmass on the planet. All these things are true. But might it not be more interesting to contemplate the condition of a country which really is a small offshore island? Consider Iceland, a volcanic lump at the uttermost edge of Europe, straddling the tectonic line that separates our continental plate from America’s. Iceland has few natural ad
Daniel John Hannan is a British politician, and Member of the European Parliament (MEP), representing South East England for the Conservative Party. In the Parliament, he currently sits as an independent, having previously been a member of EPP-ED, the group of the European People’s Party. Praise for Iceland’s economic miracle He has been a regular visitor to Iceland for 15 years. He has written about he spent his stag night there to celebrate its refusal to join the European Union, and has declared Icelanders to be the sturdiest and most self-reliant people he knows. Hannan’s critics have pointed to his extravagant praise for Iceland’s economic miracle prior to the 2008 crash, in which he advocated that other countries should emulate the Icelandic model of minimal national and international regulation as their model. In an October 2004 piece for the Spectator, entitled Blue-Eyed Shiekhs, Hannan wrote “I have watched an economic miracle unfold … Today, Icelanders are absolutely rollin
Hannan’s critics have pointed to his extravagant praise for Iceland’s economic miracle prior to the 2008 crash, in which he advocated that other countries should emulate the Icelandic model of minimal national and international regulation as their model. In an October 2004 piece for the Spectator, entitled Blue-Eyed Shiekhs, Hannan wrote “I have watched an economic miracle unfold … Today, Icelanders are absolutely rolling in it. A people two generations away from subsistence farming have become international tycoons. … Being outside the EU, Iceland has been able to cut taxes and regulation, and to open up its economy. For 70 years the Althing has been dominated by the splendidly named Independence party, which has pursued the kind of Thatcherite agenda that is off limits to EU members … Icelanders have no more desire to submit to international than to national regulation. That attitude has made them the happiest, freest and wealthiest people on earth. Long may they remain so”.
