New fathers, political prisoners, traumatised presidential aides, resolute schoolboys, MEPs addressing unfriendly chambers - we all find that Shakespeare has magically anticipated our precise circumstances. How he was possible, I still don't understand; but there isn't a day I'm not grateful that he speaks to me in my own language.

In April 2009 he criticised an EC Directive that would end the exemption in British law for religious groups to discriminate on grounds on conscience. Why America Must Not Follow Europe. Towards 1996: Britain in a Multi-Speed Europe.

He currently serves on the Committee on Constitutional Affairs and the delegation to the ACP–EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly. He is also the Secretary-General of the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists (AECR). Hannan's ideology is localism and he has written several books arguing for democratic reform.