The anti-apartheid prisoners on the island, like so many in every age and nation, found that Shakespeare had a peculiar ability to gentle their condition. They used to gather clandestinely to read the plays; on one occasion, the book was passed around for each man to mark his favourite lines.

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.