Poverty is Falling - Not Thanks to the EU – Daniel Hannan

“The best thing we can do in this chamber is to release the genius of a free people. All we have to do is stop regulating, stop interfering, and stand aside.” Daniel Hannan, European Parliament, February 9^th, 2016.

Source: DanHannanMEP YouTube channel.

Transcript:

Thank you Mr. Deputy Speaker. My generation has seen the most severe fall in world poverty in human history. Number of people in severe poverty, as defined and measured by the United Nations, has fallen by 2/3 over the last 25 years. Sharpest drops have been in Africa and Asia. And what has fueled that extraordinary happy story? Free trade. The integration of these markets into global markets and the naked pursuit of the profit motive, by mobile phone companies and others bringing investments to these regions.

I hate to break this to you in this house, but it was not caused by a vote on reducing inequalities with a special focus on child poverty. We have not contributed a jot or a tittle, whatever a jot is or for that matter whatever a tittle is, to these happy falls in global poverty. The best thing we can do in this chamber is to release the genius of a free people. All we have to do is stop regulating, stop interfering, and stand aside.