Dan Hannan resigns his front bench post

As Keep Right Online notes, Dan Hannan MEP has resigned his front bench job.

It seems that as of this evening, Mr. Daniel Hannan, a true Conservative and libertarian (if he wasn’t so famed, I’d be lobbying him harder for regular guest posts) has stepped down from his position as appointed just two months ago on the front bench for Europe for the Conservative Party. And we fully understand.
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Of course, many would call the move foolish- and more the foolish they are for that. The United Kingdom is severely lacking in principled politicians such as Mr. Hannan...

Ain't that the truth. Although that sentence could simply have read "the United Kingdom is severely lacking in principled politicians", full stop (we are, of course, heavily burdened by corrupt, self-serving bastards).

Here's Dan himself...

It’s not chiefly about Europe – it’s about democracy. Regular readers will know that I have always seen the repatriation of jurisdiction from Brussels as a means to an end. Having got the powers back, we should pass them down to local authorities or, better yet, to individual citizens. I want decisions to be decentralised, diffused, democratised. I want open primaries, popular initiative procedures, elected sheriffs, self-financing councils, an end to quangos, recall mechanisms and, yes, referendums – lots and lots of referendums.
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We need a broad movement within the Conservative Party that will push for referendums, citizens’ initiatives and the rest of the paraphernalia of direct democracy. I don’t just mean a referendum on Europe - though, naturally, that is the obvious place to start. I mean full-on Helvetic people power, as adumbrated in this best-selling publication. I have returned to the back benches in order to concentrate on building such a movement.

Don’t misunderstand me: I voted for David Cameron as leader, I like him, and I reckon he’d be a million times better than Gordon Brown as Prime Minister. One of his strengths is that, unlike Gordon Brown, he doesn’t mind people disagreeing with him. Well, then. This Conservative is for a referendum: a proper, deep-cleansing referendum that will settle whether our country remains subordinate, or becomes self-governing. Now who will stand on either hand and keep the bridge with me?

You can count me in, Dan. Apart from that bit about being a Tory. Because, let's face it, you're in the wrong party.

You belong with us...