Daniel Hannan says EU human rights agenda is crowding out democracy

Daniel Hannan, a Conservative MEP for the South East, made a splendid speech yesterday about how the growth of "EU human rights" is crowding out democracy.

The European Parliament has passed a resolution on human rights, which Mr Hannan describes as:

"a litany of nagging demands about abortion law, same-sex unions, the status of asylum seekers and so on.

Now I'm pretty soggy on some of these issues ... But that's not the point. I have no right to impose my views on the electorates of, say, Ireland or Poland. They have their own legislators, whom they can hire and fire."

Mr Hannan's 45 second speech is well worth watching. In an exceptionally elegant speech, perhaps the best line is as follows:

"There is no crisis of human rights in the European Union. But there is a crisis of democratic legitimacy."