ignore conventional wisdom and think things through from first principles. Like Rowan Williams, he always did his hearers the courtesy of addressing them as intelligent adults. Both men regularly got into trouble in consequence, either because they were genuinely misunderstood or because their detractors affected to misunderstand them. Neither responded by dumbing down. That, in politics, takes a special kind of integrity." Chequers proposal The government's policy on the future relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union that the Cabinet had discussed at Chequers was published as a White Paper on 12 July 2018 for debate in the House of Commons the following week. In July 2018, Hannan wrote in his Telegraph column regarding the Government's Chequers Proposal. Distinct from the Government's position and from that of the ERG, Hannan argued that MPs should vote for the proposal despite its shortcomings, so long as it is not "watered down further". Summarising, he wrote that "The question is not whether the White Paper is ideal, but whether an imperfect departure is better than either a hostile breakdown or a more subservient relationship". He claimed that with Chequers, the UK Government was begging for the kind of deal the EU has with Moldova and Albania, who themselves only sought as a transitional arrangement towards full membership. Writing on the contents of the White Paper, Hannan claimed that "There is a good reason to accept EU standards on goods rather than services: half our goods exports go to the EU, but only 37 per cent of our services." He also stated that since most goods standards are set at a global level, the concession to maintain EU standards on goods makes sense. UKIP In spring 2012, Hannan suggested in a Daily Telegraph article that an accommodation be made between the Conservative Party and the UK Independence Party (UKIP), and would be preferable to one with the Liberal Democrats. Good Friday Agreement Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Hannan has argued that while the Good Friday Agreement was "often spoken about in quasi-religious terms … its flaws have become clearer over time." Hannan's account of the Good Friday Agreement has been criticised as factually inaccurate and reckless. Disputed statement about Fianna Fáil In a January 2019 article for The Daily Telegraph, Hannan wrote that Irish political party Fianna Fáil "won every Irish election" between 1932 and 2008. Fianna Fáil did receive the highest