that if that was what Hannan felt, he should have said so "with any kind of force between 2016 and 2019, when it might have changed or meant anything", as Zoe Williams put in The Guardian. Jonn Elledge in New Statesman concurred that Hannan was only willing to say this so bluntly when doing so carried no political risk to himself or his side. "Much easier instead to blame the lack of compromise on Remainers and the left, two groups who famously had a huge degree of influence over Theresa May's thinking." The Conservative In September 2016, Hannan launched The Conservative, a periodical publication in print volume and in an online version published quarterly. In an editorial, he defined its philosophy as follows: "Conservatism is an instinct rather than an ideology. It is ironic, quizzical, cool-tempered, distrustful of grand theories. Conservatives understand that the things they cherish – property rights, parliamentary government, personal freedom, norms of courtesy – take a long time to build up, but can be quickly destroyed." After the European Parliament In September 2020, Hannan was named an advisor to the British Board of Trade. Later, in December of that year, it was announced he would be conferred a life peerage after a nomination by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. In the morning of Monday 25 January 2021 he was created Baron Hannan of Kingsclere, of Kingsclere in the County of Hampshire. Political positions Localism Hannan is an advocate of localism. He believes that local government independence is impossible without giving fiscal autonomy. To that end, he supports replacing Value Added Tax with a local sales tax, set by local councils. He was co-author, along with 27 Conservative MPs elected in 2005, of Direct Democracy: An Agenda for a New Model Party, which proposes the wholesale devolution of power and the direct election of decision-makers, and the replacement of the NHS with a private insurance system These ideas were developed further in a series of six pamphlets, The Localist Papers, serialised in The Daily Telegraph in 2007. Nationalism Hannan is an advocate of national sovereignty and has questioned the idea that "nationalism causes war". Hannan has been referred to as a "British nationalist" and "British Gaullist". In a debate prior to the EU Referendum in Great Britain, Hannan said "Being a nation means that we are not just a random set of individuals born to a different random