Is Daniel Hannan in the wrong party?

I have just watched Dan Hannan's speech at the Tory Spring conference from yesterday. It is being linked to by right wing bloggers and bigged up like with his recent European Parliament speech where he eviscerated Brown.

This latest speech is certainly very good and is peppered with literary references and he shows genuine passion and humour which is so often lacking in speeches by politicians. I would be amazed if he is not in the House of Commons within the next few years.

However, as DK has pointed out his speech is dishonest. If you believe the thrust of what he is saying then you would think that it is only Labour governments supported by the Lib Dems who have pursued closer integration with Europe whereas it was actually Ted Heath who started the process and it continued under both Thatcher and Major. In the past, the Tory party have recognised when in power that it is in Britain's best interests to be closely involved with Europe. I see no indication from David Cameron that he suddenly intends to reverse this trend. In fact Cameron has done his best since becoming leader to dampen down talk about Europe as I suspect he recognises that the approach of some in his party on this issue does not always come across particularly well.

The more I think about Hannan's latest speech, the more it actually sounds like it came from a UKIP member. At least if a UKIP member had made it, he would also have referred to the Tory party's role in closer integration. If this is such a fundamental issue for him, is Mr Hannan perhaps in the wrong party? I suspect Nigel Farage would welcome such a great orator into his fold.