“Honor the vision of your founders.” That’s the message to Americans from one of the United Kingdom’s most eloquent defenders of free markets and free people.

Daniel Hannan, a British member of the European Parliament and now a YouTube sensation, spoke at the Heritage Foundation today. He discussed (among other issues) the European Union, state-run health care, cap-and-trade programs, and profligate government spending. Hannan is part of a small but determined coalition of Euroskeptic MPs in the European Parliament, and he was very critical of the bureaucratic blob. He believes the EU is “at the very least hostile to U.S. interests” in the foreign-policy realm, particularly when it comes to China, Iran, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hannan argued that Britain’s National Health Service is “literally a Marxist system” because it takes from each according to his ability and gives to each according to his need. “This is the basis of communism,” he said, stressing that the NHS is “morally corrosive” because it requires its bureaucrats to make bad decisions about how to distribute the scarce resources of health care. Hannan also reminded his audience that even supporters of a cap-and-trade regulatory system acknowledge that it is an ineffective way to combat global warming. He chastised U.S. lawmakers for promoting cap-and-trade in order to “send a message” to the world. “Using legislation as a declamatory art form” is un-American, Hannan said.

Despite the many challenges facing conservatives in the West, he remains optimistic. “What’s done can be undone,” Hannan said, though he warned that the process would be painful and difficult. Hannan noted that public opinion in many European countries is opposed to the EU’s Lisbon Treaty. “The mass of sensible people is the greatest ally to conservatives,” he said.

– Michael Warren, a Collegiate Network intern at National Review, studies economics and history at Vanderbilt University.