In Commonplace, Nicholas Phillips takes on the new trope that import tariffs serve the interests of the “deep state” that populists want to dismantle. It’s the opposite, Phillips argues: the current regime of “free” trade (in fact, heavily rules-bound and highly unequal) has been concocted main by unelected officials and little-known bureaucratic agencies – the deep state’s very pillars. They are now terrified by a democratically elected, pro-tariff President and are grasping for ways to avoid losing control.
Yay Brexit!
Brendan O’Neill in Spiked enthuses that Brexit is superior to just about anything else in the world. “There should be street parties” on the 10th anniversary of the popular vote to withdraw from the EU, he writes. “Let the bells peal for that momentous day when in our millions we said No to globalism.” The continuing surfeit of saboteurs and naysayers among Britain’s “idiot elites”, O’Neill snorts, are gripped by Brexit Derangement Syndrome.
