William Wallace writes…The politics of unreason
As 2017 begins, the politics of unreason seems to be spreading its influence across British politics and media. Liam Fox inside the government, and John Redwood and Peter Lilley outside, are arguing that we don't need to negotiate a treaty with the EU as we leave. They propose that Britain simply reasserts its sovereignty, and to hell with international law, commercial and security interests, and rights of access and residence elsewhere across the EU for the 50 million journeys UK citizens make every year. (Peter Lilley, like Nigel Lawson, lives part of the year in France; you'd have thought he might have taken rights of residence into account.) Free trade, they assert, is something that we can if necessary adopt unilaterally. The mercantilist policies of China and India, the threats of protectionist tariffs that the President-elect Trump has been making, do not disturb their tranquillity. Meanwhile, Wednesday's Times carried an article in its business section by Mark Littlewood, the director of the Institute
