Twinkle Twinkle?
Splendid isolation was the splendidly-titled foreign policy that did so well for the dear old British Empire in the late 19th century – the high cost to other countries notwithstanding, of course. That separatist nerve is clearly still twitching in the British organism; it may be island mentality or post-imperial depression, but it also has global application. Protectionism, in whatever form, may have a practical, defensive function in the short-term but is ultimately insular and self-defeating. You might say that, as…