Our place to talk – an independent website for supporters of the Liberal Democrat party in the UK.

The most-read independent website by and for Lib Dem supporters. Not paid for by trade unions or millionaires.

Advert

Author Archives: Stewart Tolley

The Liberal Democrats should oppose the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership

By Stewart Tolley | Tue 25th April 2023 - 2:00 pm

Embed from Getty Images
Adam Smith in his seminal work The Wealth of Nations made the clear observation that trade ‘carried on with a neighbouring country is…more advantageous’ than that ‘with a distant country’ and he was even clearer that the most beneficial situation would come from ‘greater trade with continental Europe’ (Smith, 537).

Smith’s words are as true now as they were then but unfortunately the Conservative party (the supposed party of the economy who idealise Smith) have decided to ignore this. Ever since 2016 the determination to pursue hard Brexit has trumped all forms of economic credibility and common sense.

As with the imperialists of centuries ago who wanted to maximise trade with the Empire over our nearest neighbours the current crop of Tories have decided to pursue far flung trade deals to try and compensate for the barriers they have erected against the EU.

Continue reading »

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged brexit, CPTPP and Customs Union | 22 Comments

Most Read

Op-eds

Observations of an ex pat: Stormy Red Sea (Tom Arms)
By-Election Report 01.10.26 (Joe Nutt)
Picking our allies, a perspective on Israel/Palestine (Gillian Mosely)
Burnham is right to reform the triple lock; the Lib Dems should support it (James Hill)
Why I won’t Wayve goodbye to Black Cabs (Christian de Vartavan)

Advert

Recent Comments

Chloe
It's not a conductor - it's a fully qualified driver on every DLR train. Driverless it most definitely isn't....
Roland
@Chloe - "Let’s get away from the myth of DLR driverless trains.." Too many years ago I designed computer systems for mass transport systems, the DLR being o...
Nonconformistradical
Quoting from Alex Macfie 3rd Oct '26 - 9:50am "Driverless cars are the ultimate example of this. What if the system breaks down and the passenger is stranded...
Joey Vimsante
I support devolution over changes to the voting system. I support the National devolution for Scotland and Wales. And also devolved regions for England. I t...
Jenny Barnes
The best new cars have a button to turn all that driver "assistance" off. After you have fought the steering because of "lane keeping ", suffered near emergenc...