If international solidarity means anything, surely it means helping people around the world who are less fortunate than us. And surely that means buying coffee from a Ugandan grower and T-shirts made in Bangladesh as well as demonstrating against apartheid. The contradiction of the Left is that in church on Sunday we give generously to flood victims in Bangladesh. Then on Monday we petition the government to stop the Bangladeshis selling their garments in our country. I think the most important lesson of the past 50 years is that we must embrace the outside world, not shun it.
Openness is good.
Just compare the protectionist nightmare of the 1930s with the long boom in America and Europe in the 1950s and 1960s as trade barriers fell. But the benefits of openness are not only economic. Whatever its flaws, no one seriously doubts that Europe is better off with the European Union than without it. There are two Europes. One is united and integrated, where people enjoy each others food, culture and commerce.