“Way back in 1996-97 at the Henley Centre I did a three-way scenario set on globalisation and its discontents. We envisaged a growing culture of NO (Natural Orders) – local, tribal, identity-based and radical reactions on left and right (and green) against the globalising scenarios of neoliberalism and what was quaintly seen at the time as a viable alternative, a kind of stakeholder social democracy (hat tip to Will Hutton). NO looks pretty good in the wake of the Euro-elections and UKIP.

On the other hand, it doesn’t look as all-conquering as the media reaction would have it. The NO parties have won 25% of the vote on a 40% turnout. The bigger story, as you say, is why democracies aren’t inspiring anyone to vote, and the answer has a lot to do with elites’ disconnection from citizenries and pursuit of neoliberal economics and social policies. The elites fuse Mont Pelerin and Bloomsbury in a mix that is now deeply alienating to a lot of people.

On the issue of productivity and the anaemic ‘recovery’ in the UK, it looks as if there is a big story to be told about mass movement into self-employment, or to be accurate, self-under-employment. People are choosing freelance precariat status over Jobcentres, and they must be spending a lot of time chasing not much work, which is inevitable in self-employment and is bound to reflect in low productivity stats. Economists are puzzled that unemployment is not higher and that labour productivity is not better, but self-under-employment is the answer to the mystery.”