Foreword: November 2016—Patriot games in a global economy

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Put out more flags! That’s the mood of the moment. A new preoccupation with borders is palpable from Hungary, where a contrived plebiscite just notched up a 98 per cent vote against the European Union’s refugee quotas, to a rageful presidential election campaign trail in the United States, where Donald Trump’s distinct pitch is that America’s openness to the world is shortchanging its workers and firms. A new nationalism is evident across the British political spectrum too.

Labour’s Liverpool conference was defined…