It is a matter of economic fact that, when Vladimir Putin says that liberalism is obsolete, he is talking the most tremendous tripe. Liberalism is alive. It is well. It is delivering prosperity on a scale unimaginable to previous generations.

That is because a society that is free and inclusive and open will – on the whole – be the best place to start a business. It will be the safest place to invest. It will be the best place to start a family. It will be the best place to live. And there could be no better example of the triumph of liberal values, of course, than Britain today.

There are all sorts of reasons why London and the South East are the most productive regions of the whole of Europe. There is the time zone. There is the language. There are the historic agglomerations of talent in the arts, culture, business and financial services. But there is something even more important; and that is the British sense of freedom to live your life as you choose – provided you do no harm to others – without the fear of persecution, or judgment, or discrimination.

Those liberal values have come to define not just the metropolis, but the whole of the UK; and it has been fascinating to observe, over the last couple of decades, as the other great cities have come to emulate and even to surpass the spirit of the capital: youthful, diverse, energetic, tech-savvy, open-minded.

The economic blessings of that modern British culture are obvious. We lead the world in cutting-edge technologies of all kinds – from bioscience to batteries. We have the world’s greatest universities, with an unrivalled record in producing original research – and never forget that one in seven of the world’s kings, queens, presidents and prime ministers were educated in this country, to say nothing of the Emperor of Japan. Read more

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