Free-Market Politics Must Be Rebuilt From First Principles
Daniel Hannan, the new director of the Institute of Economic Affairs, argues that Britain’s problem is not just bad policy but a lost understanding of the case for markets, trade and limited government. In a Hoover Institution conversation with Andrew Roberts, Hannan says free-market ideas must be rebuilt from first principles, especially among younger voters, because their core claims are counter-intuitive and no longer carried by political habit. His wider case links economic illiteracy to protectionism, legal and bureaucratic overreach, culture-war imports and a politics that denies scarcity and trade-offs.
Hoover Institution·May 8, 2026·22 min read
