THAT'S NOT THE ACTUAL CHOICE:

While the methodology and conclusions of the project have been scrutinised - and criticised - in some detail, the biggest problem here is the idea that liberalism and security are mutually exclusive, or even antithetical.

Take policing, for example. One does not lose liberty by the government employing more police officers. The same is true of the security services, whose often unheralded work underpins our freedom to go about our daily business without fear of attack.

Equally, how are we to construe 'economic security'? A reasonable definition might be a decent regular wage combined with a good standard of living. And no system produces those outcomes - that security - better than liberal free market capitalism.

If you look at the Heritage Foundation's list of the world's freest economies, all enjoy high living standards, high average wages and low unemployment. That the UK comes in 7th on that list should be a source of pride and confidence, even with the current uncertainty over Brexit.

What the top countries also share, with the exception of the oil- rich United Arab Emirates, is an economic system based on the rule of law - a key component of prosperity and one which may yet hinder the world's rising power, China, from escaping the so-called Middle Income Trap.

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