Slow growth and immigration fuelled the forces that led to Brexit

SOME 90 years ago, in an essay entitled "The end of laissez-faire", English economist John Maynard Keynes presciently wrote that there are limits to the doctrine of laissez-faire - economic liberalism, free trade, and the idea that there should be as little government regulation as possible.

He singled out three problems: self-interested individuals aggravating the inequalities of capitalism; savings being distributed towards unproductive forms of investment; and population issues. "The time has already come when each country needs a considered national policy about what size of population…