Challenges and opportunities

The scenarios outlined in these essays pose problems, ideological and practical, for politicians of both the left and the right.

But equally, for those with views on both ends of the political spectrum and all points in between, there are opportunities to see their ideas put into practice.

At any given moment, part of the policy agenda for any mainstream viewpoint will be implemented somewhere for someone. Administration is no longer about a binary choice of one set of policies or another.

For those on the right, the biggest challenge may be the threat posed to the traditional sovereignty of the nation state.

The advantages, however, are the opposite side of that coin; the end of a state control and 'interference' in the lives of citizens and businesses. The reformed, individualised state can be welcomed, even as the importance of the parties which have campaigned for it fades away.

For the left, the challenges are just as large. New thought would need to be given to how to sell redistributive policies to those who might opt out of them as far as possible, given that such options could no longer be imposed without widespread consent.

But the overarching vision is one of a more united humanity freed from the artificial divisions of lines drawn on maps. Such an internationalist vision should appeal to the left.