But as the writer ought to know, the issue here isn’t the desperate young mum hiding a few groceries in the pram. Nor is it the schoolboy pilfering the occasional bag of sweets. Rather, the real problem is blatant, organised and sometimes violent theft of higher value items. Criminals who never previously thought they could get away with it increasingly now do — thus presenting a material threat to retail as we know it. 

But instead of addressing the issue head-on, the writer blames the victim: “Once goods were kept behind counters, but since the birth of large supermarkets they have been laid out near the door, ready for the taking.” How terribly irresponsible of them! On the other hand, perhaps the open display of goods isn’t just a convenience for customers, but instead the hallmark of a high trust society. 

In fact, modern shops are a minor miracle of civilisation: public spaces, stacked high with products from all over the world, that passing strangers may freely inspect and handle, but which aren’t looted by anyone who feels like it.

Surely, that’s something worth defending. But if you’d prefer to abandon retailers to their fate, then don’t moan when they do what it takes to survive. Some will close, of course, and others will move their operations online. Those who stay open will guard themselves and their stock behind plexiglass and electronic tags. And then there’s the hi-tech solution: the fully automated and completely cashless store, in which customers have to be authenticated to even get in. 

Remember that retail facilities like this already exist. One day, when they become the norm, we’ll remember what shops used to be like. Then, we’ll ask why no one stood up for them.

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Peter Franklin is Associate Editor of UnHerd. He was previously a policy advisor and speechwriter on environmental and social issues.

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On economics and international relations, the Wagenknecht formula is pretty much in line with the conventional Left. But on culture war issues, she stands apart — especially on immigration.

Wagenknecht understands that you can have generous welfarism or you can have open borders, but not both. Another thing she gets right is that you can’t challenge the neoliberal order without mobilising the working class — and that won’t happen if the Left prioritises bourgeois liberalism over patriotic solidarity. The big thing she gets wrong, however, is Russia. Vladimir Putin’s expansionist mafia state may be the enemy of Wagenknecht’s enemies, but that doesn’t mean he’s anyone’s friend. Putin must be defeated — or at least contained — and until the Western Left comes up with a better idea for achieving that than Nato, then it should avoid pontificating on foreign policy.

Fortunately for Wagenknecht, she’s not alone in her positions. There are various other Left-leaning but politically incorrect parties across Europe. To form an official group in the European Parliament, they’d collectively require 23 MEPs from seven different countries.

Is that feasible? Schminke thinks so, pointing to potential members such as Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s La France Insoumise and the Slovakian Smer party. The most intriguing suggestion is Italy’s Five Star Movement. Initially, this was a “big-tent” populist party. However, when it lost its Right-wing supporters to Matteo Salvini and then Giorgia Meloni, Five Star repositioned itself on the Left, while maintaining its anti-establishment stance.

How times change. Between 2014 and 2017, Five Star’s main partner in the European Parliament was none other than Nigel Farage (when he was leading Ukip). But ever since that marriage of convenience came to grief, the Italian populists have been politically homeless. A new alliance with Wagenknecht’s party could bring them out of the cold.

For the EU establishment, the threat is that many of the most unclubbable — and, some would say, unpleasant — political parties in Europe could join forces. Such a grouping would upset the traditional Left-to-Right organisation of the parliament, while introducing a wildcard to an institution which is all about careful stitch-ups. Above all, it would present the voting public with a genuinely new — and disruptive — direction in Europe.

Perhaps instead of a hemicycle, the parliament could be arranged in a circle — with the Wagenknecht group sitting between Left and Right, but in opposition to the liberal centre.

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Peter Franklin is Associate Editor of UnHerd. He was previously a policy advisor and speechwriter on environmental and social issues.

peterfranklin_

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