Well Rosie do some research in to what happens to countries under

Comment on Reasons to Vote British National Party by VoteNo ToBNP.

Well Rosie do some research in to what happens to countries under a Protectionist Economy and you’ll see that unemployment rises out of all proportion, taxes rise, income and export/import etc.

History shows Protectionism doesn’t work and causes far more damage that it solves.

“Protectionism is frequently criticized as harming the people it is meant to help. Nearly all mainstream economists instead support free trade.[1][4] Economic theory, under the principle of comparative advantage, shows that the gains from free trade outweigh any losses as free trade creates more jobs than it destroys because it allows countries to specialize in the production of goods and services in which they have a comparative advantage.[12] Protectionism results in deadweight loss; this loss to overall welfare gives no-one any benefit, unlike in a free market, where there is no such total loss. According to economist Stephen P. Magee, the benefits of free trade outweigh the losses by as much as 100 to 1.[13]

Most economists, including Nobel prize winners Milton Friedman and Paul Krugman, believe that free trade helps workers in developing countries, even though they are not subject to the stringent health and labour standards of developed countries. This is because “the growth of manufacturing — and of the myriad of other jobs that the new export sector creates — has a ripple effect throughout the economy” that creates competition among producers, lifting wages and living conditions.[14] Economists have suggested that those who support protectionism ostensibly to further the interests of third world workers are in fact being disingenuous, seeking only to protect jobs in developed countries.[15] Additionally, workers in the third world only accept jobs if they are the best on offer, as all mutually consensual exchanges must be of benefit to both sides, else they wouldn’t be entered into freely. That they accept low-paying jobs from first world companies shows that their other employment prospects are worse.

Alan Greenspan, former chair of the American Federal Reserve, has criticized protectionist proposals as leading “to an atrophy of our competitive ability. … If the protectionist route is followed, newer, more efficient industries will have less scope to expand, and overall output and economic welfare will suffer.”[16]

Protectionism has also been accused of being one of the major causes of war. Proponents of this theory point to the constant warfare in the 17th and 18th centuries among European countries whose governments were predominantly mercantilist and protectionist, the American Revolution, which came about primarily due to British tariffs and taxes, as well as the protective policies preceding both World War I and World War II. According to Frederic Bastiat, “When goods cannot cross borders, armies will.”