I don't know whether this is a British tendency towards "bothsidesism" but platforming this random person is really beneath the dignity of the Economist. It also leaves out this person's background, and his ties to the British Conservative Party. He is not a neutral "campaigner".
It also tries to suggest he is some sort of "expert". Yet, it seems that anyone can become an "expert" simply by turning up one day and saying whatever nonsense that it is that the Tory Party agrees with. There seems to be no requirements (not even a want for some veneer of expertise) for it. He makes a number of assertions, and which are almost certainly false, if not certainly so.
Indeed, this person likes to act as an internet troll, to make delusional and nonsensical rants, and here, he makes a myriad of silly excuses for totalitarianism, using the "won't anyone please think of the children?" cliché, making bare-faced lies, and working hard to downplay the negative implications of his ideology.
He also assumes that every negative externality of his ideology don't exist. The only problem is that they do.
At least call him for what he really is, a "campaigner" with ties to the British Conservative Party. That said, even as a campaigner, he seems practically irrelevant.
