Finlay Dargan 🔶

Entrepreneur & Campaigner #LibDems | Promoted by Finlay Dargan (Liberal Democrats) at 1 Vincent Square, London SW1P 2

[Finlay Dargan 🔶 @DarganFinlay]

@Bobby_Dean Thanks for all the work you do Bobby. Do you know if you or any of your colleagues have read the SMF paper on gambling taxation? I thought it was some fantastic work, is it something being considered during this process? https://t.co/1trYWL47WW

[Finlay Dargan 🔶 @DarganFinlay]

Representing outside Buckingham Palace for #SteelersWorldWide #Herewego

[Bassetlaw Liberal Democrats @BassetlawLibDem]

By-Election Surge! 🚨- Since the May 2025 local elections, the Liberal Democrats are leading the way in council by-elections across the country! 🌟

🔶 17 Wins — that's +6 seats gained, and more seats than any other party! 🥇 #votelibdem

[Sebastian Salek @sebastiansalek]

Yields hitting Truss levels does NOT mean the economy is crashing.

Anyone who says this doesn’t understand economics. I covered this stuff for years at Bloomberg.

Quick explainer that a child could understand: 🧵

[Hammersmith & Fulham Lib Dems 🔶 @HFLibDems]

Sunday 15 June! Join other @LibDems as well as party President @markpack at Gail's Bakery, 739 Fulham Rd SW6 5UL, 10.30-17.00 to canvass, for details contact #FulhamTown candidate @RoyPounsford

[Hammersmith & Fulham Lib Dems 🔶 @HFLibDems]

Local Campaigner @RoyPounsford selected as Lib Dem candidate for the #FulhamTown By-election

https://t.co/5SMOMjFbcF

[Finlay Dargan 🔶 @DarganFinlay]

Worried by the rise of Reform? Start working with the party that fought them most successfully last week. Join the Lib Dems today! https://t.co/PDNKo2rpMF

[Finlay Dargan 🔶 @DarganFinlay]

Happy Easter to all those celebrating it!

[Rory Stewart @RoryStewartUK]

Trump’s tariff schedule hits 190 countries in bewilderingly complex, yet consistently catastrophic ways. We are all struggling to process the scale and 3rd order impacts. But it’s by far the most damaging policy of his two presidencies.

🧵on early impact on different nations

[Spencer Hakimian @SpencerHakimian]

I have a 100% trade deficit with the lady that irons my suits.

She offers something way more efficiently and at a much better price than I can do myself.

And in exchange, I spend the time I would otherwise be wasting on pressing my suits offering financial services at 1,000x the hourly GDP rate as I paid her to afford me this time.

Am I getting ripped off by her?

Should I start steaming my own suits instead of offering financial services?

Would that make me better off?

Would I be richer because of it?

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

To illustrate just how nonsensically these tariffs were calculated, take the example of Lesotho, one of the poorest countries in Africa with just $2.4 billion in annual GDP, which is being struck with a 50% tariff rate under the Trump plan, the highest rate among all countries on the list.

Why? Does Lesotho apply extortionate tariffs on U.S. products and the U.S. is merely being "reciprocal" here? Not at all, despite what Trump is saying, it's NOT the way these tariffs are defined.

As a matter of fact Lesotho, as a member of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), applies the common external tariff structure established by this regional trade bloc.

Which means it applies the same tariffs on U.S. products as South Africa does, as well as the 3 other members of the bloc: Namibia, Eswatini and Botswana.

So since the tariffs charged by these 5 countries on U.S. products are exactly the same, they must all be struck with a 50% tariff rate by the U.S., right? Not at all: South Africa is getting 30%, Namibia 21%, Botswana 37% and Eswatini just 10%, the lowest rate possible among all countries.

So what gives? Again, the way these tariffs are calculated has absolutely zero relationship with actual tariffs imposed by these countries on U.S. products. Instead, they appear to be simply derived from trade deficit calculations.

Looking at Lesotho specifically, every year the U.S. imports approximately $236 million in goods from Lesotho (primarily diamonds, textiles and apparel) while exporting only about $7 million worth of goods to Lesotho (https://t.co/uHvem6nH2o).

Why do they export so little? Again this is an extremely poor country where 56.2% of the population lives with less than $3.65 a day (https://t.co/GEho8xFjAp), i.e. $1,300 a year. They simply can't afford U.S. products, no-one is going to buy an iPhone or a Tesla on that sort of income...

The way the tariffs are ACTUALLY calculated appears to be based on a simplistic and economically senseless formula: you take the trade deficit the U.S. has with a country, divide it by that country's exports to the U.S and declare this - falsely - "the tariff they charge on the U.S."

And then as Trump did in his speech last night, you magnanimously declare that you'll only "reciprocate" by charging half that "tariff" on them.

As such, for Lesotho, the calculation goes like this: ($236M - $7M)/$235M = 97%. That's the "tariff" Lesotho is deemed to charge this U.S. and half of that, i.e. roughly 50% is what the U.S. "reciprocates" with.

It's extremely easy to see why this makes no sense at all.

First of all, there's nothing Lesotho can do about it: they can't change tariffs they allegedly charge the U.S. to reduce the tariff rate the U.S. "reciprocates" with because, again, it's NOT based on any tariff that they charge.

Similarly they can't do much about reducing the trade deficit they have with the U.S. because, again, they simply don't have enough money to buy U.S. products.

Also the main rational Trump gave for the tariffs is to get production back to the U.S., to "bring manufacturing back". 47.3% of Lesotho's exports are diamonds: how do you bring the "manufacturing" of that "back to the U.S."? Anyone can see it makes just about zero sense.

The Lesotho example exposes the fundamental economic incoherence of these tariffs. Rather than addressing actual trade barriers, they punish countries based on trade deficits that arise from structural economic realities. All the more countries like Lesotho which pose zero competitive threat to American industry.

Worse yet, these tariffs will likely make these structural realities even worse: the U.S. is Lesotho's second most important export destination so it's a fair bet that applying 50% tariffs on their products will make people in Lesotho even poorer, and therefore even LESS able to afford U.S. products.

But perhaps the most unfair and detrimental aspect of all this is that these tariffs represent a complete reversal of longstanding U.S. development policy, and therefore a betrayal of countries - like Lesotho - who chose to follow U.S. advice in the past.

For decades the U.S. has used preferential trade access to encourage economic development in the world's poorest nations, recognizing that trade, not just aid, could get them out of poverty and ultimately put them in a position where they too could afford iPhones or Tesla.

They're now effectively penalizing countries for following previous U.S. policy, a lesson which I bet they won't forget anytime soon.

So all in all the irony is painful: in the name of fighting unfair trade, America has just demonstrated what truly unfair trade looks like.

This isn't something designed to address genuine trade issues, but simply a mechanism based on arbitrary math to punish countries for the affront of selling more to the United States than they buy.

[Helen Maguire BEM MP 🔶 @helenmaguiremp]

Kemi Badenoch's first instinct is to jump to JD Vance's defence, not our own brave service men & women.

The Conservatives are all over the place. Badenoch can't even agree with her own Shadow Defence Sec when it comes to Vance’s offensive denial of the UK’s military sacrifices.

[Finlay Dargan 🔶 @DarganFinlay]

A conservative friend proposed with the threatened US tariffs, affected countries should buy from each other and we should start looking at country of origin for our shopping. We live in very interesting times, always associated such moves with left wing activism

[Finlay Dargan 🔶 @DarganFinlay]

This is a massive insult to European Allies who supported US invasions, especially the likes of Iraq based on the lies of the US administration. This man has no shame. European soldiers died in US led conflicts he appears to not even know about.

[Antonello Guerrera @antoguerrera]

Bad news for Starmer and Macron. Vance confirms the only US security guarantee in Ukraine will be the mineral deal. He also plays down British & French peacekeeping troops as “20k troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years”.

[Finlay Dargan 🔶 @DarganFinlay]

A massive geopolitical event being drowned out at the moment, but the PKK standing down is a significant event. It will be interesting to see how this proceeds: https://t.co/98Zpl9BUib

[Finlay Dargan 🔶 @DarganFinlay]

@AyoubKhanMP @elonmusk I take it you aren’t familiar with the fact Churchill wore military dress when visiting in WW2? Wearing military when your nation is at war has precedence.

[Finlay Dargan 🔶 @DarganFinlay]

@SamyDumeix @nbouzou Si l’Europe investissait réellement dans son armée, la bataille ne serait pas équitable. Cependant, une grande partie des infrastructures actuelles dépendent des États-Unis et leur remplacement prendra du temps.

[Finlay Dargan 🔶 @DarganFinlay]

@SamyDumeix @nbouzou Le PIB de la Russie représente environ 10 % de celui de l'UE. La population russe représente environ 1/3 de celle de l'UE. L'Europe doit se réveiller car elle a parfois l'impression que l'état d'esprit des Européens est ce qui nous freine le plus.

[ALASTAIR CAMPBELL @campbellclaret]

Mafia boss in the Kremlin. Mafia boss in the White House … Europe has to stand up big time here. This is an epoch making moment. #StandWithZelensky

[John Kasich @JohnKasich]

Today’s Oval Office meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy was shameful. President Zelenskyy represents a nation whose citizens have sacrificed their lives and shed blood for the freedoms they cherish. He deserves respect, not humiliation.