THANKS to Donald Trump, tariffs have been big news for the past couple of weeks. They’re clearly very important, but have you gained any understanding about how they work yet?

Martin Bishop, barber: “No, haven’t got a clue. But I’ve seen an awful lot of graphs which look like cliff edges on the news, and that’s rarely a good thing, is it?”

Helen Archer, teacher: “Are tariffs going to mean I can pop to Tesco for a few bits and it will cost less than £25? Are they going to mean my mortgage is cheaper? Because if not, I’m not bloody interested.”

Josh Hudson, IT consultant: “They appear to mean Trump is screwing his own country by imposing higher costs on consumers. Which would be really funny, if it only applied to the MAGA loons who voted for him.”

Bill McKay, retired: “Of course I understand them. Well, not the complicated maths bit, but ultimately they mean Trump is going to boost the American economy by repelling woke. He’s taking back control, just like we did with Brexit. And that’s going very well indeed.”

Nikki Hollis, economist: “In the ways they are normally applied, yes, I understand them fully. In the ways Donald Trump is applying them, no, it’s all batshit f**king mental and makes zero sense.”