SEZs are all about carving up country’s into patchworks of corporate sovereignties.
There are 74 SEZs and 12 Freeports being installed across the UK
EUROPEAN POWELL
Rishi Sunak’s mentor at Stanford University was Prof. Paul Romer, a right-wing libertarian who advocated for free cities, and special economic zones as ‘neocolonial solutions’ to dismantle and replace the concept of ‘democratic governance’ of nation-states with ‘corporate governance’.
Below is an excerpt from a talk Romer had with the right-wing think tank Taxpayers Alliance Ltd (The group has been accused of hypocrisy and possible illegality after it was revealed that it had been claiming tax relief on donations received from wealthy backers, which were intended for the purposes of political research).
The charitable arm of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, the Politics and Economics Research Trust, is under investigation by regulators following allegations that the group may have used the trust to gain tax relief for donations intended to fund political research TPA are part of the ATLAS network, who are a think tank that creates think tanks. ATLAS was set up in 1981 by Antony Fisher who previously founded the IEA in 1955 on the advice of right-wing economist Friedrich Hayek, IEA is a charity.
Starmer’s changed Labour Party has implemented Sunak and Truss’s SEZs/Freeports experiment in corporate governance, they signed off on the 86 free zones as board members of the Tories’ nationwide SEZs/Freeports consortia. This is under the guise of ‘economic growth’ coupled with being tough on public services and the benefits system.
Andy Burnham signed off on the Manchester SEZ.
Steve Rotheram signed off on the Liverpool SEZ and Freeport.
Former FM Mark Drakeford signed off on 8 SEZs and 2 Freeports for Wales.
The SNP are also involved, Kate Forbes signed off on 18 SEZs and 2 Freeports for Scotland.
It is absolutely clear to me from the anti-SEZs/Freeports meetings I’ve spoken at across the UK, that the public were not consulted on the malign impacts deregulated SEZs will unleash on local communities along with every aspect of the public sector, including scores of councils and public services that are undergoing engineered insolvency.
Private equity, fossil fuel companies, Palantir, and shadow banks like Blackrock are queuing up to take State aid subsidies from an £11 billion 840 million pot which will facilitate the privatisation of the UK. The British public are paying for the demise of their communities, local residents reduced to being spectators of their own fate, while councils are merged into mega-councils run by CEO style hybrid Mayors.
Do you think company towns are a thing of the past? They have been rebranded as SEZs and charter cities, resurrected due to Brexit. The Leave Campaign and libertarians alike took exception to the EU’s regulatory orbit, rules on the distribution of State aid, and higher taxes on corporations forcing them to pay their way. Our main political parties fully backed the corporate coup which I call Zone Fever.
This article (SEZs are all about carving up country’s into patchworks of corporate sovereignties.) was created and published by EuropeanPowell and is republished here under “Fair Use”
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RELATED
UK local councils dismantled to pave way for mega-councils
EUROPEANPOWELL
Mega-councils incoming, run by CEO hybrid Metro Mayors, installing the right-wing US corporate political model. Mandelson/McSweeney elbowed out local councillors for ones with ‘corporate expertise’ during 2024 GE. The dismantling of local councils will repeat across the country.
Wait til Sunak and Starmer’s 86 deregulated free zones are operational, corporate tax breaks for 10 years, licenses for 25 years, bidding process took place between 2021 and 2022, Labour signed off on these free zones with Sunak.
Andy Burnham signed off on the Manchester SEZ, Steve Rotheram signed off on the Liverpool SEZ and Freeport, and former FM Mark Drakeford signed off on 8 SEZs and 2 freeports in Wales (Shanker Singham also present at signing, Singham is considered the brains behind Brexit, he developed the deregulatory framework for SEZs at US Babson Global.
ISDS-type clauses embedded in UK free zones contracts, DP World, PEEL Group, Blackrock, Chevron, etc will privatise all public services, and asset-strip bankrupted councils.
The neoliberal duopoly has sold British sovereignty to foreign capital, which can bypass the UK’s domestic courts should arbitration cases come up, meaning foreign corporations can sue the UK Govt for billions, see Honduras/Pronomos scandal of an SEZ funded by Peter Thiel, who also has his hands on the NHS with his spytech company Palantir.
US-style ‘free cities’ will come next to Britain, deregulated SEZs and Freeports are the stepping stones, the goal of oligarchs and anarcho-capitalists alike is ‘countrypreneurship’, the privatisation of nations.
All of the UK’s 74 SEZs receive WTO State aid of £160 million per SEZ = £11 billion 840 million; this is public money going to corporations.
48 SEZs and 8 Freeports in England.
18 SEZs and 2 freeports in Scotland.
8 SEZs and 2 Freeports in Wales.
SEZs are tax havens, corporate playgrounds, rife with criminality such as fraud, bungs to mates, plus unbalanced distribution of profits going to the private sector, see Teesside SEZ/Freeport.
Lastky UK SEZs contravene EU laws and regulations on the distribution of State aid which prohibits Govts of member states from using public money solely for profits at the expense of local infrastructure.
This article (UK local councils dismantled to pave way for mega-councils) was created and published by EuropeanPowell and is republished here under “Fair Use”
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