knowgum

When Tories say 'Freeport', people imagine the dockside area. Wrong.

The zones are 75km wide.
They cover schools, hospitals, towns, National Parks & lots of housing.

#Freeports are destined to become #CharterCities & to be controlled for profit by a Tory crony.

You have no say

Mar 16, 2024 at 9:55pmTusky
Show threadJames 🦉 #FBPE Mar 16, 2024
@UKnoGum If they get voted out, will this meth crazed libertarian binfire of a fantasy die with them, or are Labour up for this crap too now?
Show threadknowgumMar 16, 2024

@freequaybuoy
Good question. The answer is, a few Labour MPs seem to have seen the greedy & succumbed...

In addition, Tories have sabotaged the contracts to make them so expensive to cancel that if Labour tried, it'd bankrupt the country & it still wouldn't stop these Tory atrocities.

Like an infestation of knotweed, these contracts can't be removed without vast expense & huge effort...

& as soon as Tories are reelected, they'll extend the contracts & we'll all be back where we are now.

Show threadJames 🦉 #FBPE Mar 16, 2024
@UKnoGum So wait, this is going ahead and there's no real way to stop it?!
Show threadknowgumMar 16, 2024

@freequaybuoy
You got it in one.

The links between those complicit in the #Freeports/ #CharterCities con are subtle. Here are the clues:

Tory media is owned by right-wing billionaires.

Tories are in hock to right-wing billionaires.

Contracts will be awarded to right-wing billionaires.

Taxes aren't paid by right-wing billionaires.

There's been a huge increase in the number of right-wing billionaires.

Tory politics is awash with lobbiests for right-wing billionaires.
#NeverVoteConservative

Show threadJames 🦉 #FBPE Mar 16, 2024
@UKnoGum What we need is a leader who doesn't give a fuck about billionaires and conglomerates in the same way they don't give a fuck about us.
Show threadknowgumMar 16, 2024

@freequaybuoy
Here, here.

Alternatively, a billionaire with a conscience (pretty rare, I know) who can withstand right-wing attempts to bankrupt/destroy them.

Failing that, a population who stops swallowing Tory lies & tells them to f*** o** & never return.

Or... maybe a law that is actually applied to the wealthy to prosecute them for 14 years of accumulated corruption, negligence & deaths.

I'm sure millions of us would contribute to build a prison to hold them.
#NeverVoteConservative

Show threadSteven HeywoodMar 16, 2024
@UKnoGum @freequaybuoy
It's a scaled-up version of the tried and trusted methodology used with the Enterprise Zones in the eighties and nineties which is how Peel Holdings got feudal lordship over large parts of the Northwest.
Show threadbeemohMar 16, 2024
@freequaybuoy @UKnoGum the only criticism Labour have given of the Freeports is that the Teesside one may have been awarded in a corrupt fashion. There have been Councillors campaign with flyers saying they'd get an Investment Zone in that area.
Show threadknowgumMar 16, 2024
@beemoh @freequaybuoy
Tories set a trap...
Tories cut council funding.
Tories gave councils more obligations.
Tories gave business taxes to councils.
Tories screwed the economy.
Businesses failed or went online.
Business tax income fell.
Local costs increased.
Councils faced bankruptcy.
Councils needed the money.
Tories said Mayors were the answer.
Combined mayors was the next answer.
Councils are going bankrupt.
Now, Tories say it's #Feeports & SEZs
...& the Tory trap was sprung.
Show threadgastarbajtericaMar 17, 2024

@UKnoGum

Have you read "Crack-up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy" by Quinn Slobodian? A sobering read.

The Guardian review of the book:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/mar/30/crack-up-capitalism-by-quinn-slobodian-review-zoning-out

Interview with the author: https://podcast.dissenspodcast.de/241-neoliberalism

Crack-Up Capitalism by Quinn Slobodian review – zoning out

How the special economic areas championed by rightwing radicals undermine democracy

The Guardian
Show threadknowgumMar 17, 2024
@gastarbajterica
Not yet.