Whatever the analyses, I'll never understand the efforts, taxpayers money & substantial pain to come to make the disunited or broken apart UK, face so many more difficulties in trading with its neighbours; even within its own territory & to be so much poorer & less secure
with fewer rights for Brits in their own country & across the EU/EEA.
And that there is not a lot more official opposition/media attention & anger about it
.
Even more so when I read the following from 2010 by the "Taxpayers Alliance"
@CandidePeel @bakerstherald Thanks for bringing this to my attention when the MSM - for whatever reason - is so noticably reticent to expose these would be quickly evolving (sounds better/less sinister) "freeports"
From 2010
"As long as anyone can remember, Britain's old industrial heartlands have been a disaster area. Once they'd lost their traditional industries like steel and shipbuilding, something very bad happened to them - they seemed to lose the will to live. And as we've blogged
many times (eg here), despite decades of political promises and billions of tax-funded support, they have never managed to leave the high dependency unit. For example, when last sighted - in 2007-08 at the height of the biggest economic boom the world has ever seen -
around 55% of the North East's GDP comprised government spending. It will be even higher post-Crash Now George Osborne has joined the long succession of politicos who want to do something. Among other things he wants to connect up our failing cities to a high speed rail network
and superfast broadband.
Sounds kind of sensible - if very expensive - but given the record, why should we believe that will be any more succesful than the motorways (and that famous White Elephant across the Humber) were back in the 60s and 70s? No, after more than
half a century of failure, it's time we started thinking much more radically.
One possiblity would be to *close the North*. This was pretty well what think-tank Policy Exchange suggested back in 2008 (see this blog). They advised we recognise reality, pull down the shutters on
basket cases like Liverpool, Hull, and Tyneside, and ship their populations down to the prosperous (pre-Crash) South. Needless to say, they were immediately condemned for urbanocide by all and sundry, including Mr Cameron. The good citizens of Guildford weren't too keen either
on account of needing to build 30,000 workers flats on Stoke Park.
Fortunately there is another more attractive option - one whose time has surely come.
Last week Policy Exchange hosted an interesting talk by the American economist Paul Romer:
Romer's proposal focuses on
helping the populations of developing countries through the establishment of brand new self-governing mega-cities located on the coast for easy access to the outside world and a ready supply of water. Like old-time Hong Kong and Singapore, these Charter Cities would be
dedicated to hard work and enterprise; tax and economic regulation would be minimal, with for example, no minimum wage and no social benefits. But crucially, the rule of law - both criminal and civil - would be paramount, and guaranteed by some strong third party from
the developed world outside (and if you're thinking that sounds awfully like the British Empire, so were we).
In truth, most of the audience seemed sceptical that this proposal could ever fly (for example, what's in it for the guarantors?). But what if
instead of establishing new Charter Cities on the coasts of developing countries we simply reconstituted some of our own dying coastal cities? Liverpool, Hull, and Tyneside would be good places to start. @angus_young61 @AnniHawk
Take Hull. Given its prime location facing Europe
we've long believed it has huge potential & yet it has failed dismally to exploit it. Suppose it became our own version of a Charter City - minimum wage and working hours regulations abolished, social benefits for working age citizens abolished (maybe a 5 year phased withdrawal)
central government economic and planning and regulations abolished, no more central government development assistance but a 10% flat rate income tax, 10% Corporation Tax rate, and no capital gains tax.
Public spending as a percentage of GDP would obviously fall sharply, and
those that depend on public spending would certainly feel the squeeze, although welfare recipients could be given the option of FUCK ME (my edit) **staying on benefit if they relocated outside the City** .But against that, Hull would attract entrepreneurs and private investment
on an unprecedented scale - and with its easy European access, much of the inflow would come from overseas. There would soon be jobs for all. Yes, yes, of course. We can't do it because of the 53rd EU Directive on not doing stuff. And there's also the question of human rights.
And anyway, we might end up with all kinds of Coketown beastliness, and children being sent down the mines. And... well... anything might happen... it's impossible to predict.
Yes, yes, we know all that. But have you ever been to Hull?
Do you honestly think faster trains
and better broadband are the answer?
FULL BLOG taxpayersalliance.com/charter_cities…
EU membership obstacle gone; just the ECHR to take care of..
I'm very much a cynic but not much of a conspiracy theorist...
BUT it's puzzled hell out of me these last 4.5 years why not more been done to recognise the automatic mammoth changes needed for life outside the CU & SM
It's like an internal battle has been raging between those that did & those that also did, but wanted to have UK in this entirely hopeless position it *is* for what's coming.
The greater the chaos, upheaval & shortages (blamed on the EU/French/unready businesses et al of course)
the quicker the "justification" to a desperate jobs losing public that is proven to be all too willing (in enough numbers) to listen to the spin & lies...
this time for more quickly implementing the new UK "saviour" "freeports"

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More from @vivamjm

28 Dec
Frightening how much the UK after nearly 50/30 years in the expanding customs union/single market respectively has no idea what it is letting itself in for....
Yep ...and don't lose a drumstick or throw away a used inner tube 🤣
Read 4 tweets
18 Dec
It makes me laugh ...all this flurry of activity over queues of lorries.
It does seem no matter how much the relevant experience warns and tries its damndest to explain it goes over the head of most reporting until they see with their own eyes.
Even when it leaked about '7000 truck queues' nobody really reacted as should have, because clearly they did not comprehend shoved up bumper to bumper this is approx *80 miles* long with until now *normal flows" .
These queues seen here are result of normal flow increased by 1.4?
(15,000 trucks p/day thru Dover)..
Outside the CU/SM/safety zone, 1.4 times normal flow would take 80 miles to..(do the maths)
Anybody not yet understanding why (without extended CU/SM transition) UK in big trouble
...even without the converged container shipping crisis/covid etc
Read 4 tweets
15 Dec
Whoops...Don't cross the fishermen

"...while EU states have an obligation under EU law to stop private citizens from interfering with the free movement of goods between member states, they have *no such obligation to stop individuals blocking imports from non-EU countries*"
UK Gov said last week the Navy will be able to arrest EU fishermen who illegally enter Britain’s waters in event of a no-deal Brexit. But Rogoff told the France Info radio station: “If we are deprived of our fishing grounds, we will not watch the British supply the French market.
Read 4 tweets
11 Dec
@RichardAENorth as always exposes majority (UK politicians &) MSM as being wholly complicit in this mess owing to their ignorance/bad misinformation

"Basically, what this amounts to is a declaration of intent by the EU that, if Johnson chooses the path of “no deal”,
then in all but a tiny number of areas the United Kingdom is to be left to stew in its own juice.
Yet still, as far as the media goes – so say nothing of our lacklustre politicians – the consequences of walking away without a deal still don’t seem to have sunk in,
typified by a headline in The Times which tells us: “EU threatens to ground British flights”.

This is classic, if moronic response which fails to understand that the purpose of leaving the EU is supposedly to rid ourselves of the grip of EU laws,
Read 15 tweets
10 Dec
TRAGIC..
"And so it came to pass that alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson travelled to Brussels to personally take charge of the Brexit trade deal negotiations. He alone could break the deadlock, put the dastardly Eurocrats in their place and snatch victory
from the jaws of defeat.
But alas, this was yet another occasion when reality had to spoil things: Bozo was as inept as ever, and he came away with nothing.
Headmaster and head of modern languages summon Bunter and his side-kick for a jolly good dressing down
There was no cavalry of German car manufacturers riding to the rescue, no picketing by prosecco producers, no French wine and cheese after party. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, and chief negotiator Michel Barnier were the ones who held firm;
Read 13 tweets
7 Dec
Forget UK exports in January ..*anywhere really*

"The Loadstar understands that the Ocean Alliance is drawing up plans to omit the Felixstowe call throughout January, with all UK cargo to be discharged at Zeebrugge and feedered back to “other less-congested ports”.
A source at one of the alliance member lines told The Loadstar today the decision needed the final agreement of other partners, but the only real hurdle was the lack of available feeder tonnage.
Meanwhile, ocean carriers are keeping their options open on how they serve the UK,
which is *bad news for UK exporters*.
Indeed, several carriers have, officially and unofficially, told UK shippers they would suspend acceptance of export bookings – the latest being MSC, which announced last week it would stop taking bookings “until further notice”.
Read 5 tweets

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