Thread by @EuropeanPowell

What do the Tories mean by their championing of ‘Singapore-On-Thames’ post-Brexit freedoms bonanza? Thatcher kickstarted the turn away from Europe with her wish for ‘a kind of free-trade and non-interventionist Singapore’.

Singapore and Hong Kong are indicators of economic governance where the short-circuiting of democracy was the key to their successes. Singapore’s troubling working classes were bypassed in favour of bringing in foreign workers who could be hired, fired, and then deported.

The state shaped Singapore’s success, not the free market, it set up massive land reclamation projects around its coasts using sovereign wealth funds and ‘plugged in’ to multinational corporations. Singapore avoided years of development by bringing in tech and a foreign workforce

Singapore’s risible commitments to democracy are multiparty but the same Govt has been in power for its entire existence. There are no freedoms of protest, opposition politicians were bankrupted into silence, imprisoned or exiled.

The press are on a very tight reign, having to regularly renew their licenses or be put out of business. The Economist Intelligence Unit rated Singapore a "flawed democracy" in 2022.

Out of 136 countries considered, Singapore currently ranks the 26th most income disparate. This makes them the 2nd most income-unequal country in Asia. Singapore like Hong Kong's economy was built on opium where Freeports with no duties bolstered the arms and drugs trade.

'Discipline over democracy' gave rise to the occupation of Tianamen Square by students demanding political freedoms to match economic freedoms. Lee Kuan Yew said 'Growth must come before sharing, let some people get rich first'. Remind you of the Tories 'growth and prosperity BS?

Thatcher was a huge fan of Confucian capitalism and as her Euroscepticism grew, she was quick to compare the 'moribund EU' with the free enterprise successes of Singapore and China though kept quiet on their lack of democracy to achieve this.

Victorian principles of self-help and toil were embraced by the Singapore Govt, citizens had compulsory personal savings to cover for health care, retirement and real estate purchases. The Govt offloaded social care onto families.

Truss praised Singaporeans for working 2 1/2 hours longer than Brits. As the 2016 referendum neared Tories/UKIP sang the praises of Singapore-On-Thames by citing deregulation, low taxes, though being quiet on the erosion of workers rights, offshore tax havens, freeports and SEZ's

'Singapore-on-steroids' was used by Brexiters as a positive, Johnson announced 'Singapore style Freeports' where sections of the country would be cordoned off from labour laws and taxes to act as magnets for foreign investment. But 'Go go WTO' brought fresh restrictions.

Isaiah Berlin distinguished between negative and positive freedom, the error of free market Brexit radicals was to think of Singapore in terms of negative freedoms. Britain is in limbo between 2 versions of Singapore, freeports and meticulous planning.

Dominic Cummings praised Singapore for its central control, meritocratic civil service, harsh law and order system and economic governance which is actually anti-governance where citizens can vote but have no say in decision making. Unbounded corporatism as a totalitarian model.

Just as Sunak's Freeports and investment zones are churning up and selling off public land worth hundreds of millions at £1 per acre to unscrupulous venture capitalists, dredging of coastal regions is also killing ecosystems that already have to cope with excessive sewage dumping

The history of Freeports came under massive critique from Paul Krugman said the Singapore model was no more efficient or productive than others as it was inputting resources and fanning the flames of exploitation of foreign workers and raw materials.

Special dorms were constructed to exclude workers from social housing, they were and still are segregated from city life. Manual workers in Singapore are shuttled in and out of the investment zones to the enclave of Little India for shopping and recreation. Tories love this idea.

2010s, Singapore was steeped in immigration politics. UK Leave Campaign began with 'Go Global' changing tack to 'Take back Control' which proves that like Singapore the UK can not solve its problems of an aging population and be critical of immigrants taking jobs, that is cakeism

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