'Charter cities'

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps

Can anyone who knows about this idea fill me in on some of the details? Because from my slender understanding, they sound unequivocally like something very, very bad indeed, something that every party other than the Tories ought to be screaming about from the rooftops.
 
Last edited:

Clinamenic

Binary & Tweed
So a free market approach to civic planning? IE a competitive market/patchwork of private civic planners?
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
So a free market approach to civic planning? IE a competitive market/patchwork of private civic planners?
It strikes me that the introduction of private capital to run everything is only half the story - the other half being of course the withering away of the public state (and with it any form of legal protection for the private individual against the ruling corporation) to, ideally, nothing at all.
 

Clinamenic

Binary & Tweed
I admit the idea entices me, but I do also acknowledge the veritable attractor toward private interests against those of the public, IE where free market arrangements seem to almost inevitably lead.

In trying to imagine a possible evolution of the current US legislative branch, I've arrived upon this notion of a pluralistic legislative matrix, a programmatic and grassroots manner of shifting real political power into parochial loci of citizenry, where the bureaucracy can partially be outsourced to open source code.

Still a half-baked idea, but what is the mind if not an incubator for ideas?
 

wild greens

Well-known member
I saw Wirral Waters described as one on twitter today, which is not factual in the slightest; so i would maybe take it with a pinch of salt
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I saw Wirral Waters described as one on twitter today, which is not factual in the slightest; so i would maybe take it with a pinch of salt
The ones I've read about are plans that haven't been put into practice yet, but could be soon - perhaps as soon as early next year.

I understand they're somewhat different from freeports (which possibly includes the Wirral one), but also that freeports may be a stepping stone to charter cities.
 

version

Well-known member
There's not much out there on this other than a few messy tweets and blog posts and a letter published by The National but there are plans for "Freeports, Freeport customs sites and Freeport tax sites," on gov.uk which seem to line up with what people are saying and it wouldn't at all surprise me if that's what the Tories had in mind.


Think someone may have posted about this in one of the crypto threads, but there was one set up in Honduras that didn't go too well.

 

version

Well-known member
There were plans for something similar in Nevada too.

Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak announced a plan to launch so-called Innovation Zones in Nevada to jumpstart the state’s economy by attracting technology firms, Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Wednesday.

The zones would permit companies with large areas of land to form governments carrying the same authority as counties, including the ability to impose taxes, form school districts and courts and provide government services.

 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
There's not much out there on this other than a few messy tweets and blog posts and a letter published by The National but there are plans for "Freeports, Freeport customs sites and Freeport tax sites," on gov.uk which seem to line up with what people are saying and it wouldn't at all surprise me if that's what the Tories had in mind.


Think someone may have posted about this in one of the crypto threads, but there was one set up in Honduras that didn't go too well.

Yeah, it mentions the one in Honduras in this Medium piece:

 

wild greens

Well-known member
Finally - a good left-wing conspiracy. A freeport is very different to a private ungoverned citadel full of refugee workers.

I have irrefutable proof to back this up 100% but i can't give you it. Follow the links to my unsourced blog.

What's the difference between these unevidenced twitter accounts and the ones you have spent a large amount of time arguing about in the covid thread? Genuine question
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Finally - a good left-wing conspiracy. A freeport is very different to a private ungoverned citadel full of refugee workers.

I have irrefutable proof to back this up 100% but i can't give you it. Follow the links to my unsourced blog.

What's the difference between these unevidenced twitter accounts and the ones you have spent a large amount of time arguing about in the covid thread? Genuine question
Did you read even as far as the second post?

 

wild greens

Well-known member
Yes

Can you explain to me where this details Freeports on UK ports becoming Charter cities full of refugee workers. As opposed to a link to a california firm and a lad on linkedin

Which is your inferrence and that of the thread
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
That would be the P&O that sacked a load of its UK-domiciled staff and replaced them with overseas workers on much less than minimum wage using a Brexit-enabled loophole.
 

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
Finally - a good left-wing conspiracy. A freeport is very different to a private ungoverned citadel full of refugee workers.

I have irrefutable proof to back this up 100% but i can't give you it. Follow the links to my unsourced blog.

What's the difference between these unevidenced twitter accounts and the ones you have spent a large amount of time arguing about in the covid thread? Genuine question

FBPEAnon
 

wild greens

Well-known member
Yes P&O are huge knobheads

But where does either of these links (refugee cities & linkedin) discuss interaction with P&O?
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Well here's another tweet on the same subject (charter cities/freeports generally, not specifically the P&O/DP World):


Part of the successful establishment of Prosperity Zones will be removing many of the distortive
effects of the “behind-the-border barriers” and regulatory distortions (Singham et al., 2016, p. 2) that can act as disincentives to trade and development. Addressing issues such as the procedural
burden to import and export within the core free trade zone have been identified as particularly important as have labour laws, the regulatory process and access to infrastructure (Singham et al., 2016, p. 12).

(As a side note, it beats the hell out of me why anyone would call any business other than a porn website 'DP World', but there you go.)
 

wild greens

Well-known member
DP World sponsor the golf, so you can get some quite well made "DP World Tour" hats if you want to

"here's a paper... which proves without ANY doubt"

Er not quite
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
"here's a paper... which proves without ANY doubt"

Er not quite
It doesn't strike you as at all worrying that the architects of this project, in their documentation, consider "labour laws, the regulatory process and access to infrastructure" to be undesirable "disincentives to trade and development"?

I mean, sure, maybe this is all nothing to worry about and these special deregulated zones set up by billionaires will turn out just fine. But it does seem to be an odd thing to want to give the benefit of the doubt over.
 
Top