It’s the nineteenth century here 2024 – 10 x 12 x 13,5cm, acrylic paint, canvas, plaster
In 2021 Birmingham was designated as a deregulated Special Economic Zone (SEZ), one of 74 currently being installed beneath the radar of the MSM with no mandate to do so. Birmingham City council was issued with an S114 notice which is technically bankruptcy. SEZs have their own laws and regulations for businesses separate from the host country. The UK Govt’s experiment in privatising huge swathes of territories contravenes EU laws on the allocation of State Aid (public money) to companies chosen by the Govt, each SEZ receives £160 million in taxpayer funded subsidies, UK SEZs can now, as planned by Shanker Singham (the brains behind Brexit) distort markets and create an unlevel playing field which sabotages rejoining the EU for the next quarter of a century, (the duration of the licenses on all free zones).
The UK has 12 Freeports and 74 SEZs, these are neoliberal experiments in corporate governance where entire regions are being carved out as extra-territorial jurisdictions primed for the asset-classes to swoop in and ’emergency manage and rescue regions that have failed because of democracy’, courtesy of Michael Gove, who updated his ‘Levelling Up bill in 2023 to include a section on Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) which apply to business, agricultural and residential properties. All of this made possible by Brexit.