The Firth of Forth Freeport 2023 – 50 x 50cm, acrylic on canvas
Private Corporate governance lies behind the sheen of Freeports and SEZs promises of growth, prosperity and innovation. Sunak’s 74 SEZs are libertarian experiments in right-wing monied governance, you are no longer citizens, you are customers. The obstacles of democracy are being removed. The libertarian goal is to starve public services and then ‘rescue’ them from the failures of Big Government albeit in privatised form. This tactic was developed in the 1950s by anarcho-capitalists like Murray Rothbard. ‘Exit’ strategies are sweeping the globe. ‘Exit’ policies exploit state failure and reorganise communities into new corporate hubs of competing entities where citizens are turned into customers and so-called council services are provided by multinationals. Your choice as a resident is to opt-in or opt-out via a contract. In Feb 2023, Michael Goves’ Levelling Up Act included a paragraph on Compulsory Purchase Orders on the Govt’s website, it states the legal right of the Govt to acquire land and homes that are owned by the public to further the pursuance of the Govt’s interests in economic growth. Gove’s Levelling Up Act states ‘the Govt recognises that it can be upsetting and stressful to discover that land which you own or occupy is to be compulsorily acquired’