The government has announced that there will be no new freeports after a Labour comms cock-up – but the plan is still to expand this terrible idea.
Freeports like that at Humber [visualisation pictured] are areas near shipping ports or airports where imported goods are free from tariffs. They are deemed not to be part of the UK for the purposes of customs payments – meaning that the government has had to create new internal borders around these places, for goods coming into or going out of the rest of the UK.
How well has an internal border worked between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK? It hasn’t. It has been hugely controversial and problematic – so it makes absolutely no sense to have introduced 12 more of them (so far).
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
An announcement last week that five more freeports were being created has been withdrawn – thank goodness! – but only to be replaced with one about funding and other plans to help some of the currently-designated freeports to become “operational”.
It seems the comms cock-up was due to miscommunication between the freeport operators and the many customs areas they create. Expect much more of the same in the future.
So now the chancellor is set to confirm five new customs sites within existing freeports, rather than new freeports.
The aim of freeports is to boost economic activity like trade, investment and job creation, and businesses operating in them get certain tax breaks, which include reliefs on property and hiring new workers.
But critics say they simply move economic activity or jobs from one part of the country to another, rather than creating new opportunities or roles.
Not only that, but relaxed regulations mean workers there will be hugely disadvantaged – and they also encourage crime.
Richard Murphy of Funding the Future is an enthusiastic critic of the plan, which he says has already been tried in the past, when it failed abysmally. Here are his criticisms:
Let’s have some more on this:
So it seems freeports are about putting working people down and building up the wealth of the super-rich by giving them tax havens, here in Great Britain – at a time when government needs to be taking back wealth and assets from the privateers, rather than helping them to grab more of it.
Why is Keir Starmer – supposedly a Labour Party prime minister – aiding and abetting this experiment in lawlessness and greed?
Draw your own conclusions.
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No new freeports after a Labour comms cock-up
The government has announced that there will be no new freeports after a Labour comms cock-up – but the plan is still to expand this terrible idea.
Freeports like that at Humber [visualisation pictured] are areas near shipping ports or airports where imported goods are free from tariffs. They are deemed not to be part of the UK for the purposes of customs payments – meaning that the government has had to create new internal borders around these places, for goods coming into or going out of the rest of the UK.
How well has an internal border worked between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK? It hasn’t. It has been hugely controversial and problematic – so it makes absolutely no sense to have introduced 12 more of them (so far).
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
An announcement last week that five more freeports were being created has been withdrawn – thank goodness! – but only to be replaced with one about funding and other plans to help some of the currently-designated freeports to become “operational”.
It seems the comms cock-up was due to miscommunication between the freeport operators and the many customs areas they create. Expect much more of the same in the future.
So now the chancellor is set to confirm five new customs sites within existing freeports, rather than new freeports.
The aim of freeports is to boost economic activity like trade, investment and job creation, and businesses operating in them get certain tax breaks, which include reliefs on property and hiring new workers.
But critics say they simply move economic activity or jobs from one part of the country to another, rather than creating new opportunities or roles.
Not only that, but relaxed regulations mean workers there will be hugely disadvantaged – and they also encourage crime.
Richard Murphy of Funding the Future is an enthusiastic critic of the plan, which he says has already been tried in the past, when it failed abysmally. Here are his criticisms:
Let’s have some more on this:
So it seems freeports are about putting working people down and building up the wealth of the super-rich by giving them tax havens, here in Great Britain – at a time when government needs to be taking back wealth and assets from the privateers, rather than helping them to grab more of it.
Why is Keir Starmer – supposedly a Labour Party prime minister – aiding and abetting this experiment in lawlessness and greed?
Draw your own conclusions.
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Join the uPopulus group at https://upopulus.com/groups/vox-political/
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
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