It's corporate control

Charter Cities aim to strip local authorities' power

In the 1987 film, Robocop, centers on police officer Alex Murphy who is murdered by a gang of criminals and subsequently bought back to “life” by mega corporation Omni Consumer Products (OCP) as a cyborg cop, thus Robocop.

In the near-future, OCP takes control of policing a crime-ridden, crumbling Detroit. Seems like the Motor City gets kicked around more than the NFL Lions.

The corporate control of the police force is where Charter Cities come in. Former Tory Chancellor Rishi Sunak loves the Charter City concept.

So what Sunak wants is for cities to come under the control of a corporation, most likely one Sunak or his wife have shares in.

And by control, it’s complete control. The corporation will run every aspect of the city’s life. So let’s say the Liz Truss, another Charter City cheerleader decides Blackburn is a failing city - high unemployment, high crime and a poor football team. So to save Blackburn from itself, the government declare it a “Charter City,” and give the Charter to a massive corporation. We’ll call it Rishi’s Robbers Inc. (RRI) for simplicity.

The Charter basically turns Blackburn into a colony for RRI and what usually happens to colonies? They are exploited and all the money goes to the upper-level of the corporation.

RRI will set work rules, access to health care, health, safety and environmental regulations, taxation, customs and planning.

All of a sudden, Blackburn seems to turn back time and become a Mill Town, like it was in the 19th century. And not the 19th century of stately homes in England’s green and pleasant land of William Blake. It’s Blake’s alternate view of England with “Dark, Satanic Mills.”

Mills belching smoke, clattering looms and machines that would happily eat body parts if workers weren’t quick enough and children, yes, children, who didn’t have to go to school and could work for even less pay than the adults. And the adults were under-paid and overworked.

Work weeks were six 12 to 14 hour days all for the princely sum of 75 pence a week for adult mens. Women and children got less (35 p and 15 p.) According to the BBC. So mill owners often let workers go as they grew into adults.

There was no such thing as health and safety regulations in that era. And as corporate bosses and politicians like Jacob Rees-Mogg, who must have been a nasty mill owner in other life, say cutting regulations creates more jobs. Cutting plays a big role in this. Let’s say Jim Millhand slips and catches his arm in a machine. “There’d be a bit of trouble down to mill” as Jim saw his left arm up to his shoulder disappear into said mill. No trouble for mill owner, though. After all without any kind of safety regulations it must have been the big oaf’s fault that he’d be probably be begging in the street. On the upside, the lack of regulation created a new job at mill and there was the possibility owner could hire someone younger and pay him less, increasing his profit.

After all isn’t that the most important thing of all — profit!

So what does. a Charter City look like. Imagine unrestrained capitalism behind the wheel of 16-cylinder 1000 bhp engine with little or not stopping power. Lots of people will get crushed by it - people, the environment and the future are all likely to take big hits.

There are organisations which love the concept. The Charter Cities Institute tells people: “Charter cities can help improve governance in a limited geographic area by giving local officials authority to implement best legal and administrative practices and commercial regulations. This can help create a competitive business environment that attracts investment and accelerates economic growth in developing countries to help them achieve prosperity faster than ever before.” You can find that on its website Charter Cities.

Of course best practices and regulations means whatever we can do to maximise profit at any cost.

The UK Taxpayers Alliance likes the idea. Of course, that’s an organization with a misleading name. Really, it should be Tax avoidance alliance. Not surprisingly this gang looks to the North of England as a place to institute this. You know, Liverpool, Hull and Tyneside. Charter Cities are beloved by American radical free-market think-tanks like the ones Charles Koch helps fund. Koch is so right-wing, he thought Richard Nixon was a socialist.

Like Margaret Thatcher’s happy place, this how the far right envisions a Charter City.

Minimum wage and working hours regulations abolished, social benefits for working age citizens abolished (maybe a 5 year phased withdrawal), central government economic and planning and regulations abolished, no more central government development assistance but a 10% flat rate income tax, 10% Corporation Tax rate, and no capital gains tax.

Low tax rates, that doesn’t sound like the Taxpayers’ alliance, more like the Tax Avoiders.

No workers rights, regulations abolished, hey the European Union wouldn’t like that.

And you thought Brexit was going to be the way to make Britain Great. You silly sod, rich men fooled you again. The only thing people like Arron Banks, Jeremy Hosking and Crispin Odey wanted is to stop the EU telling them to do things like treating employees well and paying their taxes. However, this group and a number of others believe they were special because they made too much money to pay taxes.

Crispin Odey, he sounds familiar. right. Well, he used to be the boss of current Chancellor (at least as of 5 pm, Tuesday) Kwasi Kwarteng. And Odey made out like a bandit by shorting the pound against the dollar before Kwarteng’s mini-budget was announced. In fact, Odey’s profits increased by 25 percent after Kwarteng’s speech. Then as the pound crashed to near-parity with the dollar, Odey had the audacity to blame it on “retainers.”

In conclusion, unless your are one of the very wealthy, about 1 to 2 percent of the population, not only do the Tories look down their noses at you, they don’t care what happens to you as long the money keeps flowing into their bank account.

You have been warned, the Tories aren’t patriotic! They want a nation with no regulations, low wages and even lower taxes. If you don’t have half-a-dozen residences, yachts, private planes, etc., don’t vote Tory! Ever!