SNP trade minister Ivan McKee evocatively called them a “shiny squirrel” while Nicola Sturgeon noted they were widely associated with “low-cost, low-wage, low-value opportunities”. Fortunately, the Scottish Government aren’t proposing “freeports” but “green ports”…
neoliberalism
For the final Source Direct of 2020, I am fulfilling a reader request and considering a dystopian project arising from the Brexiteer faction, the Free Ports scheme announced by the UK Treasury last year. What are Free Ports and what are their implications for Scotland?
Britannia Unchained, Caledonia Unleashed
“Sunak is arming the British state with a new language and ethos of economics and civic responsibility – fusing the state, the citizenry, and the ‘private’ economy.”
David Jamieson: Why Sunak’s ‘Economic Unionism’ means the independence movement must rearm
“Nobody is going to hand us this new world on a plate. We need to work hard if we are going to make it different this time. A deeper emerging rise in consciousness to realise our real power is a good start.”
Tiffany Kane: Making change happen requires that we know our own power
“Whether our future builds on rediscovered human and ecological values and community connections, as so many hope, will depend on what we do now – not after the pandemic is over, when it will be too late. We don’t want to go back to ‘their normal’, but the alternative might be a whole lot worse.”
Sarah Glynn: After the deluge
“Right now, some people are telling you ‘we’ might recover from this. They mean neoliberalism as is – and it can’t. The question is not will there be change, but what kind of change?”