Why Special Economic Zones are so Important for The Sovereign Individual

This post will examine the Tories and Labour's joint rollout of 12 Freeports and 74 Special Economic Zones (SEZs) while comparing it with the libertarian screed of the 1997 book by James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg, The Sovereign Individual - How to Survive and Thrive During the Collapse of the Welfare State.

Keir Starmer’s Labour government is gleefully hacking up Britain into corporate fiefdoms, accelerating a Tory-Reform UK plot that’s gutting our commons for profit.

The culprit? A transatlantic right-wing cabal, armed with the 1997 libertarian manifesto The Sovereign Individual by James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg, which champions “exit strategies” via deregulated free zones, Special Economic Zones (SEZs), to escape nation-state control. With 86 free zones (74 SEZs, 12 Freeports) costing taxpayers £19.78 billion as of 2024, including projected costs of £64 billion over the next 25 years, and Starmer’s AI Growth Zones (AIGZs) now in a frenzied bidding war since February 2025. This techno-feudal dystopia is wiring the UK into a U.S. vassal state.

From Teesside’s corruption scandals to Dartmoor’s lithium grabs, the nation-state is being dismantled, replaced by corporate sovereignties. Backed by Dark Enlightenment gurus and European libertarians, this is a coup that demands resistance before Britain’s commons are lost forever.

The Sovereign Individual’s Exit Strategy: Free Zones as Corporate Escape Hatches

The Sovereign Individual is the playbook for this corporate carve-up, predicting a tech-driven collapse of nation-states by 2020, replaced by a “marketplace of sovereignties” where elites flee to low-tax, deregulated free zones (p. 227, Chapter 7, “The End of Nations”). These SEZs, dubbed “enclaves of economic freedom,” enable jurisdictional competition, luring capital with minimal oversight (p. 308, Chapter 10, “The Microprocessing of Society”). “The capacity to move resources to jurisdictions with the lowest costs will create intense competition,” the authors crow that “The Information Revolution”), pointing to Hong Kong as a corporate political model to follow. Peter Thiel, who penned a 2020 preface, hails it as a primer for corporate sovereignty, with its vision seeping into U.S. Project 2025 and the UK’s desperate and capital-hungry free zone delirium.

The book’s exit strategy is a template for a simultaneous fusion of government partnerships with corporations, while handing over powers to over 700 lobbyists, reassuring companies that the Govt will take a secondary position: ditch taxes, labour laws, and democracy by relocating to SEZs tailored for profit. As nation-states atrophy, micro-jurisdictions multiply, empowering “sovereign individuals”, code for tech barons and crypto elites to sidestep accountability. But the book’s libertarian gloss ignores the fallout: communities crushed, public services defunded, and environments trashed. Its influence, amplified by Thiel, Curtis Yarvin, and Balaji Srinivasan’s The Network State, drives the UK’s 86 free zones and Starmer’s AIGZs, fusing analogue and digital enclaves into a techno-feudal trap.

Zone Fever: A £19.78 Billion Betrayal

Brexit’s anti-EU snub unleashed this disaster. Freed from EU state aid rules (TFEU Articles 107–109), which once curbed Thatcher’s Enterprise Zones, the UK rolled out 74 SEZs and 12 Freeports, promising 80,000 jobs. Tories Sunak and Truss ignited it, Reform UK cheered, and Labour, despite public criticism, quietly signed off behind closed doors, with zero MSM scrutiny. A 2024 House of Commons report exposes the lie: only 22,067 jobs by 2024, with 77–96% displaced (711,163 over 25 years). That’s £19.78 billion torched, £896,246 per job with £64 billion more pledged by 2048, hitting £936,693 per job. England’s £802,149, Scotland’s £1.2 million, Wales’ £1.2 million, taxpayers are fleeced while BlackRock grabs £22.8 billion across 3 British Freeports, Felixstowe, Harwich, and Thamesport which it now has 80% stakes in.

Mass Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) seize land for corporate gain: Cornwall’s 16 SEZs, Birmingham’s 6,000 threatened homes, Dartmoor’s lithium mining, and Plymouth’s Freeport siphoning water. Councils like Liverpool, Thurrock, Kent, and Hampshire issue Section 114 notices, flogging libraries, housing, and parks to cover debts. State aid £1.5 billion in tax breaks, £1 billion seed funding props up transatlantic giants, echoing The Sovereign Individual’s vision of nation-states dissolving into competing jurisdictions. This isn’t levelling up, it’s a kleptocratic grab, with corporations self-regulating, absorbing public assets, and defunding services.

Teesside Freeport: Corruption Central

Teesside Freeport, launched in 2021 on a 4,500-acre former steelworks, is the smoking gun. Private Eye revealed £560 million in taxpayer funds burned, with £200 million in Teesworks Ltd gifted to developers Chris Musgrave and Martin Corney, Houchen’s cronies, for £1 per acre. They pocketed £124 million in profits by 2023, a 90/10 split favouring the private sector over the public sector. Promised 18,000 jobs? Barely a fraction exists; this is an effect known as job displacement, where people move from one broken region to another seemingly better one. This does not equal new jobs, and is a consistent feature of free zones back to the days of Margaret Thatcher. Dredging killed marine life with chemical pollution, and a company tied to organised crime and drug trafficking operates unchecked, as Angela Rayner delayed a security audit in 2025. Rachel Reeves blocked an NAO probe days into office in 2024, shielding this cesspool from scrutiny.

AI Growth Zones: The Digital Guillotine

Starmer’s AI Growth Zones (AIGZs), launched in February 2025 with bidding now underway, are the digital layer of this techno-feudal nightmare, straight from The Sovereign Individual’s predictions. These zones, wired to The Network State’s token-led governance, weaponise “regulatory flexibility” to empower tech giants like Palantir, Microsoft, and Anduril Industries, backed by Thiel’s Founders Fund and Marc Andreessen’s company Andreessen Horowitz. Anduril’s militarised AI, from border drones to autonomous weapons, thrives in AIGZs’ lax oversight, erecting data centres that drown out public voices. Starmer’s refusal to join the EU’s AI Safety Summit in April 2025, alongside the U.S., confirms this deregulatory race-to-the-bottom.

AIGZs will balloon the £64 billion free zone tab, with Bitcoin’s 150 TWh energy use, matching Argentina’s, per a 2024 Cambridge study, and AI’s 200,000–250,000 gallons daily per data centre draining reservoirs like Oxford’s Farmoor, forcing a £1.5 billion Abingdon fix. Teesside’s blockchain trials could add 5–10 TWh, while Dartmoor’s lithium mining risks arsenic pollution. E-waste from AIGZs is projected at 100,000 tonnes by 2030, dumped in Freeports where NE Security Ltd’s criminal ties scream trouble. The U.S. GENIUS Act (May 2025, 66-32 Senate vote) lets Meta and Amazon mint “Meta Bucks” and “Amazon Coins,” guzzling 50 TWh and spewing 70–90 million tonnes of CO2 yearly, per Digiconomist 2025. This digital enclave disaster, championed by European libertarians like Patrick Schumacher and Chirag Shah, buries Britain’s commons under corporate code.

The Transatlantic Coup: Dark Enlightenment Meets European Right

This isn’t just Starmer’s betrayal, it’s a transatlantic coup. The U.S. Dark Enlightenment, birthed by Curtis Yarvin and Nick Land, shuns democracy for tech-run city-states, paired with Balaji Srinivasan’s The Network State of corporate enclaves. Thiel, Andreessen, and Palantir’s Alex Karp fund it, backing Anduril’s AI warfare and Próspera’s $11 billion lawsuit against Honduras. Shanker Singham’s deregulatory framework shapes the UK’s zones, aligned with Project 2025, where Yarvin’s rants fuel J.D. Vance’s VP role and Thiel’s Palantir secures contracts. It should be noted that Palantir currently has 24 contracts with public institutions in the UK.

The European Right Dr. Barbara Kolm’s Hayek Institute, Alejandro Chaufen’s Atlas Network, Archduchess Gabriela von Habsburg—pushes free zones as EU escape hatches, echoing Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom. Titus Gebel’s Free Private Cities and Schumacher’s urban zones mirror The Sovereign Individual’s carve-outs.

Brexit’s anti-EU push, backed by Farage and Rees-Mogg (the co-author’s son), left Britain a U.S. vassal, with 700 corporate lobbyists oiling the machine. Gutted industries, Teesside’s steel, Birmingham’s factories, expose the UK to this agenda, aping U.S. welfare cuts (PIP, two-child cap) and commons grabs. The Sovereign Individual is the template for this corporate sovereignty, with its influence cemented by Thiel’s newly added 2020 preface and Project 2025’s “Freedom Cities.”

EU vs. UK: Stability vs. Chaos

The EU’s 82 SEZs stand in stark contrast, anchored by TFEU Article 107’s 30–50% subsidy caps, Regulation 524/2008’s customs integrity, and Cohesion Policy audits. Poland’s 14 SEZs boosted GDP by 2.5% yearly since 2000, creating 300,000 jobs with under 20% displacement. Germany caps tax relief at €20 million per firm, Lithuania mandates renewables, cutting carbon by 15% since 2015. The EU’s MiCA regulates stablecoins, and the AI Act enforces transparency. The UK’s deregulated cesspool, £1.5 billion tax breaks, £1 billion seed funding, breaches state aid norms, funnelling cash to BlackRock and Shah without tenders. Teesside’s £200 million crony deal, 66–96% job displacement, and environmental havoc (150 TWh Bitcoin, arsenic risks) flout EU standards. The EU’s 2020 threat against UK Freeports, citing TCA state aid breaches, fizzled post-Brexit as the UK dodged ECJ jurisdiction, leaving arbitration toothless. Whispers of an ECHR exit signal worse to come.

The Human Cost: Commons Under Siege

The human toll is brutal. Families lose parks, workers face 30–50% job losses by 2030, 1.6 million kids suffer under the two-child cap, and disabled endure PIP cuts. all while £19.78 billion funds BlackRock. Birmingham’s strikes, NHS freezes, encroaching mass privatisation of UK infrastructure. £64 billion could renationalise vital public services, expose the rot, and prevent atrophy. Infrastructure collapses: Bitcoin’s 150 TWh risks a 15% grid demand hike by 2030, and AIGZs’ 1.65 trillion litres of water use threaten a 20% southeast England deficit by 2035. CPOs choke transport and housing, with Teesside’s port chaos a warning. Councils like Liverpool auction assets, mirroring The Sovereign Individual’s welfare-collapse vision.

Fight Back: Sue to Reclaim Britain

This transatlantic coup demands a legal fight. Sue to dismantle these zones, citing:

• Sovereignty Breach: Magna Carta’s Clause 39 and the Charter of the Forest shield against enclosures. CPOs, LCIA arbitration, and The Sovereign Individual’s anti-democratic push violate the Scotland Act 1998, Claim of Right 1989, and Human Rights Act 1998 (Articles 6, 8, 14).

• Public Interest: £19.78 billion plus £64 billion in state aid misuse demands review under the Senior Courts Act 1981. Job displacement, environmental harm, and infrastructure collapse override contracts (Arbitration Act 1996, amended 2025).

• Council Bankruptcies: Section 114 notices justify halting asset sales (Local Government Act 1972).

• Vassalism: The “special relationship,” GENIUS Act, and European Right’s exit strategy breach norms (R v Secretary of State for the Environment [1994]).

• Remedy: Declare zones ultra vires, suspend LCIA, redirect £64 billion to Guy Standing’s UBI (£200–£300 monthly), tax crypto/rents, repurpose CPO land, reinstate industry, cap aid.

Demand FOIs on AIGZs, GENIUS Act, Project 2025, and Kolm/Gebel ties. Push UBI, adopt EU’s MiCA/AI Act. This is of course would require a full-scale socialist revolution.