In the same way that Jersey and Guernsey, and I.o.Man are politically independent but part of the United Kingdom – Oasis Cities could be established as “Free Cities” – inland “virtual island” mini-states.  

Dismantling the Dole 

Winding down Welfarism

The British Welfare state (b.1948), which began as a humanitarian and compassionate ideal, is becoming an increasingly unaffordable strain on the economy. It is now under final assault from both an ageing population and its mesmerising attraction to millions of 3rd world “colonisers” – those already here (who, adjusted for age, are believed to extract more benefits and health care per capita than indigenous Brits) and the hordes trying their luck boarding unsuspecting trucks or small rubber dinghies just over the 20-mile wide channel.

Many people seem to believe that the state has an unlimited supply of money to dole out – perhaps a giant money tree in the back garden of 10 Downing St..? Or that “expendable” govt depts – in practice usually the defence budget – should have its funding re-directed to the sacrosanct trio of Health (NHS), Education, and Social benefits.

Britain’s leftist “Conservative” govt, eager to seduce the stupid vote away from the even more leftist Labour and Lib-Dems, has “ring-fenced” (ie, protected) the £120 billion a year NHS budget whilst – under the guise of austerity “cuts” (scratches?) – reducing general welfare payouts by a trivial degree.  Also “ring-fenced” is the £12 billion (0.7% of GNP) foreign aid budget, making nonsense of the “austerity” claim and giving an idea of their priorities – but that is another story.

As politically-devolved entities with their own economic systems and much lower living costs, OA-cities would have to be exempted from minimum wage legislation, not to mention the UK’s taxation and benefits regime.   This is not as fanciful an idea as it sounds if one considers that 3 island parts of the UK – Man, Jersey, and Guernsey are already politically independent entities – as are, increasingly, N. Ireland and Scotland 

FREE CITIES

The UK has many virtually independent small islands and statelets under its protective wing. This being so, there is no logical reason why it cannot also have some “free cities – in effect “virtual islands” – on its mainland.

The only barrier to this occurring is that the UK govt needs to collect as much “rent” as possible and from as many people as possible in order to fund its bloated and hugely costly benefits system. This brings us back to the ultimate weakness with OMOV democracy – it becomes impossible to reform a system in which a majority are net beneficiaries of government handouts.

Just as turkeys would never vote for Christmas, the majority of benefits recipients voters would never vote for a party which advocated even a modest pruning of the money tree welfare state. Even most of those who contribute more than they withdraw would probably baulk at the idea of scrapping such an iconic part of Britain.  But, all things must come to an end, and the welfare state may come to end in a totally unexpected way.

Like any govt, the UK wants and needs to rake in as much money as possible in order to keep the welfare taps running. But, faced with the choice of a Oasis City being built in the UK or a more accommodating country – perhaps somewhere like Bulgaria – a future govt might be prepared to concede to having politically autonomous units within its land borders.

This would allow the welfare state to be gradually de-funded as people opted-out by semi-grating to Oasis Cities.   In the long run this would benefit (ha!) everyone.

Instead of paying UK taxes and social contributions, OACitizens could simply pay a poll tax and give up their rights to welfare benefits. (The UK govt gets nothing from citizens of its “dependent” territories, like CI or IOM or GIB, despite providing them with defence). They would still be eligible for any pensions they had contributed to, just as Britons who have moved abroad are eligible, although the benefit would be reduced if they stopped paying-in. Whether they would still be able to use the NHS would depend on what kind of secession agreement each individual OAcity had made with the UK govt. Alternatively, some OAcities could have their own individually-tailored health systems – and these would surely be far more efficient than the NHS.