So why am I writing this from a British perspective..? 

Do I think that the UK – and England specifically – will embrace the Oasis-City concept with enormous enthusiasm and lead the world into a new urban paradigm based on pyramidal eco-cities?  

OF COURSE NOT..!!!   

Aside from being the archetypal NIMBY NATION, England – with its very strict building regulations, especially on virgin land – is quite possibly the LEAST likely country to adopt Oasis Cities.  Even if building regs were changed to permit Oasis Cities (highly unlikely except maybe for brownfield sites) – an army of earnest Nimby’s would forge an unholy alliance with the likes of “Extinction Rebellion” (XR) – and other eco-loonies – to campaign tooth-and-nail against their own BEST INTERESTS – since OA-cities would occupy 90% LESS LAND per capita than “traditional” sprawl housing..! Furthermore, with 30-40% of each site reserved for a delightful domain of woodland and ornamental lakes, etc, they would not only beautify the landscape but offer safe sanctuary for birds and small mammals.  

SO WHY ENGLAND..?

I have chosen England as my default reference simply because it is the country with which I am most familiar.  It is also worth reminding that it is to England – not Scotland or Wales – where the population pressure is greatest and to where most migrants are headed..!  

Most of England’s political, social, economic and environmental problems are due to over-population – not just of people but millions of motor vehicles – the combination of which creates SPRAWL.

OA-Cities cannot solve over-population but, by eliminating the need for autos and roads – and by simplifying superfluous and wasteful infrastructure – they would eradicate URBAN SPRAWL which, aside from its ugliness and inefficiency, gives rise to many negative social pathologies.      

Vote-prostituting politicians – always with an eye on the “youth vote” – constantly bleat about “solving the housing crisis”, by which they mean doubling or tripling the annual rate of home-building.   Which, were they all built in one place, would mean the equivalent of another Birmingham every 2/3 years.  Unfortunately, we don’t see it happening because these “Birminghams” are not built in one place but are distributed piecemeal all over the country.  But if you add up all those piece-meal “developments” it equates to a new big city every year, and thus the stealth ruination of England’s emblematic “green and pleasant land” – burying the landscape beneath vast acreages of un-imaginative sprawl housing estates. 

OA-Cities would save enormous tracts of countryside from unattractive low-medium density “matchbox” housing and endless “road-improvement” schemes.  OA-Cities will also greatly enhance the landscape since each iconic structure will be encircled by beautiful woods and parkland.    

Especially seriously for an island, England critically lacks self-sufficiency – and therefore national security – in almost every key area.

OA-Cities will target at least 90% self-sufficiency in the 3 essentials for civilised life – WATER, POWER, and FOOD.  

Housing costs in England are absurdly high due to the national obsession with home ownership – epitomised by the manic “housing ladder” scramble, thus inflating the cost of everything else.

Ideally OA-Cities will be built and run by co-operatives, or some other kind of non-profit organisation. Apartments would not be sold but leased at affordable rents.  It may take a few decades but, once OA-Cities become an established feature of the “housing market”, conventional housing – and conventional cities – will fall out of favour and come to be regarded as obsolete as type-writers.  This will lead to a steep and continuing decline in the value of conventional housing and, once that happens, the “housing ladder” obsession will gratefully disappear.         

England’s overly-generous raft of taxpayer-funded freebies – housing benefit, “job-seekers” benefit, income support, council-tax benefit, “disability” pensions, invalid care allowance, winter fuel grants, single-mother grants, free bus passes, and last but not least the sacrosanct NHS (National Health Service).  Its bad enough that all this free-stuff these benefits are being widely abused but – WORSE – they are also acting as an irresistible magnet for hordes of parasitical 3rd world bogus “refugees” to an already overcrowded island.   The cost of these benefits – both in absolute and % terms – is inflating much faster than the economy is growing – or can ever be expected to grow.  

Finally, in contemporary England (as in other “Western countries”), there is far too much emphasis on “rights” and almost no emphasis on “responsibilities”.    OA-CITIES can and will fix this too..! 

OΔCities would enable England to solve all its most pressing problems – ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, ECONOMIC, FOOD INSECURITY, SOCIAL and POLITICAL.