London, the brightest light in what was once the world’s first and greatest champion of free trade, is at a crossroads along with Britain. As the world closes up in damaging trade wars, we face difficult choices about how to survive. So it’s time to look to the other side of the world where there glitters a model of what London — and the UK — could be: Singapore.
This line of thinking is sometimes known as Singapore-on-Thames. What do we mean by that? People usually use the term to mock the idea of freer trade, lower taxes and less government spending. While others might think it odd to compare ourselves to an island city state, could the UK prosper with such an approach? Let us look at the numbers.
