1 week ago
The populist right wants to remake the UK in the image of Dubai. We should all be careful what they wish for | Jonathan Liew
Politicians and influencers eulogise the emirate as a place of cleanliness, convenience and low crime. The truth is far darkerI arrived at my friend’s apartment close to midnight, crumpled and groggy, too weary to do anything except brush my teeth and go to bed. Open the suitcase: no toothpaste. No problem, my friend insisted, grabbing his phone with the little twinkle in his eye that people get when they’re about to show off a neat trick. They deliver everything here, he said. We’ll call the store downstairs. And so it was with a kind of slack-jawed astonishment I answered the doorbell nine minutes later to a man in a motorcycle helmet, proffering a single blue carrier bag containing a single tube of Colgate, taking the money and receding wordlessly back into the night.This, a decade ago, was my first contact with Dubai. And though of course you can get gig-economy groceries in most major cities these days, Dubai still stands out as a world of shortcuts and simple conveniences, a w...
Politics
