From Empire to Vassal-State
When Donald Trump threatens to annex Greenland, insults British veterans, or drags people off Scottish soil, Britain fumes; then does nothing. Prime Minister Starmer condemns, NATO brokers deals behind closed doors, and the UK quietly absorbs the humiliation. The problem is bigger than Britain: Europe itself looks paralysed. How did former world-spanning empires become spectators to American power?
The answer isn’t mystery, but history. Bankrupted by two world wars, Britain voluntarily transferred global hegemony to the United States, formalised at Bretton Woods in 1944. Since then, British strategy has rested on submission to the Pax Americana in exchange for preferential treatment. That bargain once delivered stability. Today it delivers vulnerability.
Our politicians still speak as if Britain remains a great power. Ordinary Brits see something else: hollowed-out high streets, rusting factories, and a state that cannot act without Washington’s consent.
The question is no longer whether Britain can thrive after empire but whether it can function without dependency.
A Portrait of Dependency
Britain’s economy, infrastructure, and security are deeply entangled with the US. In 2024, over a fifth of UK exports went to America, while 13.2% of imports came from the US – our largest single trading partner. Our digital lives run on American platforms; our tech comes from Amazon, Apple, Google, Oracle, and Microsoft; our payments depend on Visa and Mastercard. Even our NHS data has been handed to US firms like Palantir, along with contracts worth hundreds of millions. Our supposedly ‘independent’ nuclear deterrent relies on US missiles, maintenance, and facilities.
Decades of privatisation and financialisation stripped Britain of productive capacity. Thatcher sold the state; Blair mortgaged it. Instead of building telecoms, transport, and energy systems in-house, Britain imported them. The result is an economy dominated by finance – volatile, unequal, and detached from working-class reality.
Talent drains into consultancies, finance, or overseas. British startups migrate to the US or are absorbed by it. Even Arm Holdings, our closest thing to a tech champion, chose Wall Street over London. Meanwhile, more than half of UK manufacturing depends on China, and nearly half our food is imported. This isn’t sovereignty, it’s exposure.
Perhaps Britain should stop comparing itself to continent-spanning superpowers and instead compare itself to a state within them: California. With 30 million fewer people, California’s economy is larger than the UK’s by nearly half a trillion dollars, anchored in technology ecosystems that link universities directly to industry. Britain has world-class universities but no comparable pipeline to production. But while California sits inside the world’s largest single market, Britain chose to leave one.
Hello Europe, My Old Friend
Despite American dominance, the EU remains Britain’s most important economic partner: 41% of exports and half of imports. Brexit knocked an estimated 6-8% off GDP and costs around £100bn a year. But the deeper damage is strategic. A country of 70 million cannot bargain like a bloc of 500 million.
Brexit promised sovereignty but delivered isolation. Outside the EU, Britain is weaker against Washington, Beijing, and Moscow alike. Geography did not change in 2016: our supply chains, food security, energy needs, and defence interests remain European.
Europe, however, is no utopia. The EU is bureaucratic, slow, and technologically lagging behind the US and China. Rejoining it unchanged would lock Britain into rules that constrain industrial policy and public ownership. But this isn’t an argument for distance – it’s an argument for reform and realism.
A multi-speed Europe, with clear tiers of integration, is the only viable response to a world increasingly dominated by continental powers.
Britain should pursue deep alignment: frictionless trade, shared standards, joint security, and industrial cooperation – without surrendering the freedom to rebuild state capacity. Associate membership or a Norway-style arrangement, combined with pressure for EU reform, is the sensible path.
Strategic Autonomy, Not Isolation
The choice isn’t Europe versus the world. Britain needs diversified diplomacy and trade: closer ties with Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Commonwealth, and emerging markets – alongside Europe, not instead of it. CANZUK can complement continental integration; it cannot replace it.
What must end is over-reliance on any single power. ‘Independent cooperation’ should define the special relationship: shared R&D and intelligence, but domestic control over production and decision-making. Trident illustrates the challenge. Immediate separation from the US is unrealistic, but phased independence is not. Britain should develop onshore capacity to manufacture, maintain, and eventually redesign all elements of its nuclear deterrent – ideally with French support, subsidised by partners in exchange for a joint European nuclear umbrella.
Europe’s defence weakness is political, not material. A wealthy continent, more populous than the US, should not outsource its security. A European Security Organisation – a coalition of the willing – could coordinate procurement, standardise systems, and field a joint auxiliary force to replace US troops while complementing national forces through its own Security Council. NATO can survive, but only as a partnership of equals, not a protection racket.
Reindustrialising Britain
Sovereignty without production is theatre. Britain must reindustrialise: cleanly, strategically, and rapidly. New technologies – AI, robotics, renewables, advanced manufacturing – make onshoring viable again. State-led industrial policy, not blind globalisation, turned South Korea into a powerhouse within a generation. Britain starts from an even stronger base.
This means prioritising domestic firms in public contracts, backing worker cooperatives, rebuilding supply chains, and cutting red tape without gutting protections. Community wealth building keeps money local. Strategic industries – energy, transport, defence, data – must be publicly anchored, not sold off in moments of crisis.
Europe is essential here too. Continental supply chains reduce costs, emissions, and risk. A European Industrial Partnership, operating alongside but not subordinate to the EU, would enable shared manufacturing zones, joint planning, and secure access to inputs.
We cannot build a resilient economy while pretending the Channel is an ocean.
The Moment of Choice
Trump isn’t an aberration, he’s a signal. The American electorate is turning inward. In a world of civilisation-states, middle powers that cling to nostalgia will be consumed. Britain can accept vassalage or act now.
The path forward is clear: no appeasement, no dependency, yes to sovereignty through cooperation. That means deep European alignment grounded in geography; diversified global trade; and a revived domestic industrial base that works for ordinary people.
Leadership is the missing ingredient. How can we trust Starmer to lead when he governs by retreat and triangulation? How can Farage offer independence when he was the chief architect of a disastrous no-deal Brexit and would sell out British interests for a nod from the White House? The political moment demands spine, not slogans.
Britain is European by fact, global by interest, and sovereign only if it chooses to be.
Joshua Smith – an engineering graduate – and Elliot Bloom – a filmmaker, cultural programmer, and writer – combine a technical foundation with cultural nuance, and a sharp understanding of the media climate. Over the past year, the pair have worked on creating a new political project to bring progressive politics back to the working class.