The United Kingdom, or at least the Great Britain part of it, finally regained its sovereignty on January 1 2021 to much acclaim, ceasing henceforth to be a “vassal state” of the European Union. It would seem an appropriate time to take a fresh look at the new nation-state and to ascertain how British it really is, especially since large parts of the nation have gradually and surreptitiously fallen into foreign hands in recent times, in the process significantly diluting its original and unique Britishness.
Many aspects of British life and enterprise have been taken over by overseas interests, to an extent that is frequently underestimated by the majority of the British public. This takeover is most noticeable in the high street, where many familiar home-grown entities are no longer British-owned, including ASDA, Boots, and Waterstones, while many others have disappeared altogether because of changing shopping habits and strong foreign competition, compounded by the recent Covid-19 pandemic. Foreign brands, too numerous to list, from America, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Japan, South Korea and elsewhere, have taken over instead. In the premier shopping destination of London, Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Hamley’s and other supposedly British institutions much visited by foreign tourists, are now deceptively foreign-owned.
The ownership of familiar and much-loved British brands, including Cadbury, HP sauce, Branston pickles, Flora, Marmite, Sarson’s vinegar, Jaffa cakes, Weetabix, Tetley, Wall’s ice cream, to mention but a few, has drifted into foreign hands. Even the production of many beverages with a strong British identity, such as Newcastle Brown Ale, Beefeater Dry Gin, Chivas Regal, is now undertaken by distillers from abroad.
Then you have manufacturing, where much of the family silver has been steadily sold away since the days of Margaret Thatcher. Car manufacturing in the UK is now shared between erstwhile British, and now foreign-owned, brands like Bentley (Volkswagen), Jaguar and Land Rover (Tata), Mini and Rolls-Royce (BMW), while Japanese car makers (Honda, Nissan, Toyota) have moved in to make cars on British soil. The decimated, and still shrinking, once-proud British steel industry is British only in location, British Steel having been taken over by the Chinese in March 2020, and Tata Steel and Liberty Steel the only other remaining big players.
While manufacturing has been in steady decline, financial services have continued to grow, accounting for a 6.9 per cent share of UK GDP in 2018. Many of Britain’s top companies are thus members of the business, finance and insurance sectors, including Prudential, HSBC, Aviva, Legal & General, Lloyds, and Barclays. While some parts of the services sector, including retail and entertainment, have been devastated by the Covid-19 pandemic, British economic power and corporate identity is concentrated within the financial sector. It is especially worth noting that the American corporate giant Amazon, with a glut of warehouse and delivery jobs, features prominently among the relatively few winners in the retail sector.
All sectors of transportation display signs of foreign takeover: from taxis (Uber), buses (Abellio, ComfortDelGro, RATPDev), trains, aeroplanes (British Airways), and airports, including the UK’s two largest airports, at Heathrow and Gatwick. When it comes to trains, virtually all of the UK’s mainline rail networks are run by EU state-owned rail operators, such as Deutsche Bahn (Germany), Nederlandse Spoorwegen (Netherlands), SNCF (France), and Trenitalia (Italy).
Even inside the family home, four of the “Big Six” utility providers including EDF (France), nPower (Germany), Eon (Germany) and Scottish Power (Spain) all have European owners. Such is the effect of privatisation and increased “competition” on the energy sector.
Football is dear to the heart of many locals. Yet many Premier League football clubs in England, as well as clubs in lower leagues, are now owned by foreigners with deep pockets, who have also bought into the top-end London residential and commercial property markets. To name but a few, Arsenal, Chelsea, Fulham, Leicester City, Manchester City, Manchester United, and Southampton, along with others, are variously owned by American, Arab, Chinese, Russian, Thai and other owners based abroad. When it comes to property, many high-priced residences in such exclusive London enclaves as Belgravia, Mayfair, and Knightsbridge are owned by foreigners, sometimes as convenient fronts for the laundering of ill-gotten monetary gains. A large proportion of financial buildings in the City of London, not forgetting Canary Wharf, are also owned by foreign investors. Even prominent and iconic London landmarks such as Battersea Power Station The Shard, the city’s tallest building, are not in British hands.
It would seem that, despite the recent reawakening of a latent nationalism, there is a long way to go before the UK can truly consider itself as a nation “in control” of what goes on within its own borders. It will take a long time for the UK, if it so desires, to shake off the “shackles” of globalisation and regain its “identity” as it sets about the tedious task of “taking back control”.
Ashis Banerjee