The Empire’s New Colonies: How Britain’s Subservience to U.S. Capital Bankrolls Oligarchs and Bleeds Us Dry
I've been having conversations with a very good mate on the opposite side of politics to me. Our conversations have inspired me to understand politics, economics & write more
So let's get into it guys…..
History’s Rhymes Are Screaming at the Future
I was telling a mate I had just finished Why Empires Fall, (highly recommended read) and in it historians Peter Heather and John Rapley trace the uncanny parallels between Rome’s collapse and the slow-motion implosion of modern empires. Just as Rome bled its provinces dry, and Britain sold its post-1945 soul to Wall Street, the UK today has become a vassal to U.S. capital—a colony in all but name. Our labour, our pensions, and even our lattes fuel the obscene excess of a transatlantic oligarchy. This isn’t conspiracy; it’s capitalism’s imperial phase. And when the crash comes, we—not the billionaires—will drown in the rubble.
1. The Economic Vampire Squid: How U.S. Capital Siphons British Wealth
The “special relationship” is a one-way extraction pact. Consider:
- Pensions as Predation: UK workplace pensions, worth £2.6tn, are funneled into U.S. stocks and hedge funds¹. These investments inflate the portfolios of Warren Buffett and BlackRock’s Larry Fink, while British retirees face austerity.
- Debt Colonialism: The UK’s £2.5tn national debt generates £83bn yearly in interest payments²—much of it lining Wall Street’s pockets via Treasury bonds.
- The 401(k) Mirage: 90% of the FTSE 100 is owned by foreign investors, predominantly U.S. asset managers³. When markets crash, they’ll dump overvalued shares first, leaving UK pensioners holding worthless paper.
This isn’t investment—it’s an F’ing Protection Racket. Pay tribute to avoid becoming Greece or Chile.
2. Consumer Complicity: Every Swipe Feeds the Beast
Your daily rituals bankroll their yachts:
- Netflix: $16bn revenue in 2023, leaching £500m+ from UK households⁴.
- Amazon: Avoids £492m yearly in UK taxes while dominating 30% of British e-commerce⁵.
- Visa/Mastercard: Charge UK businesses £1.3bn annually in fees, profits funneled to New York⁶.
Even your “local” Tesco, Sainsbury’s, or M&S meal deal funnels up to 40% of profits to U.S. shareholders like BlackRock and Vanguard⁷ ¹⁶. These retail giants—branded as “British” staples—are partly owned by the same Wall Street funds extracting wealth from NHS privatisation and energy bills. We’re not consumers—we’re serfs in a digital feudal system, paying tribute to absentee landlords in Manhattan skyscrapers.
3. Media Mercenaries: Billionaire Puppeteers
The UK media isn’t “biased”—it’s a propaganda arm for U.S. capital:
- Murdoch’s Empire: Owns The Sun, Times, and Sky. Profits tied to Disney and Fox shares⁸. Pushed Brexit to destabilise the EU for U.S. trade deals.
- Daily Mail: Owned by Lord Rothermere, whose wealth is parked in Delaware shell companies⁹. Manufactures anti-migrant panic entirely created by Tory Trade Deals & an actual policy to create boat people to distract from NHS privatisation. They blame them for privatisation causing services to get worse and collapse.
- BBC’s Neoliberal Capture: Board members linked to BlackRock and Goldman Sachs¹⁰.
When Corbyn threatened this order, they smeared him. When Sunak serves it, they cheerlead. Now, Keir Starmer sharpens the knife for BlackRock’s next feast.
4. Starmer’s Austerity 2.0: Sacrificing the Vulnerable at the Altar of BlackRock
Labour’s “fiscal responsibility” is a euphemism for class war. While Trump demolishes U.S. welfare with a sledgehammer, Starmer opts for death by a thousand cuts:
- Disability Benefits Slashed: Labour plans to “review” Personal Independence Payments (PIP), threatening £1,200/year cuts for 330,000 disabled Britons¹¹. This mirrors IMF demands to “rationalise welfare”—code for feeding public wealth to banks.
- BlackRock’s Shadow Policy: The £8.6tn asset giant lobbies governments to privatise services and slash deficits¹². Starmer’s austerity aligns perfectly, with shadow ministers quietly courting Wall Street donors¹³.
- U.S. Playbook, UK Suffering: Biden’s Social Security cuts and Starmer’s welfare “reforms” are two faces of the same oligarchic coin. Both ensure profits flow upward while the disabled, poor, and working class starve.
Starmer isn’t “pragmatic”—he’s Thatcher in a red tie, sanitising cruelty as “tough choices.”
5. Parallels with Rome and Britain: The Oligarch Playbook:
- Rome’s Fall: Elites hoarded gold, outsourced military to mercenaries, and let infrastructure rot. Sound familiar? See: PFI hospitals, Serco-run prisons, and Thames Water’s sewage dumps. Links direct to BlackRock.
- Britain’s 1945 Collapse: Sold its empire to the U.S. for a $3.5bn loan¹⁴. Today, we sell NHS data to Amazon and water rights to Blackstone.
- The U.S. Endgame: Like all empires, it’s gutting its own people. 60% of Americans can’t afford a $500 emergency¹⁵—yet we mimic their decay.
6. For the Love of Survival—Break Capitalism’s US-Made Crisis Factory
We’re told capitalism is inevitable. Nonsense. Rome fell. Britain declined. The U.S. will too. To survive Turn Left, look to John Maynard Keynes;
1. Nationalise Pensions: Redirect funds to green infrastructure and cooperatives.
2. Tax Digital Colonialism: 50% levy on U.S. tech profits extracted from the UK.
3. Build Dual Power: Community banks, municipal broadband, and worker-owned platforms to bypass Silicon Valley.
The Oligarchs’ Secret: Their System Needs Us More Than We Need Them
The ruling class’s greatest fear isn’t protests or petitions—it’s collective disobedience. Their empire of extraction—Amazon’s warehouses, BlackRock’s pension raids, Netflix’s cultural monopolies—crumbles without our compliance. Starve the beast.
7. Boycott, Divest, Collapse #BDC & #BDS
1. Crush Their Profits:
- Ditch Amazon. Your £50 impulse buy funds Bezos’ rockets while his workers piss in bottles.
- Cancel Netflix. Their £500m UK haul bankrolls AI scripts, not actors or writers.
- Abandon eBay. That £3 “bargain” props up tax-dodging drop-shippers in Shenzhen China.
Go Independent & Local :
- Independent Retailers: Bookshops, local markets, worker-owned co-ops.
- Mutual Aid: Community broadband brands owned by US shareholders, tool libraries, solidarity economies. Use internet and Ai to search for who owns who.
8. Why This Works
They’ve rigged the rules:
- Tax Avoidance: Amazon paid 3.8% tax on £23bn UK revenue¹⁷.
- Political Capture: 40% of Tory/Labour donations come from finance and property tycoons¹⁸.
- Economic Violence: Every Prime Minister since Thatcher has slashed corporate taxes while gutting welfare¹⁹.
Our Leverage: Without our wallets, their system starves. So why are we giving away our hard earn cash to Amazon and Netflix, while our time on social media has made us the F’ing Product! Does that not make you angry too? We are being manipulated and played, like a man playing the world's smallest violin! #MoneyMenOwnYou
9. Project 2025: Neoliberalism’s Fascist Endgame
Laissez-faire capitalism’s “blind eye” to fascism isn’t accidental—it’s strategic. The U.S. Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025—a 900-page fascist manifesto—plans to dismantle environmental laws, criminalise dissent, and privatise remaining public goods²⁰. Sound familiar? It’s austerity with jackboots.
Parallels:
- 1930s Corporatism: Big business backed Hitler to crush unions.
- 2020s Austerity: BlackRock backs Starmer/Sunak to crush welfare.
10. It's Your Duty and Our Collective Responsibility: Consent Can & Should Be Withdrawn
They own the politicians. They own the media. They don’t own your choices.
- Stop Funding Their War on the Poor: Every Amazon Prime subscription = a vote for food banks.
- Build Social Power: Unions, tenant groups, community groups, activists, campaign for new decentralised power and build community energy grids and generation.
Decentralise Money: Strip the City’s God Complex
- Ban Fractional Reserve Banking: Only the state creates money, spent directly into communities.
-Local councils launch banks: to fund green housing, NHS clinics, and co-ops—no City middlemen
Private banks create 97% of UK money as debt, fuelling inequality and housing bubbles.
The maths is simple: 3.5% of us acting together can break their machine.
What is the 3.5% Rule: Proven by Erica Chenoweth’s⁶ research, sustained nonviolent resistance by 3.5% of a population can topple oppressive systems. Strikes, boycotts, and civil disobedience target economic/political choke points, leveraging collective power to disrupt oligarchic control.
Recommended Reading List
1. Why Empires Fall – Peter Heather & John Rapley (2023)
2. Capitalist Realism – Mark Fisher (2009)
3. The Shock Doctrine – Naomi Klein (2007)
4. Imperialism in the 21st Century – John Smith (2016)
5. Tax Justice Network reports on UK wealth extraction.
6. Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict (2011, co-authored with Maria J. Stephan)
Sources
1. ONS: UK Pension Assets (2023)
2. UK Debt Management Office
3. Financial Times: “Who Owns the FTSE 100?” (2022)
4. Netflix Annual Report
5. TaxWatch UK: Amazon’s Tax Avoidance
6. UK Finance: Card Payment Statistics
7. Guardian: Tesco Shareholder Analysis
8. Forbes: Murdoch’s Disney Deal
9. Panama Papers: Rothermere’s Offshore Holdings
10. openDemocracy: BBC Board Ties
11. Disability Rights UK (2023): Impact of PIP Cuts
12. BlackRock Annual Report (2023)
13. Financial Times (2024): “Starmer Courts Wall Street”
14. The Washington Post: Post-War UK Loans
15. Federal Reserve: U.S. Household Wealth
16. Financial Times (2023): “U.S. Funds Dominate UK Retail Ownership” – Analysis of BlackRock/Vanguard stakes in Sainsbury’s (18%) and M&S (22%).
17. TaxWatch UK: Amazon’s Tax Avoidance (2023).
18. Electoral Commission: UK Party Donations (2023).
19. IFS: UK Corporate Tax Cuts Since 1979.
20. The Guardian: “Project 2025: A Blueprint for Fascism” (2024).
#StarveTheBeast #Project2025IsHere #DualPowerNow