It’s almost comedic how Britain’s political narrative loops back on itself. During the Brexit campaign, the rallying cry was sovereignty. We were told Britain was shackled by Brussels laws dictated, borders compromised, trade regulated by faceless Eurocrats. The solution? Leave. Cut ties. Stand tall as an independent nation finally in charge of its own destiny.
And yet, barely out of the European Union, Britain has developed a peculiar new habit: a cultural and political obsession with being lectured, inspired, or guided by foreign figures who hold no formal authority over this country. American politicians, Silicon Valley tycoons, global corporations voices from abroad suddenly loom larger in the British imagination than the bureaucrats we were supposedly desperate to escape. Elon Musk tweets, and the headlines here treat it like policy. Donald Trump sneezes, and Nigel Farage reaches for a handkerchief.
The contradiction is stark. Sovereignty was sold as freedom from outside influence, but what Britain seems to want is not independence, but a different master. Brussels out, Musk in. Out with rules written in EU committees, in with sermons from billionaires and self-styled strongmen.
Perhaps this was never about control at all. Perhaps the real issue was not whether Britain was guided by others, but which others it was willing to follow. Sovereignty, in this sense, is less about autonomy and more about taste. If the influencer aligns with British sensibilities charisma, wealth, novelty, or the right populist flair then their words are embraced, amplified, and parroted across airwaves. The same people who cried “take back control” now seem happy to let outsiders set the tone, so long as it’s the right outsider.
It’s a kind of selective obedience. Brussels is portrayed as dull, technocratic, and uncharismatic. Elon Musk, on the other hand, is seen as daring, disruptive, entertaining even when his ventures fall flat. Trump speaks with bravado, and Farage mirrors it without shame. Global corporations set workplace trends, moral judgments, or climate pledges, and Britain rushes to align with them, sometimes more eagerly than with its own homegrown commitments. The foreign hand pats the nation on the back, and the nation leans in for more.
What this reveals is something deeper: sovereignty, as it is lived in Britain, has never truly meant autonomy. It has meant the right to choose who tells us what to do. And in that sense, Brexit delivered not independence, but a reshuffling of influence. The old bureaucrats were swapped for new idols. The leash was not removed, only refitted.
There is an irony here worth sitting with. The nation that insisted it could “stand on its own two feet” seems most comfortable when leaning on the words, money, or validation of outsiders. True independence is messy, difficult, and requires a confidence Britain has not yet cultivated. What we have instead is a theatre of sovereignty loud performances of “taking back control” alongside quiet obedience to whichever foreign voice flatters us most.
Independence was promised as self-rule, but has delivered only the freedom to choose our influencers. Sovereignty has become a stage act: Brussels is out of the script, but the foreign voices keep their starring roles. And so, Britain stumbles forward, free of Brussels but never truly free. Independence was promised as self-rule, but has delivered only the freedom to choose our influencers. Sovereignty has become a stage act: Brussels is out of the script, but the foreign voices keep their starring roles.
We can already see this dynamic at play in domestic politics. Nigel Farage and the Reform Party draw openly from the playbook of American populism, echoing Trumpian phrases and postures as though Westminster were a satellite stage of Washington. Culture-war talking points often arrive here second-hand, imported wholesale from US debates about immigration, gender, and race. The country that once insisted it hated foreign rules now eagerly repeats foreign rhetoric.
This is why the conversation about sovereignty feels hollow. What Britain has reclaimed is not independence but selectivity: the right to swap one form of influence for another. The EU may be gone, but the appetite for outside validation remains. Sovereignty, in practice, has become less about governing ourselves and more about choosing which foreign hand we’d rather applaud.
Disclaimer: I am one of those who voted to remain in the EU
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