REVEALED: Britain has become America's vassal 明言する／公表する! How the US has gobbled up brands from Weetabix to HP Sauce and raked in billions that could have stayed in the UK
Britain is a vassal 明言する／公表する, in hock to 部隊d 明言する／公表するs 商売／仕事, which owns us lock, 在庫／株 and バーレル／樽. Scratch the surface of almost any major British 企業 ? be it 小売, 科学（工学）技術, the City, our health service, even 政府 itself ? and you’ll discover American 所有権.
With Britain’s crazy 税金 政権 giving breaks to 後継の US 会社／団体s while 軍隊ing every last penny out of home-grown 会社／堅いs, the consequences for our nation could not be graver: impoverishment, loss of 自治 and a drain on talent and treasure.
The American 引き継ぎ／買収 is most obvious in new 科学（工学）技術, where our high streets and small 商売／仕事s are 存在 鎮圧するd by 悪賢い, US-支配するd online 競争. Our 数字表示式の 組織／基盤／下部構造 is 圧倒的に American-owned.
Meta/Facebook 支配するs social マスコミ and messaging; Apple sells us about half our phones; Microsoft 供給（する）s the 本体，大部分／ばら積みの of the UK’s ソフトウェア; アマゾン organises shopping and website hosting; and Alphabet/Google is the 主要な search engine provider.
Some of the UK's 世帯 指名するs such as Cadbury 酪農場 Milk are now 存在 made by 巨大（な） US-owned 会社／堅いs
These five US tech companies now have a 連合させるd 価値（がある） four times that of the 100 most 価値のある companies on the London 在庫／株 交流.
And the 引き継ぎ／買収 of our 資産s 延長するs into every part of our economy. If you 疑問 that this means you and your life, come with me to the 地元の supermarket and wander the aisles, starting with the 棚上げにするs stacked high with breakfast cereals.
Ready Brek, Alpen and Weetabix all feel as British as they come. The Weetabix packet even 宣言するs it to be the most popular cereal in the UK, with a 王室の 令状 その上.
I used an iPhone and Google, two other US 輸入するs, to discover that all three brands are owned by 地位，任命する Holdings of Missouri. Next to them are 列／漕ぐ／騒動 upon 列／漕ぐ／騒動 of 製品s from Kellogg’s, of Michigan.
In the confectionery aisle, the UK’s market leader for chocolate and 甘いs is Cadbury of Bournville ? fully owned by Mondelez of Chicago. Wrigley, 星雲 and Maltesers come from 火星 会社にする／組み込むd, of Virginia, which also owns the 最高の，を越す-selling pet food brands Pedigree and Whiskas.
Next stop is きれいにする and washing 製品s. Shoppers might mistake Fairy Liquid for a British brand ? it is 行為／法令／行動する ually owned by Procter & 賭事 (P&G) of Ohio.
In 洗面所 paper and tissues, Kimberly-Clark of Texas cleans up, with its market leaders Kleenex and Andrex taking 30 per cent of the spend. The nappies section is filled by Huggies and Pampers, from Kimberley-Clark and P&G, それぞれ. In the frozen-food 閣僚, half the chickens we buy come from US-controlled agribusinesses such as 巡礼者’s Pride of Colorado and Cargill of Minnesota.
Nor does it stop with the goods we buy.
At the checkout your shopping is likely to be scanned by machines from NCR Voyix of Atlanta, Georgia. If you 支払う／賃金 by card, it will almost certainly be through ビザ, Mastercard, Amex, Google 支払う／賃金 or Apple 支払う／賃金, all US companies.
On your way home with the shopping, perhaps you stop for a coffee at Starbucks or Costa, both US-owned. Together they have more than 4,500 支店s, all high-利益（をあげる） 商売／仕事s in which the cost of the 成分s and a paper cup is driven 負かす／撃墜する to about 30p through 本体，大部分／ばら積みの buying, while the 製品 sells for £3 or more.
アマゾン now collects more than 30 per cent of all UK online spending. That is 利益（をあげる）-producing income that could have remained in the UK.
Meta and Google receive two-thirds of all the UK’s 支出 on search and 陳列する，発揮する advertising, the 利益（をあげる）s from which 結局最後にはーなる in California.
Nowhere is sacrosanct. The public may think of Manchester 部隊d FC, HP Sauce, Terry’s and Trainline as 存在 British, but in fact their owners are all based in the US. Indeed, Americans own nine of the 20 最高の，を越す-flight football clubs, 責任がある 52 per cent of the 首相 League’s turnover.
一方／合間, 私的な 公正，普通株主権 companies from North America 支配（する）／統制する Morrisons, Travelodge, the AA, Madame Tussauds, Biffa and 中心 Parcs.
Go abroad on holiday and the engines of the 計画（する） will most likely be made by Pratt & Whitney (Connecticut), General Electric (Massachusetts) or CFM (Cincinnati), which produce 80 per cent of the world’s 商業の jet engines.
But perhaps the ultimate 侮辱 to us poor Brits is that US 企業s have created the 数字表示式の （死傷者）数 橋（渡しをする）s which 消費者s in the UK have to cross to find what they want: Airbnb for accommodation, eBay for second-手渡す goods, Etsy for handmade 製品s, even Tinder or Bumble for dating.
We slog away for the 利益 of 株主s on the other 味方する of the 大西洋, 支払う／賃金ing 王族s to 接近 our own home market ? which is as humiliating as it gets.
But this is the price of a globalised economy, 権利?
Really, what is the problem with American 所有権 of erstwhile British companies?
The answer is that we 簡単に become poorer. American 会社／団体s 支払う／賃金 little to the UK 財務省, while even their 地位，任命する-税金 利益（をあげる）s are funnelled across the 大西洋, far from （ドイツなどの）首相／（大学の）学長 Jeremy 追跡（する）’s しっかり掴む. Of course, Britain 投資するs in America, too. But when the 株 in companies such as BP are almost a third American-owned, the 関係 is hardly a two-way street ? more like a British cycle 小道／航路 と一緒に a three-小道／航路 主要道路.
And by hitching our wagon so closely to ou r cousins across the Pond, the powerbrokers of 塀で囲む Street have a weightier say in the 決定／判定勝ち（する）s the British 政府 makes about 規則, 課税 and even 外交政策.
It is 明確に a 合法的 question to ask how much of the UK’s economy is now US-owned. Yet I had 抱擁する difficulties in finding the answers ? as if those who run the country 手配中の，お尋ね者 to hide the truth from its 国民s. I was fobbed off with the excuse that, astonishingly, this sort of data is not collected.
I とじ込み／提出するd a ボレー of Freedom of （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） requests to the 政府, starting with enquiries about the value of US 契約s with the 省 of Defence and the NHS, the two big 明言する／公表する spenders. Both replied that they do not analyse their 広大な spending by the 国籍 of the companies 供給（する）ing them.
The Weetabix packet 宣言するs it to be the most popular cereal in the UK - and it even has a 王室の 令状 - but the brand is owned by 地位，任命する Holdings of Missouri
にもかかわらず HP Sauce 存在 a 中心的要素 in the British bacon butty, its owner is also based in the US
I then asked the Office for 国家の 統計（学） (ONS) how many UK 労働者s are 雇うd by US 会社／団体s. It said it did not 記録，記録的な／記録する even this basic （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状）. The best it could do was a guesstimate of ‘about one million’.
I wrote to HMRC asking for the turnover, 利益（をあげる）s and 税金s paid by the larger US companies. At first they 小衝突d me off by 説 they didn’t have that data. Then, after months of my 執拗な 尋問, they 認める they did have the （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） but, absurdly, it was みなすd not in the public 利益／興味 to 解放（する） it.
Stymied here in Britain I turned to the US for answers, and on the website of the US 内部の 歳入 Service (IRS), 自由に 利用できる, I 設立する a 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる） of the total sales made by the big US 会社／団体s to every country around the world, together with their 利益（をあげる）s and any 税金 paid.
US 輸出（する）s of goods and services to the UK reached $157 billion in 2022, up 21.5 per cent from 2021, 最高位の the UK in fifth place の中で 輸出（する） 目的地s for American goods and placing i t in the second 位置／汚点／見つけ出す for 貿易（する）ing in services. That total is more than a third greater than it was just four years 以前.
US 会社／団体s have more than 1.5 million 従業員s in the UK ? more than Germany, フラン, Italy, Portugal and Sweden 連合させるd.
As for the 利益（をあげる）s that US 会社／団体s are 収入 from the UK each year, the IRS put that at $88 billion in 2019 ? 同等（の） to £2,500 for every British 世帯.
Britain has been 圧倒的に the preferred 追跡（する）ing ground for US 多国籍のs buying up 商売／仕事s abroad. Thirty per cent of all America’s overseas 投資s have been into the UK, with the result that even the largest British companies are now dwarfed by US 多国籍のs.
This is a 棒 that we have made for our own 支援するs.
US 介入 on this 規模 followed the 招待 to buy up Britain, first 延長するd by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s and enthusiastically 繰り返し言うd by every 首相 since.
The extent of US 経済大国 in the UK is something Britain 避けるs criticising or even discussing. 政治家，政治屋s talk about a ‘special 関係’ and a ‘共同’ with the US, but the reality is that one ‘partner’ is the mightiest 超大国 in the history of the world and 持つ／拘留するs an 圧倒的な 火刑／賭ける in the other’s economy.
For more than 40 years, 政治家，政治屋s have 繰り返して extolled the virtues of Foreign Direct 投資 (FDI) as the 大勝する to 経済的な success in Britain. But there has always been a ‘big 嘘（をつく）’, a 深い deception, at the heart of their （人命などを）奪う，主張するs.
後継の 投資s can be in two forms: 本物の new 投資 in physical 工場／植物s and new buildings or ? やめる 異なって ? foreign 購入（する）s of 存在するing companies. These are chalk and cheese.
By deliberately 混乱させるing the se two ideas, 政治家，政治屋s can 暗示する they are 製図／抽選 lots of foreigners into making new and creative 投資s in the UK, while in reality they are 簡単に encouraging a 進歩／革新的な sell-off of the UK’s best 商売／仕事s.
In his last Autumn 声明, （ドイツなどの）首相／（大学の）学長 Jeremy 追跡（する）, 誇るd about how successful Britain has been at attracting FDI of $2 一兆. His gleeful rhetoric hid the fact that this 人物／姿／数字 手段d the 時折の building of new factories と一緒に the selling off of 国家の treasures.
支配（する）／統制する has been ひったくるd out of our 手渡すs, but Britain’s policymakers are unfazed, 明らかに uninterested in where 決定／判定勝ち（する）s are made about the country’s 労働者s, where company 利益（をあげる）s go, who 支払う／賃金s 税金s or what culture 支配するs the lives of 国民s.
It does not have to be like this. Strong political and 商売／仕事 leadership could 妨げる Britain’s 明言する／公表する of vassalage from getting worse, and maybe 逆転する some of its most 損失ing 超過s.
We must 溝へはまらせる／不時着する the idea that FDI is good in all its forms and that sales of 商売／仕事s to foreign owners should be 受託するd without question.
Shoppers might mistake Fairy Liquid for a British brand but it is 現実に owned by Procter & 賭事 (P&G) of Ohio
We need to follow the example of フラン and Germany, whose 政府s try to resist 引き継ぎ／買収s of their companies and, instead, work to 保護する their 従業員s.
The ‘Florange 法律’ in フラン 要求するs the 買い手 of 引用するd companies to 保証（人） 職業s and 投資. Both countries have 法律s to stop 引き継ぎ／買収s in the 戦略の 部門s of defence, energy and telecoms.
The French are also willing to move the goalposts to 保護する their 利益／興味s. When PepsiCo tried to buy Danone, its biggest 酪農場 製品s company, the 当局 passed a 法律 defining yogurt- making as a 戦略の 商売／仕事, 効果的に making it 企て，努力，提案-proof.
Above all, if we are to 救助（する） Britain from this 悲惨な 状況／情勢, we need to recognise just how 扶養家族 the country has become on America.
No 発言する／表明する in British politics or public life questions the growing American dominance, and there is an 不本意 to identify 供給者s and 買い手s by their 国籍 ? as if doing so would be somehow 不快な／攻撃.
But there should be no shame in having, in ありふれた with other countries, 含むing the US, a 政策 of 保持するing British 所有権 of companies that operate principally in the UK.
The logic of this 分析 is not anti-American; it is プロの／賛成の-British. It is about turning 支援する from the path to abject dependency and 再構築するing our 自治.
? Angus Hanton, 2024
Adapted from Vassal 明言する／公表する by Angus Hanton (Swift 圧力（をかける）, £25). To order a copy for £22.50 (申し込む／申し出 valid to 19/05/24; UK p&p 解放する／自由な o n orders over £25) go to mailshop.co.uk/調書をとる／予約するs or call 020 3176 2937.
