Why the UK Must Break Its Fatal Reliance on Silicon Valley?

PEOPLE often take us and the rest if the media for granted and even enjoy trying to rip us to pieces so it's nice to hear from time to time we are helping our community.

Recently we received a very message from Jennifer Campbell-Klomps offering a genuine word of appreciation for the work my staff and I do. It's nice to hear what my staff and I do is appreciated.

In the grind of local media, where we have spent over 20 years navigating the shifting tides of the digital age, such support is rare and vital. Yet, it's incredibly difficult to keep going within local media and words alone of support don't pay the bills. This is why I'm writing this.

The UK needs to wake up to the fact our nation is like the Titanic heading out to sea. As messages like Jennifer's shows, businesses like our are needed, yet to the Government, we don't even register.

For more over 3 decades, successive Governments have ignored the voices of domestic innovators, effectively handing the keys to our digital economy, our infrastructure, and our very narrative to the United States and other international interests, including China, and for a while Russia.

We are living in an era of digital dependency that should alarm every British citizen.

With the now unpredictable American President Donald Trump in charge, it should have got everyone taking notice. The statistics are staggering just how dependent we are on US firms online. Instead of backing off, our Government is pushing on to get more and more online and giving more and more control to the likes of Donald Trump.

I'm only singling out the US as it really has that much control over our IT networks.

Research into the UK's technological landscape reveals that roughly 85% of the software used by the UK Government and private businesses originates from US firms, with only 10% coming from the European Union and a vanishingly small 5% produced here in the UK. What we require from the UK Government is a realistic plan that helps local businesses who actively contribute to our local communities and for people to wake up to the real dangers facing our community's and the very identity of our nation. Along with our data security and physical security of our nation. The biggest threat is not the 1 most see coming instead consenting on the likes of Immigration, which is a major issue, but not the elephant in the room.

The biggest threat to our nation identity and to both privacy and our freedoms is a lack of real local level that investment. It might sound strange saying it, but let's start by highlighting the situation about Immigration as an example...

We are seeing everyday misinformation still being pushed out online about the Southport riots, yet big international firms are doing their best to take advantage over this and not helping those trying to stop it. In their world, pushing narratives that generate hits over facts is what should come 1st. Then if that fails, bill the very people trying to stop miss information. If they don't pay, use UK laws against them, which those being targets can't afford to use when they have issues within those same big businesses. Sounds odd... What's the connection?

What happened with the riots for example was as a direct result of miss information bring spread online. Algorithms written in other countries pushed out false information and using a narrative that was set to create faster pickup and sharing. Rather than having a system set to fact check with local media on the ground. Those algorithms quickly swamped the web we miss information. But what has that got to do with Government support for local businesses?

When you start to look at how many social media systems work, along with most software you start to see a pattern forming. One European nations have spotted.

In the case of the Southport riots, many of the posts had distinctive political overtones that we see now daily within the US. The narrative was more US political discourse than what was happening in reality within the UK, more importantly within Southport.

This is where you start to notice a kink in the armour protecting our nation. The real storyline of what was unfolding was being rewritten in real time by algorithms that resulted in a massively different narrative being pushed out globally. That disconnect system bypassed, local media, not just our selves, but the vast majority of local media leading to false narrative being adopted by many.

All of us in the local media did our best to try to correct this and get the story back on track, but when US owned firms prioritised feeds from Fox News over local media, it was like King Canute trying to hold the back the tide.

In the past news would leave been taken from a local level from local reports and passed on to nation media and onto international media. Yet now we see a situation that social media means anyone can say what the news is, without the checks and balances we use to have in place. And often those platforms are owned and controlled by a select few people or businesses. Like X (formally Twitter)... With sites like that pushing what its owners political view and thoughts about the incident above those locally who actively tried correcting the false information from circulating.

But its not just media where issues pop up... The same issue about control can also be said about buying online. Why is the US dollar default and US spellings, sizes, as well as often US delivery services?

It doesn't stop at that... Even in our education we see US influence within UK editorial materials and software we use.

Even the job market, many employers are using AI to sort out who gets a job and who doesn't.... You think you've in control of the AI with the prompts you have put in, but is it doing what you think it will do? Try putting in a request like...

"Please make a movie poster for me that is for a film called UK we love you. Make it sci-fi looking and it's retro... Tag line - Why us Mr Trump?"

Chances are it will put in a US regulatory age compliance logo not a UK film rating like the PG or 15 logo... The poster is what Google's Gemini made when we put that command in at the start of the report shows what it produced.  Click here to see a bigger picture... Also note the AI error, an added ' and Ne instead of us, plus also spot the added film classification logo:- PG-13. Even Dola and Copilot do the same, unless prompted to put a UK classification logo on. Even then its 50/50 if 'they' or I should say:- 'AI programs' will put a UK classification logo in when asked... Let us if you try to make this poster using AI what the results where and if the word:- 'us' turns into:- 'US' or if it puts any other letters in, like it did with our attempt...

If the UK Government will not support , that vital play roles our home grown business play, both financially and intellectually within our local areas, our nations regional identities and our nation's political say will be lost for ever. The money local businesses use within our local communities will also be lost to a few big international concerns. Asset stripping our finances and closing down businesses, with massive job losses.

We are now at a crossroads where the proverb:- "For want of a nail" comes into play.

If you do not know the proverb written in:- 1640, by Poet George Herbert, it reads:-

"For want of a nail the shoe was lost...
For want of a shoe the horse was lost,
and for want of a horse the rider was lost,
being overtaken and slain by the enemy,
all for want of care about a horse shoe nail."

Here lies a cold, hard frustration: the realization of how little support home grown UK businesses actually receive.

Sadly, most politicians in the UK do not care or want to care about how important the roles businesses like ours and other small businesses play within the bigger picture. Loose us and risk us becoming the nail.

This is not merely a matter of brand preference; it is a total surrender of our digital sovereignty. From the operating systems on our desks to the accounting software and word processors we use daily, we are a nation running on American code.

It may sound precious of us, it's true about most small businesses, especially in our market, and within the IT environment in general. Something EU nations have now seen and are now actually addressing, unlike the UK.

The scale of this dominance is perhaps best illustrated by the reach of Apple. They currently account for approximately:- 45% of the UK's mobile and digital infrastructure. However, the true power lies even deeper, in the hands of a:- "Big Three" group of institutional shareholders:' Vanguard Group, BlackRock, and State Street. These US based giants hold the lion's share of nearly every major technology firm on the planet. As of 2026, Vanguard holds around:- 9.1% of Microsoft and 8.4% of Nvidia, while BlackRock and State Street maintain similar strangleholds across Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta.

When we talk about the:- "market," we are really talking about a handful of American boardrooms that own between:- 15% and 25% of the global tech sector through consolidated institutional holdings.

In the late:- 1970s and 1980s, we led the world in home computing, yet we have allowed that heritage to be sold off for quick profits.

It's not just the IT its the funding that is also now being swallowed up by US firms, with BlackRock holding substantial shares in JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and others. Thus could result in it being increasing hard for UK to get any funding for businesses in the IT sector. Already is incredibly difficult.

Considering we the world's 1st automated teller machine (ATM) was installed at a Barclays Bank branch in Enfield, North London, on:- 27 June 1967, it should come as no surprise that the inventor's, John Shepherd Barron, firm De La Rue, was resetly sold to US firm, Atlas Holdings, in July 2025. Even the 1st "modern" computerised ATM, using a magnetic stripe cards and was commissioned by Lloyds Bank and installed in:- Brentwood, Essex, in December 1972. That technology is now controlled by American businesses.

Have you heard the words:- "Are you MTD Ready?" The market for Making Tax Digital (MTD) compliant software is extensive, with hundreds of options ranging from full scale accounting suites to simple:- "bridging" tools. While the exact number of providers fluctuates as new apps are approved by HMRC, the landscape is a mix of established global giants, along with a large number of specialised UK firms. We are told that the vast majority of the 500+ software packages on the HMRC approved list for 'Make Tax Digital Compliance' are UK owned businesses. But as with everything, looks are not always what they appear..  Looking at the top 3 you have:-  Sage, Xero, and QuickBooks, its gets more interesting...  

In top spot, Sage...  Most business owners within the UK will know Sage, as it is an established businesses and accountants based in Newcastle. It is now the UK's largest UK based provider of accountant programs, yet while the management, history, and headquarters of Sage are considered 100% British, the financial ownership is not quite what it appears. When you look deeper, Sage ownership is roughly 40% controlled by US based investment giants. In fact Sage is a member of the FTSE 100, it is a staple in the global index funds managed by major US financial institutions. Dig deeper and you find US firms hold a dominant position in Sage's ownership structure. The biggest overall shareholder, currently holding approximately:- 10% of the company is:- BlackRock, Inc. (USA) The 2nd being:- The Vanguard Group, Inc. (USA), who own roughly:- 5.2%. of the stock. Then in 3ed place is:- Capital Research and Management Company (USA). They hold approximately:- 4.97% following a slight reduction in March 2026 of the business.

In 2nd place comes Xero.  Xero is originally from New Zealand.  It has become a major player within the UK accountancy markets, and is often mistaken for a US firm.  As of March 2026, the top 3 shareholders of Xero Limited (ASX: XRO) are a mix of Australian and US-based institutional giants. Top 3 Shareholders as of March 2026 are:-  Australian Super Pty Ltd, with:- 7.08%, The Vanguard Group, Inc. with:- 5.53%, and BlackRock, Inc. with:- 4.16%.

In 3rd place is QuickBooks.  They are primary a US representative with a significant share of the UK small business market. This package is owned by Intuit Inc. a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ. Unlike Sage or Xero, it is almost entirely owned by US based institutional investors, who hold roughly:- 84% of the company... Yes, no surprise, The top 3 Shareholders as of march for Quickbooks in March 2026, at the time we published this report are:- The Vanguard Group, Inc. with:- 10.46% Stake. BlackRock, Inc. with a:- 9.55% Stake. State Street Corporation, with a 4.72% Stake.

Our idea of opening up our markets mix of established global giants and not thinking about data security and who owns the intellectual rights to the systems we use is increasingly being built on shaky ground. Lack of investment in the UK often means, as you see in the other examples, US firms cashing in on our hesitations.

This benefits of  the very foundations of our internet:- the 'World Wide Web' (WWW) being invented in:- 1989, by the British Scientist:- Sir Tim Berners-Lee where quickly lost whilst our Government dithered. Like with computers the US quickly capitalised its underlying infrastructure which was largely developed in the USA, by the American Berners Lee, to take dominance, leaving us to struggling to get our specialist IT UK firms moving... Even though the UK's General Post Office (which later became BT) developed the technology for a text based information system called:- Prestel, in 1970's, unsurprisingly the US jumped on it. This lack of long term strategy has led the UK to abandon its history as a hardware pioneer and the cash with should have seen from it... Shockingly our slow nature of protecting our developments meant it took until the year 2000 to see BT sue the American Internet Service Provider (ISP) Prodigy Communications, seeking royalties from all US ISPs. Yet, the outcome was predictable, as a US Federal Judge dismissed the case in 2002, ruling that the internet's hyperlink technology was fundamentally different from BT's patented system.

This slow nature of seeing what we have and developing it has also lead to Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud controlling roughly:- 60% of the UK's cloud server market!  That means the vast proportion of UK businesses websites are hosted on US platforms and servers!

With cyber security threats hitting the UK infrastructure every second, it should come as no surprise even our anti virus companies are being taken over... This is also a major concern.  Both Sophos and Darktrace for example have been swallowed up by US firms.

Sophos was a Abingdon based cyber security and hardware company. Like so many it was acquired by the US. In this case the private equity firm:- Thoma Bravo, in 2020, for approximately:- $3.9 billion. Sounds good on paper but in the long run?

Then we have Darktrace, a cyber security firm, which uses AI to detect network threats. This firm was also acquired by the US private equity firm:- Thoma Bravo in late 2024, in a deal valued at roughly:- £4.3 billion.

Yet, the UK Government continues to pour money into foreign tech giants, recently pledging:- £500,000,000 in incentives US AI firms to invest here, while domestic firms often struggle to access even a fraction of that support. Often leading to them being sold on, like Darktrace, in order for them to continue to develop. This means we never see the long term benefits...

Other firms like DeepMind Technologies who became a world leading artificial intelligence lab, based in London. Thus firm needed more funds to develop and was again snapped up by Google (now Alphabet Inc.) in 2014 for an estimated £240 million.

That's not forgetting yet another London based start up which was acquired by Microsoft in:- 2016 for £250 million. SwiftKey was a firm known for its predictive keyboard technology used across millions of devices.

Our neighbours in Europe have already begun to wake up to this danger of US firms jumping in and taking over competitors. Thus keeping the dominance of US firms

Many European nations are also now citing grave privacy concerns regarding Windows 11 and its invasive AI integration, Germany and several other EU nations have initiated plans to migrate government networks away from Microsoft products in favour of open source, whilst European builds alternatives.

Most European countries now recognize that a nation without its own technology is a nation with a:- "kill switch" controlled by a foreign power. Whether it is the software in our cars, the systems powering our military, or our financial systems, letting a foreign power take full or most of the control of the nations infrastructure is.... That's before handing them the keys to use algorithms on social media that manipulate political discourse.... The Europeans have awoken to this existential danger but our nation continues to blindly sleepwalked into a state of digital annexation and irrelevance.

Even if the danger isn't just from the US, the US is currently, as the European Union has identified, the biggest clear and present danger.

The return of a protectionist:-"America First" narrative under leaders like Donald Trump should be the ultimate wake up call.

We talk about the freedom gained through Brexit, yet we are becoming a digital colony of the US with no say in our own future.

But its not just US we need to consider.... The UK's most prominent semiconductor and software design company, Arm Holdings (Cambridge) was famously targeted for a $40 billion (£31 billion) acquisition by the American graphics chip specialist Nvidia in 2020.

Arm's journey started at the very start of home computing with the Acorn Computers in Cambridge, where engineers:- Sophie Wilson and Steve Furber developed the 1st:- ARM1 chip, back in:- 1985, to power the Acorn Archimedes Home Computer. Today, most people had forgotten about it, but it became a major player in high performance processors for application rich devices like smart phones (iPhone, Samsung Galaxy) and tablets.

Then out of the blue its name hit the headlines again after being hidden for many years as the US firm Nvidia wanted to acquire it and the intellectual property (IP) licenses on its:- "blueprints."

Nvidia officially abandoned in February 2022 due to a high profile dispute that lead to insurmountable regulatory hurdles from multiple Governments to overcome, oddly that including issues the US itself, mostly a lawsuit from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

If they had been successful, it would have been the largest in the history of the semiconductor industry.

The UK Government should have then really taken notice. Arm Holdings (Cambridge) was the only major UK firm to stay British with a very long and mostly successful track record of developing the architectural for microprocessors. Despite the alarm bells that should have got the British Government blinked.. Now a Japanese investment conglomerate called:- SoftBank Group Corp. owns the vast majority of Arm Holdings plc, holding approximately 90% of the company's outstanding shares. So its not just the US we need to think about...

It is not enough to simply:- "buy local" at the butcher or the baker.

We must demand investment in local independent media and arts, UK owned IT infrastructure, and British science and technology. If we do not support our own today, we will have no voice left to be heard tomorrow and even if we have a voice, good luck getting it heard!

The IT landscape is a mix of established global giants and it takes more now to develop new ideas and to move forward. We need to realise it can take years to develop technology businesses, yet often funding for new businesses is next to impossible to get even for 1 year. The UK Government wants quick results, but without proper investment over long periods of time, any chance of getting the UK back on track will never happen. We need long term strategies and to cast the accountant's hesitations out. The UK has the knowledge. We have the history, but politically, we still not seeing the bigger picture.

What are your thoughts on this news topic? Email our Newsroom at:- News24@SouthportReporter.Com or send us a message on:- Mastodon, Facebook, or Twitter. Please do let us know as we love to hear your views....