I recently published a blog post exploring Britain’s historic resistance to continental dominance and the risks of the current “Brexit reset”: “Why the UK Should Firmly Say ‘No, Thank You’ to the EU’s Ever-Closer Union and Bonapartist Dreams” https://curtis-neil.blogspot.com/2026/04/why-uk-should-firmly-say-no-thank-you.html
Having re-read the relevant sections in Andrew Roberts’ Napoleon: A Life (2014), one parallel feels particularly relevant.
Napoleon had read Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations by 1802, yet he believed Britain’s Industrial Revolution was too advanced for France to compete against in open markets. He responded with domestic Colbertist policies (subsidies, technical schools, prizes, and industrial espionage) while launching the Continental System in 1806 — a sweeping economic blockade designed to shut British goods out of Europe and force the continent into a French-led, self-sufficient bloc.
The System backfired badly. It damaged trade-dependent regions across France and its allies far more than it hurt Britain. Ports stagnated, industries suffered, shortages and inflation spread, and Napoleon eventually had to relax parts of it because the self-inflicted pain was unsustainable. Britain diversified its global trade and endured.
This history rhymes uncomfortably with today’s EU push for “strategic autonomy” — protected markets, heavy subsidies for “European champions,” local content rules, and coordinated industrial plans in green tech and beyond. The instinct seems to be building a more insulated continental system rather than fully embracing internal competition and global openness.
Recent conversations with friends in New Zealand brought this home on a personal level. They vividly recalled the devastating impact when the UK joined the European Economic Community in 1973. For New Zealand, it meant the sudden loss of long-standing preferential access to the British market — which had taken the vast majority of their butter, cheese, lamb, and other agricultural exports.
The effect was truly painful: export earnings dropped sharply, the economy faced recession, and the country had to scramble for years to find new markets and rearrange its entire agricultural sector. Many New Zealanders described it not just as an economic blow, but as a profound cultural and emotional rupture — as if a valued member of their family had died. The UK had been their closest trading partner and cultural tie for generations; its pivot toward Europe left them feeling cut off and forced into painful adaptation.
The UK may have seen joining the EEC as beneficial at the time, but for Commonwealth countries like New Zealand, it brought years of genuine hardship.
As my blog argues, the UK now has every reason to firmly say “No, thank you” to deeper entanglement through Starmer’s reset and dynamic alignment on EU rules. Post-Brexit trade diversification is already working, with non-EU partners (including the US, Australia, New Zealand via CPTPP, and others) growing in importance. Repeating the pattern of prioritizing a European bloc would once again risk constraining independent deals and overlooking longstanding Commonwealth relationships.
The EU has genuine strengths, but Britain can maintain practical cooperation in areas like security while preserving sovereignty and pursuing agile global partnerships. True resilience comes from controlling our own levers — not surrendering them to another continental system.
I’d value your thoughts on this Napoleonic parallel, the New Zealand perspective, and the broader case for saying “No, thank you.”
Source for the Napoleonic details: Andrew Roberts, Napoleon: A Life (2014), especially sections on economic policy during the Peace of Amiens and the Continental System.
You can read the full blog post here: https://curtis-neil.blogspot.com/2026/04/why-uk-should-firmly-say-no-thank-you.html
Best regards, Curtis Neil
Curtis Anthony Neil/Grok 4.0/ LibreOffice. April 15th. 2026 AD.
Bakersfield, California, USA, North America, Planet Earth (Terra), the third planet from the Sun (Sol), Solar System, Orion Arm, Milky Way Galaxy
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