>>Makes me wonder what else of our perceived/believed freedom is pure illusion...

Certainly the EU appears totalitarian to many outsiders. IMHO they're badly mishandling the Brexit negotiations: apparently they think it wise to "punish" the UK to dissuade others who might consider exit, but as Farage pointed out, they behave as if Brits are hostage to EU demands rather than freed from them. And if there's a payout expected for ongoing EU obligations, reasonably there ought to be some sort of shareholding in assets purchased with all of the historic UK contributions. And while the EU behaves as if a trade deal is a sword over the UK's head, in fact the UK can shrug, revert to WTO rules and simply walk if it comes to it, bearing in mind that the EU sells GBP70B more to the UK per annum than the UK does to the EU.