Banning Bitcoin has never been necessary. If you want to do business in the UK (or any other place), then you need to comply with the rules of their financial institutions. That means doing the KYC, complying with the AML rules, and using whatever currency the central government issues. The government doesn’t need to promote anything. They are the ones who make the rules.
Capital flight isn’t especially relevant. People with capital will always want access to advanced economies, and to get that access you need to use the currency issued by the economy’s central bank. There’s also no reason think this would be a capital-hostile move, large capital transactions are already highly scrutinized and regulated. This would compromise the privacy and freedoms of individuals, who I doubt are going to care.
We will have to agree to disagree because your perspective, while understandable, I fundamentally believe is flawed in it views powers of the state as growing and large enough to overcome market forces that would otherwise chose superior money over inferior CBDC money. We could go on endless between us and in the end it comes down to how we perceive the nation state as evolving with technological changes that include Bitcoin and other modern private currencies. I’m fairly confident it’s much more likely globally the nation states will lose that battle in the end. However you will continue to argue that state power is large enough to counter this. It’s not a debate with a conclusion unless we wait for the future to happen. To your last comment, I would simply say you likely underestimate the scope and influence of black markets that will expand with the restrictions you imagine.
