{"id":86635,"date":"2025-10-12T07:35:49","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T06:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=86635"},"modified":"2025-10-12T07:36:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T06:36:42","slug":"where-i-still-find-hope-for-deomocracy-in-the-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2025\/10\/12\/where-i-still-find-hope-for-deomocracy-in-the-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"Where I still find hope for democracy in the UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

A reader called Ellie Comber<\/a> wrote this comment on the blog overnight:<\/p>\n

I admit to being very frightened that democracy will be annihilated and that evil and greed will get the upper hand. Democracy is our safeguard against ruthless, amoral, uber-wealthy groups trampling on the rest of us and bringing in a new Dark Age. Please could you write about where you see any glimmerings of hope in the UK?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is a fair question. In fact, it's one of the questions of our age. When politics feels hollow, when wealth and power concentrate ever more tightly, and when public services crumble under the weight of neglect, it is not alarmist to fear for democracy; it is realistic. So where, amid that darkness, can any light still be found?<\/p>\n

People still care<\/strong><\/p>\n

The most obvious, and most easily overlooked, source of hope is in fact in Ellie Comber, who wrote that message. She cares. Other people care. They write, argue, protest, volunteer, and turn up. They have not switched off. Even those who have given up on democracy as it now is still argue what should be done about it.<\/p>\n

The most dangerous moment for democracy is not when people are angry, but when they are indifferent. That point has not yet arrived. Every letter written, every local campaign fought, every act of solidarity, from food banks to climate activism, is democracy in its living form. It is not found in Westminster, but in the communities and streets of this country.<\/p>\n

The economic story is being rewritten<\/strong><\/p>\n

For decades, we were told there was no alternative to neoliberalism: that markets knew best, that government was the problem, and that inequality was somehow a sign of success. That illusion is breaking down. What is more, politicians are noticing.<\/p>\n

Even within the establishment, there is a growing recognition that the economy does not work. Think-tanks, business groups, and even central banks now talk about well-being, resilience, and public investment. That intellectual shift matters. Every political change begins with an idea, and the old ideas are collapsing under their own contradictions.<\/p>\n

Some politicians are also in this group. The Greens and Plaid Cymru look to be so. Your Party might be in due course. The SNP leadership dithers, but its membership does not. There are signs of hope and awareness in politics, then.<\/p>\n

The young are not captured by old ideologies<\/strong><\/p>\n

It also seems that the younger generations are not wedded to the myths of the free market or the empire. I know there is a problem with some young men finding fascism appealing, but that is not typical. Most young people see through the housing con, the debt trap, and the climate crisis. Many may not yet be politically organised, but the values they express on fairness, sustainability, and cooperation are fundamentally democratic.<\/p>\n

When the demographic tide turns, as it must, those values will matter more than any old political slogan.<\/p>\n

Communities have not given up<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

What staggers me is just how much resistance there is to the failing neoliberal state within our communities. From community pubs to local energy projects, food banks, community interest companies, and local social media, all are re-emerging across the country. These are not just practical projects. They are also acts of self-government that reject the failure of neoliberal government and its denial of the importance of people and the places where they live.<\/span><\/p>\n

Each one is a small but real act of resistance to centralisation and corporate control, and each proves that people can govern themselves better than distant elites can.<\/span><\/p>\n

The cracks in the edifice are widening<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Power always looks impregnable until the day it collapses. Empires, markets, and ideologies all fall when they lose legitimacy. The neoliberal state is now in that phase \u2014 unable to solve problems, unwilling to admit failure, clinging to narratives no one still believes.<\/p>\n

That is dangerous, but it is also the precondition for renewal. History shows that when the old order loses coherence, imagination suddenly finds the space to break through.<\/p>\n

We are learning to care again<\/strong><\/p>\n

Finally, hope lies in the rediscovery of care as a political principle. The pandemic, the climate crisis, and the collapse of public services have reminded millions that we depend on each other and that care, not competition, sustains life.<\/p>\n

That understanding is seeping back into public consciousness. Once it takes root, it changes everything.<\/p>\n

Hope is not a feeling. It is an act and a choice to believe that what we do still matters. It lives wherever people refuse to give up on truth, kindness, and solidarity.<\/p>\n

Just look around you, and you will see people do care. Some do in their professional lives. Others do in their social lives. Some volunteer. Others lend support. But wherever you look, you can find people who clearly still do care, and know that we are fundamentally interdependent beings, needing each other more than anything else, and that our relationships with others, including those we do not know well or at all, and who are different to us, really do matter.<\/p>\n

Democracy may look fragile, but it survives through those quiet refusals to succumb to the indifference that neoliberalism demands and to insist instead that life should not be ruled by greed or fear. As long as that insistence continues, there is hope enough to work with.<\/p>\n

\n

Taking further action<\/b><\/p>\n

If you want to write a letter to your MP on the issues raised in this blog post, there is a ChatGPT prompt to assist you in doing so, with full instructions,\u00a0here.<\/a><\/p>\n

One word of warning, though: please ensure you have the correct MP. ChatGPT can get it wrong.<\/p>\n

\n

Comments\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

When commenting, please take note of this blog\u2019s comment policy,\u00a0which is available here<\/a>. Contravening this policy will result in comments being deleted before or after initial publication at the editor\u2019s sole discretion and without explanation being required or offered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A reader called Ellie Comber wrote this comment on the blog overnight: I admit to being very frightened that democracy will be annihilated and that
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