{"id":89042,"date":"2026-01-09T07:12:44","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T07:12:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=89042"},"modified":"2026-01-09T07:12:44","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T07:12:44","slug":"we-the-people-feel-the-squeeze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/01\/09\/we-the-people-feel-the-squeeze\/","title":{"rendered":"We, the people, feel the squeeze"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Lucas, a commentator on his blog, offered this doggerel<\/a> in a comment<\/a>, and then gave me permission to share it more widely:<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

We, the people, feel the squeeze<\/strong><\/h2>\n

You may have heard it said,
\nAnd this is more than a rumour
\nThat the City of London and the mega-rich
\nAct like a cancerous tumour
\nThey suck our blood
\nWhich does us no good
\nThey act like a parasitic worm
\nDoes that make you squirm?<\/p>\n

They have influence and persuasion
\nMoney offshore and tax evasion
\nPrivate yachts and Private jets
\nHow loathsome their self-indulgence gets?
\nHuge contribution to global warming
\nThey sound ghastly and revolting.<\/p>\n

We, the people, feel the squeeze
\nPolluted rivers and polluted seas
\nCrumbling schools. Failing NHS
\nHungry children. Failing services
\nUnaffordable rents and houses
\nUnmended potholes in our roads
\nTime we were protesting.
\nTime we were revolting.<\/p>\n

The government won\u2019t act to clean up this mess
\nBecause they are in the pockets of the rightwing press
\nBecause they are \u201cbrainwashed\u201d by investment banks
\nInfluenced by antisocial neoliberal rightwing think-tanks
\nDirectorships, consultancies, lucrative bungs as thanks.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to legislate a change
\nIt\u2019s time for an economic rearrange<\/p>\n

Government get off your grubby self-interest knees
\nPlease, please, please, please listen to our pleas
\nRelease us from this inequality economic wheeze
\nDo something about this economic sleaze
\nBecause we the people feel the squeeze.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Lucas, a commentator on his blog, offered this doggerel in a comment, and then gave me permission to share it more widely: We, the
 Read the full article…<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[204,224],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economic-justice","category-neoliberalism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89042"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89043,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89042\/revisions\/89043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}