{"id":89595,"date":"2026-02-01T07:05:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T07:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=89595"},"modified":"2026-02-01T07:05:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T07:05:29","slug":"politics-has-run-out-of-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/02\/01\/politics-has-run-out-of-road\/","title":{"rendered":"Politics has run out of road"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p4\">Neoliberal politics promised growth, efficiency, and renewal. What it has delivered is inequality, insecurity, and democratic exhaustion. The right has failed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">But, as this video explains, much of the left has no alternative to offer. Labour\u2019s fiscal rules, growth-first economics, and treatment of public services as costs are not left-wing ideas \u2013 they are neoliberalism with a softer tone.<\/p>\n<p>No wonder most people are alienated from the whole political process: it has run out of road.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">Without care at the centre of economic thinking, markets fragment society, trust collapses, and democracy weakens. Better management is not enough. We need care as a new organising principle.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zFzgN88sDL8?si=_kpQRSuZbvH2V1I5\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This is the audio version:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px); height: 150px;\" title=\"Politics has run out of road\" src=\"https:\/\/www.podbean.com\/player-v2\/?i=r9whz-1a3329c-pb&amp;from=pb6admin&amp;share=1&amp;download=1&amp;rtl=0&amp;fonts=Arial&amp;skin=f6f6f6&amp;font-color=auto&amp;logo_link=episode_page&amp;btn-skin=c73a3a\" width=\"100%\" height=\"150\" scrolling=\"no\" data-name=\"pb-iframe-player\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This is the transcript:<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>The political right wing has failed. Donald Trump has proven that. At the same time, the left wing has no answers. Whether \u200athat's in the UK, where the Labour Party is all at sea, or in the USA, where the Democrats are frankly well, floundering. The obvious point is that neoliberal politics, as now embraced by so-called left-wing parties, is out of road, and that matters, and that is what this video is all about.<\/p>\n<p>For the last year, politics has been dominated by the right. \u200aTrump, culture wars, blame, authoritarian instincts, all of them have been dominant in our political narratives. \u200aAnd now we can see the result: chaos, instability, economic incoherence. But there is a problem that no one wants to face, and that is that this has left the left wing of politics cruelly exposed without any answers to any of the questions that now arise.<\/p>\n<p>Let's be clear, the right-wing's moment is over. I know that it won't be dying as yet, but the point is, the current political conversation was set by the right. They promised growth, strength, and national renewal. What we have got instead is \u200ainstitutional breakdown, policy incoherence, economic nationalism without an economic plan, and personalised power replacing competence.<\/p>\n<p>Trump is not an aberration. He is the logical outcome of right-wing neoliberal populism, just as much as the \u200aright-wing leaders of European equivalent parties are, from Nigel Farage onwards. And \u200awhat is clear is that the right-wing has failed in the USA just as much as it will in Europe because it has no theory of care.<\/p>\n<p>There is no commitment within right-wing politics to public institutions.<\/p>\n<p>There is no concern within it for the distribution of income or wealth.<\/p>\n<p>There is no understanding of economic independence within their thinking. They presume everyone is an isolated individual with no relationship between the two.<\/p>\n<p>And there is no respect for limits, whether they be social or those imposed by our planet.<\/p>\n<p>They claimed markets were meant to solve everything. But the truth is, as we can now see, markets have solved nothing, \u200aand voters are rightly turning away from those who promised them something, which has turned out to be hollow.<\/p>\n<p>So \u200athe consequence is that the right is failing, but the question is left: what can the left offer instead? And this is where the real crisis begins, in my opinion, because when asked for answers, Labour has none.<\/p>\n<p>It's very clear \u200aKeir Starmer is clueless as to why he is in office as Prime Minister, and none of his leadership team have any answers either. \u200aNor does Andy Burnham. The great saviour from the north does, in fact, share the same economic philosophy that has left the rest of Labour in trouble because he, like them, is a neoliberal.<\/p>\n<p>Strip away the rhetoric, and what is left?<\/p>\n<p>Labour talks about fiscal rules that prioritise markets over people. That is all \u200aRachel Reeves has ever said she'll deliver.<\/p>\n<p>Growth is treated as the only objective of economic policy, irrespective of who gets the gains, and we know that the rich have always captured them.<\/p>\n<p>Public services are treated as costs, and care is treated as if it is a private problem and not a matter for collective concern.<\/p>\n<p>This is not a left-wing programme. It is neoliberalism with a softer tone, and neoliberalism has run out of road because, quite clearly, none of these prescriptions work.<\/p>\n<p>Neoliberalism assumes markets allocate resources efficiently, and that growth fixes distribution, and that the state must step back and care will somehow happen anyway. Maybe out of charity, maybe because those who need it will die and therefore fall off the end of waiting lists. Who knows? But none of this is true; without care, economies fragment, trust collapses, inequality deepens, democracy weakens, and that is the reality that we are living through.<\/p>\n<p>This means that better management is not enough. Starmer offered us competence without purpose.<\/p>\n<p>Burnham's offer is decency without a framework.<\/p>\n<p>Neither answers the central question: what is the economy for? \u200aIf the answer is still \"growth first, and care later\", then nothing changes, and voters will notice. That is the real crisis.<\/p>\n<p>And so this is where both the right-wing have failed in practice, and the left-wing have failed in imagination.<\/p>\n<p>We are stuck with a political class that cannot think beyond markets, marginal tweaks, focus groups, and the fear of challenging the power of capital.<\/p>\n<p>This is not leadership. This is exhaustion.<\/p>\n<p>We do not need a new leader. We need a new organising principle. One person isn't going to change everything; ideas can.<\/p>\n<p>A \u200apolitics of care means that the economy exists to support life itself and the life of everyone. \u200aAnd that public services are investments and not costs. And that care work is foundational and not residual. And that the state exists to enable resilience and not just growth.<\/p>\n<p>This is not utopian. This is what is necessary, and deep down, that's what people know. That's why this whole idea that the left has nothing to say in response to the right is so well known in the community at large. In fact, you hear it in so many interviews.<\/p>\n<p>They say, \"They all say the same thing,\" and they're right, they do. If all you have is neoliberalism, then in 2026, you are definitely out of road. \u200aThe right has proved it. They have failed. The left is about to because they've got no answers, and until politics is rebuilt around care, this crisis will not end. That is the conversation we're having here, even if no one else is anywhere else, because this conversation is the one that's going to change the political narrative and make it relevant again.<\/p>\n<p>What do you think? There's a poll down below.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Poll<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"polls-308\" class=\"wp-polls\">\n\t<form id=\"polls_form_308\" class=\"wp-polls-form\" action=\"\/Blog\/index.php\" method=\"post\">\n\t\t<p style=\"display: none;\"><input type=\"hidden\" id=\"poll_308_nonce\" name=\"wp-polls-nonce\" value=\"629b14ad94\" \/><\/p>\n\t\t<p style=\"display: none;\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"poll_id\" value=\"308\" \/><\/p>\n\t\t<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>What has failed most in today\u2019s politics?<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"polls-308-ans\" class=\"wp-polls-ans\"><ul class=\"wp-polls-ul\">\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-1372\" name=\"poll_308\" value=\"1372\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-1372\">Right-wing populism<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-1373\" name=\"poll_308\" value=\"1373\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-1373\">Neoliberal economics<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-1374\" name=\"poll_308\" value=\"1374\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-1374\">Labour\u2019s lack of imagination<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-1375\" name=\"poll_308\" value=\"1375\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-1375\">Politics that ignores care<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<\/ul><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><input type=\"button\" name=\"vote\" value=\"   Vote   \" class=\"Buttons\" onclick=\"poll_vote(308);\" \/><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"#ViewPollResults\" onclick=\"poll_result(308); return false;\" title=\"View Results Of This Poll\">View Results<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n\t<\/form>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"polls-308-loading\" class=\"wp-polls-loading\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-polls\/images\/loading.gif\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading ...\" title=\"Loading ...\" class=\"wp-polls-image\" \/>&nbsp;Loading ...<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Neoliberal politics promised growth, efficiency, and renewal. What it has delivered is inequality, insecurity, and democratic exhaustion. The right has failed. But, as this video<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/02\/01\/politics-has-run-out-of-road\/\"><em> Read the full article&#8230;<\/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":[35,106,223],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-politics","category-politics-of-care"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89595","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=89595"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89626,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89595\/revisions\/89626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}