{"id":92224,"date":"2026-05-12T07:04:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T06:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=92224"},"modified":"2026-05-16T06:39:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T05:39:41","slug":"why-british-politics-no-longer-works-in-seven-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/05\/12\/why-british-politics-no-longer-works-in-seven-words\/","title":{"rendered":"Why British politics no longer works in seven words"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Why do so many people feel alienated from politics in Britain today? Why has trust in political parties collapsed? And why do so many voters now feel politically homeless?<\/p>\n<p>In this video, which I think is one of the most important we have made, I argue that seven words explain the transformation of UK politics over the last 50 years.<\/p>\n<p>Once, politics was organised around nature, enterprise, work and society. Political parties represented identifiable interests, and most people could understand where they fitted into the political map.<\/p>\n<p>The Conservatives championed enterprise. Labour represented work. The Liberals focused on society and democratic reform. The Greens emerged around nature and environmental concerns.<\/p>\n<p>But neoliberalism changed all of that.<\/p>\n<p>Today, I suggest British politics is increasingly organised around the financialised returns represented by rent, interest and product charges.<\/p>\n<p>Property speculation, financial returns, and intellectual property extraction now dominate political priorities. Enterprise and work have been hollowed out and are now ignored. Financial capital has replaced productive activity at the centre of political debate. Our political parties have fundamentally changed as a result.<\/p>\n<p>This video explains how that transformation happened, why it matters, and why it helps explain the rise of political disenchantment, Reform UK, constitutional tensions and the collapse of trust in mainstream politics.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to understand why Britain feels politically broken, this video explains the process that got us here.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yrbN3ce56EQ?si=JZXezcuubIMkM2Jc\" 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=\"Seven words that explain broken politics\" src=\"https:\/\/www.podbean.com\/player-v2\/?i=837xq-1abf211-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>In this video, I\u2019m going to suggest that seven words can explain how UK politics has changed beyond recognition over the last 50 years, which is the period for which I\u2019ve been observing it.<\/p>\n<p>50 years ago, most people felt politics served their interests.<\/p>\n<p>Today, mass disenchantment and alienation define our relationship with most of politics.<\/p>\n<p>This video will give you the analytical framework to understand what has created that change and how big the impact is, and stay with it to the end. I know that this is a longer-than-normal video for us, but this one will genuinely change how you see politics and how you understand what is happening now, and that is, I think, important. So stick with me on this one. It\u2019s going to be a good ride.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a framework for this video. I\u2019m going to look at what happened in the past and what happens now.<\/p>\n<p>Two sets of words capture the full story of that transformation, which is enormous and of great significance, and why we had the election results we saw in the UK - right across the UK - last week.<\/p>\n<p>The first four words I\u2019m going to use describe what politics was once about. The next three words will describe what it has become. Put them together, and we can see how the nature of politics in the UK has changed entirely and why we are in the mess we are now seeing.<\/p>\n<p>The argument I\u2019m presenting here is analytical, though, and not partisan, and that\u2019s why it\u2019s important to follow it through. I\u2019m not supporting any one party, saying anyone is right or wrong. I\u2019m just saying there\u2019s been a process of change.<\/p>\n<p>When I first engaged with politics 50 or more years ago, four issues defined the political landscape, and those gave us the first four words that I want to look at.<\/p>\n<p>The first of those was nature. Now, I know I was unusual in being interested in all things to do with the environment in the 1970s. Back then, it was a decidedly niche activity, but I have books on that bookshelf behind me right there that are from that era. I was interested back then in the relationship between human activity and the planet, and I wasn\u2019t alone. There were people writing about this issue at that time, and nature became an underlying and key issue within politics at that time and has remained so ever since. So that is our first word, nature.<\/p>\n<p>The second word is enterprise. Now this one is more familiar to most people. Enterprise is the drive to innovate and create value across all sectors of the economy, and not just business, but let\u2019s be clear about this. This idea of enterprise, which in turn leads to the idea of the entrepreneur, is most commonly associated with business, of course. That\u2019s where we hear it most often. But let\u2019s not pretend we don\u2019t hear it elsewhere. The idea that we can innovate business processes or systems, processes or processes of change to add value exists right across society.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, it happens in business, but it also happens in government. It happens in local government. It happens in schools, universities, hospitals and other public sector organisations. It happens in the voluntary and charity sectors as well. The fact is, enterprise is key to human development.<\/p>\n<p>But in one particular case, that of business where the desire is to make more profit, this became an identifiable political force, and it became closely associated with one political party. Enterprise, then, is a keyword in political thinking. And back in the 1970s, it was everywhere, as it still should be. And I\u2019m not arguing there\u2019s anything wrong with this idea that we should innovate and create value. The fact is, it\u2019s there, and it gives us our second word.<\/p>\n<p>We have nature, and we have enterprise, and the third word that I want to talk about is work. Work is, of course, all about paid employment and rights and the rewards that people are paid, as well as other things which are just as important. There is a need for the social safety net that we should have in society to support those who cannot work, whether they are made unemployed through no fault of their own, or whether they cannot work because of ill health or disability or whatever it might be, and we must look at those issues as well. The point is, work is a key issue within our society and without work, there would be no wealth, and therefore, the world of work provides us with our third word with which we can view the world of politics as it was.<\/p>\n<p>The last of these four words is society. Society is the word which I can use to provide the overarching narrative of politics, which looks at democracy, representation, culture, identity, and international relations. That\u2019s been key to many political parties over the years and is, of course, particularly important at this moment when we look at the fractures which exist within UK politics.<\/p>\n<p>Together, these four words spell one individual word, and that is news, N.E.W.S., results in that mnemonic, which makes it easy to remember what these four words are.<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s particularly important because our political parties mapped very clearly onto these words at the time that I\u2019m talking about, 50 or so years ago, before the rise of the neoliberal era in British politics. Each major party had a primary focus within this framework.<\/p>\n<p>Nature was clearly the focus of the Ecology Party 50 years ago, and that went on to become the Greens, who we still know now. This was their domain, and nobody else\u2019s for a long period of time. Others now talk about it, but the Greens should still own this space.<\/p>\n<p>Enterprise was the priority of the Conservatives; let\u2019s be clear about that. Although it should have been seen everywhere, it was the profit-motivated form of enterprise that became associated with the Conservative Party, with business enterprise being seen as the engine of prosperity, although the issue was much bigger than that.<\/p>\n<p>Work, in contrast, was the obvious heartland of Labour. Issues to do with employment, employee rights, collective bargaining, and the culture of care and the social safety net were all at the epicentre of everything that Labour was about 50 years ago. This was their part of the political terrain, and everybody knew it.<\/p>\n<p>Society was where the Liberals were to be found, and of course, they later morphed into the Liberal Democrats as we now know them. They\u2019ve always had a focus on ethics, on community, on voting systems and proportional representation, and also on international relations, hence their focus on issues around the European Union, for example. For them, these issues were paramount.<\/p>\n<p>And in the 1970s, we did have the SNP, the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru, the party of Wales, and they emphasised national culture and distinct identity as well. They also came within that framework of society within the four words that I\u2019m talking about.<\/p>\n<p>So, we end up with this chart, and this chart is important because it shows this very clear mapping between a political party and one of these words.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-92233\" src=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-11-at-18.56.02-550x298.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"298\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-11-at-18.56.02-550x298.png 550w, https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-11-at-18.56.02-768x416.png 768w, https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-11-at-18.56.02-600x325.png 600w, https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-11-at-18.56.02.png 1130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Nature and the Greens.<\/p>\n<p>Enterprise and the Conservatives.<\/p>\n<p>Labour and work.<\/p>\n<p>Liberal Democrats, the SNP, Plaid Cymru, and various aspects of society.<\/p>\n<p>We knew where we were, we knew what the priorities of these parties were, and we knew that we could understand where we stood in relation to this chart as well.<\/p>\n<p>If your priority was work, you were likely to vote for Labour.<\/p>\n<p>If your priority was Welsh identity, you knew who you were going to vote for.<\/p>\n<p>If you thought business enterprise was the most important issue, it followed that you voted Tory, and so on.<\/p>\n<p>The point is this. This was a politics in which real interests were genuinely represented.<\/p>\n<p>Enterprise and work between them covered most people\u2019s daily economic lives.<\/p>\n<p>Nature and society gave meaning to the wider world people inhabited, and the parties were distinct. Their priorities were legible and real, but there were overlaps. Let\u2019s not pretend otherwise, but you could locate yourself within this map and feel represented.<\/p>\n<p>And then the Thatcherite neoliberal revolution changed everything. The revolution fundamentally changed how parties define their purpose.<\/p>\n<p>Three words now describe the actual priorities of the main UK political parties. Not all of them, but most of them, each describing the priority they give to a form of financialised return within the neoliberal economy.<\/p>\n<p>That is the big change. We are not talking about the idea they represent. We now talk about these parties and the difference between them on the basis of the financial return that they prioritise, all within this neoliberal framework.<\/p>\n<p>The first of these words is rent, and that, of course, is the income derived from property ownership and rising house prices. These have become an obsession for some.<\/p>\n<p>The second word we need to use is interest, which is, of course, the return on money, and I use this word as a proxy for the interests of banks and the whole of the interests of the City of London. That word is about financialised returns other than rent.<\/p>\n<p>The third word that I use is actually two words, but it\u2019s product charges, and these are the payments made on patents, copyrights, and intellectual property in a deeply financialised world in which there is a high proportion of tax haven activity.<\/p>\n<p>Now, product charges in this sense are incredibly important because we are seeing changes in patterns of consumption as a result. We pay copyright fees in effect, when we reward Spotify or Apple or whoever it might be for the purchase of our music, which we don\u2019t own, we just rent. We pay patent fees inside most of the products that we buy. We buy intellectual property because so much of the world is now branded.<\/p>\n<p>Together, these three words spell out R.I.P. That does not stand for rest in peace. It stands for rent, interest, and product charges.<\/p>\n<p>Now, let\u2019s look at how that has changed the party political perspective.<\/p>\n<p>The Conservative Party has shifted from being the party of enterprise to being the party of rent and property ownership. Rent is its obsession. Buy-to-let barely existed 50 years ago. Now it\u2019s seen as what enterprise is all about, and it has almost come to define middle-class wealth, whilst rising residential property values have become the foundation of the Baby Boomers\u2019 prosperity, and I, of course, am one of them. The party, once associated with business, now prioritises property exploitation as the basis of prosperity. This is why genuine enterprise in the UK has collapsed as a consequence. There is no political interest in enterprise anymore. There is only interest in property speculation from people like the Conservative Party.<\/p>\n<p>So, how has Labour changed? Let\u2019s be clear. Labour has abandoned workers and everything to do with their rights. From the early 1990s onwards, Labour set out to convince the City of London that it was its friend. The strategy was simple. It was to persuade the City to provide it with donations and support that would ensure that the Tories, by then discredited, could be thrown out of office. Since then, Labour has aligned with all its major donors, and all of them have wealth rooted in the City of London. Trade unions, workers\u2019 rights and equality have been progressively sidelined, and Labour has become the party of the banker and not the party of the worker. This change has been absolutely fundamental. Labour is now the party of the City, the party of interest.<\/p>\n<p>So, where does Reform fit into all of this? Where does the new kid on the block, who has arrived over the last 50 years, fit into the R.I.P. framework? Reform presents itself as the champion of ordinary people standing up against the establishment, but in practice it looks nothing like that. Its funding comes from people who appear to profit from intellectual property extraction and offshore activity, and the world of financial engineering and product charges, including the exploitation of crypto and gold, are its real domains. Richard Tice\u2019s promotion of lower taxation through the use of carefully engineered structures designed to reduce his tax bills reflects this. This is a type of activity closely related to product charging, and it perfectly reflects Reform\u2019s current alignment.<\/p>\n<p>Reform might say it is a party of the people, but it actually looks as if it is serving the interests of those who are offshore, who are financial engineers and who have no interest whatsoever in creating real value. I do not trust what Reform says; instead, I look at what they do, and what they do is seemingly serve the interests of those who are funding them. In that case, Reform is the party of product charges. It is the P in R.I.P.<\/p>\n<p>So, where are the Liberal Democrats in all of this? I suggest they are no longer a party of society. Since the time that Nick Clegg became leader of this party, sometime before 2010, and as was seen most clearly during the coalition years between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, the party has changed its spots very decisively. Sir Vince Cable exemplified this with his alignment with the City and business interests when he was Trade Secretary in that coalition government, and its stance on Europe is now decidedly pro-capital and pro-financial sector orientation. The party that was once associated with a democratic society now also serves financial capital. I think that, like Labour, it is now a party for the bankers and of interest on this new map.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, we come up with this map here.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-92232\" src=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-11-at-18.56.26-550x231.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"231\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-11-at-18.56.26-550x231.png 550w, https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-11-at-18.56.26-768x323.png 768w, https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-11-at-18.56.26-600x252.png 600w, https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-11-at-18.56.26.png 1132w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When we look at rents, property prices, and property speculation, we now think of the Conservatives.<\/p>\n<p>When we think of interest, bankers in the City of London, we now think about Labour and the Liberal Democrats.<\/p>\n<p>When we think about product charges, financialisation and the use of offshore, we think about Reform.<\/p>\n<p>That is where those four political parties are now. That is where their allegiances lie. We have a totally different map now of what their priorities are.<\/p>\n<p>At the same point, the map, which we saw previously, the one of N.E.W.S., that was nature, enterprise work and society, has been hollowed out. This is my new version of that map.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-92231\" src=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-11-at-18.56.42-550x270.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"270\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-11-at-18.56.42-550x270.png 550w, https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-11-at-18.56.42-768x377.png 768w, https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-11-at-18.56.42-600x295.png 600w, https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-11-at-18.56.42.png 1124w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We still have nature being associated with the Greens. That thread still holds.<\/p>\n<p>And society is now most closely associated with the activities of the SNP and Plaid Cymru because they are talking about society and the nature of what it is to be Scottish and Welsh, and the culture that goes with it.<\/p>\n<p>But enterprise has been abandoned entirely. There is now no major political party that champions this activity. Business has been ignored by the political hierarchies of the UK, and work has also been abandoned. There is no major party that now genuinely sets out to represent workers\u2019 interests in this country, and as a consequence, care for people has also fallen aside.<\/p>\n<p>The hollowing out is not accidental. It is the product of neoliberal transformation. Enterprise and work, once at the epicentre of British political argument, have now been displaced by the interests of financial capital. That is my point. The parties that once served producers and workers now serve rentiers and financiers. In England, there is now no party that speaks credibly for either enterprise or work.<\/p>\n<p>And so we end up with this, my final map.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-92244\" src=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-12-at-08.10.45-550x425.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"425\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-12-at-08.10.45-550x425.png 550w, https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-12-at-08.10.45-388x300.png 388w, https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-12-at-08.10.45-768x594.png 768w, https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-12-at-08.10.45-518x400.png 518w, https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-12-at-08.10.45.png 942w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This is the new political map of the UK. We have joined the two maps together. Let\u2019s be clear. That\u2019s all I\u2019ve done. We\u2019ve taken the old map, which many of us still think should exist, and added to it the new map, which is how politicians think about themselves and their purpose in life.<\/p>\n<p>The consequence is that we can see there is an identity crisis at the heart of British political life.<\/p>\n<p>Industrial policy has been abandoned, enterprise has gone, genuine business activity is ignored, and that\u2019s true in business, but also in government and also in voluntary and other organisations as well. This idea that we innovate for the common good has disappeared altogether. No wonder we\u2019re a country which is losing its prosperity and its means to innovate.<\/p>\n<p>Workers are now treated as a means to an end. And that is a general consideration across the political spectrum, and not as people with rights to protect.<\/p>\n<p>Those who seek agency as people are, as a result, turning to the Greens or to the independence parties in Scotland and Wales, and we saw the consequence of that in last week\u2019s elections.<\/p>\n<p>Whilst Reform exploits the language of agency but serves the interests of capital, a situation which it will try to maintain for as long as possible, but which will at some time in the future be exposed, at which point its whole edifice will collapse because that\u2019s what always happens to far-right parties. They cannot maintain the duality and the sheer hypocrisy of their positions.<\/p>\n<p>Politics has moved from news, N.E.W.S. to R.I.P., and that shift is not metaphorical.<\/p>\n<p>The old map represented real economic and social interests across society.<\/p>\n<p>The new map represents the interests of property finance and capital extraction.<\/p>\n<p>Most people\u2019s lives fall outside this new map entirely. That is the root cause of mass disenchantment with British politics.<\/p>\n<p>This is the story of politics throughout my adult life.<\/p>\n<p>We have moved from the N.E.W.S. map to the R.I.P. Map.<\/p>\n<p>Understanding that requires that we see what has been lost as well as we see what has changed.<\/p>\n<p>Enterprise and work have been lost from British political culture. That matters; that matters to me above all else in a sense. Without a culture of enterprise and without a culture of work, working together to achieve outcomes which are mutually beneficial, which, let\u2019s be honest, used to be the case - of course, there were tensions, of course, there always will be - but nonetheless, the combination of enterprise and work does produce value, and without that, we cannot restore British democracy. We cannot restore British business. We cannot restore British government. We cannot restore British schools, hospitals, universities, and all the other types of organisations that we need to make our society function, and without that, we cannot make our world work again.<\/p>\n<p>We need to move on from this politics, which is wholly about financial concerns, unless you are supporting the Greens, the SNP and Plaid Cymru, and they are important and valuable exceptions because they highlight that there is another possibility, then we have no chance of going forward. That is my point. This is where we are. How we move on from here is the subject of the next video, but what I want to know from you now is, does this logic work for you?<\/p>\n<p>Please leave us a comment. Please take part in our poll, which is down below. Please do share this video if you like it. I think the messages in here are important and help people understand how we have reached the mess we\u2019re in, and please also think about subscribing to this channel.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Poll<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"polls-393\" class=\"wp-polls\">\n\t<form id=\"polls_form_393\" class=\"wp-polls-form\" action=\"\/Blog\/index.php\" method=\"post\">\n\t\t<p style=\"display: none;\"><input type=\"hidden\" id=\"poll_393_nonce\" name=\"wp-polls-nonce\" value=\"8d0ac040e8\" \/><\/p>\n\t\t<p style=\"display: none;\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"poll_id\" value=\"393\" \/><\/p>\n\t\t<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Has UK politics stopped representing ordinary people\u2019s real interests?<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"polls-393-ans\" class=\"wp-polls-ans\"><ul class=\"wp-polls-ul\">\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-1737\" name=\"poll_393\" value=\"1737\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-1737\">Yes \u2014 politics now serves wealth and finance<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-1738\" name=\"poll_393\" value=\"1738\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-1738\">Partly \u2014 some parties still represent real interests<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-1739\" name=\"poll_393\" value=\"1739\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-1739\">No \u2014 parties still reflect voters\u2019 priorities<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-1740\" name=\"poll_393\" value=\"1740\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-1740\">Not sure \/ need to think about it<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<\/ul><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><input type=\"button\" name=\"vote\" value=\"   Vote   \" class=\"Buttons\" onclick=\"poll_vote(393);\" \/><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"#ViewPollResults\" onclick=\"poll_result(393); return false;\" title=\"View Results Of This Poll\">View Results<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n\t<\/form>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"polls-393-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<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why do so many people feel alienated from politics in Britain today? Why has trust in political parties collapsed? And why do so many voters<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/05\/12\/why-british-politics-no-longer-works-in-seven-words\/\"><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":[96,14,204,35,16,230,147,118,224,106,223,214],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservatives","category-corruption","category-economic-justice","category-economics","category-ethics","category-greens","category-inequality","category-labour","category-neoliberalism","category-politics","category-politics-of-care","category-reform"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92224","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=92224"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92245,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92224\/revisions\/92245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}