Nearly two-thirds of Britons say very rich have too much influence on politics
https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2025/jan/25/nearly-two-thirds-of-britons-say-very-rich-have-too-much-influence-on-politics
Posted by Wagamaga
Nearly two-thirds of Britons say very rich have too much influence on politics
https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2025/jan/25/nearly-two-thirds-of-britons-say-very-rich-have-too-much-influence-on-politics
Posted by Wagamaga
19 Comments
Growing wealth inequality is increasing the risk of societal collapse, according to a new Fairness Foundation report that shows nearly two-thirds of Britons are concerned about the political influence of very rich people. People losing faith with democracy, economic shocks and environmental breakdowns are some of the potential triggers for a decline or collapse in social cohesion, the thinktank said.
One warning sign of democracy being undermined is a lack of public trust in institutions, so it commissioned a survey of 2,000 adults by Opinium, which found 63% believe the very rich have too much influence on UK politics, compared to 40% for businesses and religious organisations, and 38% for international organisations, such as the EU and UN.
Voters are broadly united on the issue, with 78% of LibDem supporters, 67% of Labour, 65% of Reform and 56% of Conservatives agreeing.
> Nearly two-thirds of Britons say very rich have too much influence on politics
Are the other third young children and the mentally infirm?
Maybe worth checking out Gary Stevenson (https://youtube.com/garyseconomics). While I personally don’t like him as a person and think he might be exaggerating his trading career, he’s usually spot on in regards to the topics he’s discussing (mostly how wealth inequality in our society affects us and the economy) and the message is worthwhile spreading.
Wealth has always bought power and influence and it is clear who the wealthy we elect work for
Democracy over soon. Billionaires buying elections.
unfortunately the rich say things just fine thanks.
most of the rich in the uk know better than to be overt, visible influencers like musk in america, but yeah, they’re pulling strings and buying favours
Fortunately the very rich are tiny in number, and everyone can vote.
I fully agree with this but it’s not a recent phenomena. It’s always been the case that money and business drives politics. George Soros who pushed the UK into a massive recession has spent a lot of those profits on influencing politics the world over, but in the other direction from the recent problematic rich dude.
If we find out any of our politicians are accepting money from the rich we should do what the eiffel tower is a 100 year celebration of.
> Voters are broadly united on the issue, with 78% of LibDem supporters, 67% of Labour, 65% of Reform and 56% of Conservatives agreeing.
I think this is the most telling thing. It’s not just that a majority of people recognise this, it’s a majority of people *from every party* who recognise this.
There’s a clear public consensus here, yet our political class are eager to ignore it, precisely because they’d rather keep the favour of the rich than actually represent the views of the public. Why challenge the undemocratic influence of the wealthy over our politics when it might reduce your opportunities to go into consultancy after politics?
It’s why it always seems so trite when our politicians, or users on here, insist that *the people voted for* a specific policy or platform. Our political class are clearly massively out of step with the public, and the public have very limited avenues to actually challenge that.
This is proof that you can never convince everyone of what’s right in front of them
This just goes to show that we need to limit the power of government so that even if it is taken over by the rich it wouldn’t make much difference.
In terms of magnitude of problems:
Growing wealth inequality >>>>>> immigration >>> transgender issues
But the media agenda is:
Immigration > transgender issues >>>>>>>>>> wealth inequality
I wonder who might be behind this
That because the poor are too easily divided by the colour of the guy who runs the local corner shops skin, or weather or not trans people are allowed to use the toilet.
Nearly two thirds of Britons wish they were rich enough to tell other people what to do, more like.
And yet they’ll happily vote for Reform or the tories because The Sun told them that the left wing parties want to force them to get gay married to Muslim immigrants while letting every trans person personally examine their genitals in the bathroom and the only way to stop it is to give billionaires a tax break.
The only way to fix this is to overturn citizen united. That would take a Dem supreme court. Hillary Clinton’s loss and RBG’s failure to retire guaranteed us a right wing supreme court for probably the next 20 years with the current rules in place. To change those rules would require a Dem presidency and full Dem congress and the Senate to eliminate the fillibuster. They could then add supreme court justices. All of this only if the far left and young people vote Dem no matter what.
It’s the UK. Rich people have had too much influence on politics for a thousand years.
But some of those people want Nigel Farage as PM, and he’s bringing in millions teaching people how to evade our tax laws.