The V-Dem data is devastating and should be required reading. The finding that the UK sits between 0.5 and 0.6 on the Liberal Democracy Index - behind Canada, Australia, Japan, and most of the EU - is not a surprise to anyone who has watched the last two decades of British politics, but seeing it quantified by 4,200 independent experts across 32 million data points makes it harder to dismiss.

Where I'd push further is the question of mechanism. You identify what is happening - democratic backsliding - and where the best outcomes exist - Scandinavia, Switzerland. But the crucial question is why those countries produce better outcomes, and the answer isn't primarily taxation. It's institutional design. Proportional representation. Consensus governance. Codified constitutional protections. Social partnership models. Low corruption embedded in structural accountability, not just cultural expectation.

Britain doesn't lack civic spirit. Nine million people volunteered during the pandemic. What it lacks is the institutional architecture that converts civic spirit into democratic outcomes. The party system intercepts that energy and converts it into tribal loyalty instead. Until the machinery changes, "shoulders to the wheel" just means pushing harder on a wheel that's been disconnected from the axle.