{
  "id": 7757612,
  "title": "Did call centres cause Brexit?",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/16/did-call-centres-cause-brexit",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-09-16T09:42:51.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "City AM",
    "slug": "city-am",
    "url": "https://www.cityam.com/did-call-centres-cause-brexit/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Over the course of a generation, countless routine interactions with government agencies, utility companies, financial institutions, and large corporations shifted from personal to automated, standardized processes. Initially, each change was made to increase operational efficiency. However, when viewed over an entire lifetime, these seemingly minor modifications have collectively impacted our perception of individual agency.\n\nLucy Harris suggests that these mundane frustrations provide insight into Britain's anti-establishment sentiment. The \"Take Back Control\" slogan resonated with people who felt they had lost control over their lives. The question then arises: where did this pervasive sense of powerlessness originate? The answer lies in seemingly insignificant places such as call-centre queues, online portals, reset web forms, and representatives who lack the authority to act. These seemingly inconsequential elements form the \"spinning pizza wheel of doom,\" representing a political philosophy of widespread bureaucratic incompetence.\n\nThroughout the decades leading up to the 2016 Brexit vote, Britain became a more complex and consolidated society. Large organizations faced the challenge of managing millions of citizens and customers simultaneously. The solution was to create extensive databases, establish extensive call centres, standardize every interaction, and outsource operations to large contractors. This processification of daily life brought benefits such as lower prices, broader access, and consistent administrative decisions. However, it also resulted in the outsourcing of practical discretion to software, diminishing human interaction and decision-making authority.\n\nThe \"agency gap\" refers to the significant gap between what modern administrative systems demand of individuals (often designed and developed by university graduates) and what those individuals can realistically accomplish without assistance. A significant portion of the population, particularly those with limited digital literacy or complex life circumstances, struggle with these online systems. As public services increasingly adopt automation, the burden of administrative failure is shifted from the system to the individual, creating resentment towards a system-first approach.\n\nPolitical movements like Reform UK exploit this frustration by proposing policies that target the administrative process, such as linking tax rebates to call-waiting times. This resentment has contributed to the political landscape, with leaders like Keir Starmer facing challenges due to their perceived procedural and managerial approach. The shift towards a process-first mindset has eroded individual agency, leaving voters disillusioned and seeking alternatives.",
  "summary": "Over a generation, millions of ordinary interactions with government, utility providers, financial institutions and corporate giants became remote, standardised and procedural. Each individual change was introduced in the name of operational efficiency. But accumulated across a lifetime, they altered something more fundamental: our sense that an individual can make things happen, says Lucy Harris…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}