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Power Trip: A Decade of Policy, Plots and Spin
From 1999 to 2009, Damian McBride worked at the heart of the Treasury and No10, becoming one of the most controversial political figures of the last decade, before a notorious scandal propelled him onto the front pages and out of Downing Street. In Power Trip he writes candidly about his experiences at the heart of government, and provides the first genuine insider's account of Gordon Brown's time as Chancellor and Prime Minister. He reveals the personal feuds, political plots, and media manipulation which lay at New Labour's core, and provides a fascinating, funny, and at times shocking account of how government really works. His own journey from naive civil servant to disgraced spindoctor is also laid bare with brutal honesty. Power Trip is a riveting memoir and an eye-opening expose of politics in Britain.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published September 25, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
March 5, 2014
I'm a sucker for a weighty political tome about the New Labour years but unlike the many others I have read such as Alastair Campbell’s diaries or Lawnsley’s ‘End of the Party ‘Power Trip’ was definitely Team Brown.
Damian McBride was a key member of Brown’s inner circle, a civil servant who followed his boss fro the Treasury to Number 10. Nick-named Mad Dog, he was Brown’s key hatchet man and was a feared figure in the Westminster village. McBride lived by the sword and was certainly eviscerated by it, having been caught smearing political opponents in a notorious email (email-gate) he was ignominiously forced to resign and was cast out of Brown’s inner circle and out of Westminster.
It was refreshing to read about this familiar period from the view of the Treasury and latterly from within the Brown government, giving a whole different perspective on the troubled, unloved Brown. Brown is undoubtedly the least popular Prime Minister of living memory but his intervention during the financial crisis may have saved the world economy. His reputation may yet be salvaged. Reading this book, reminded me how close we actually came to financial armageddon and to understand Brown’s handling of the crisis should be enough to rehabilitate his reputation for future generations.
Although widely disliked, Brown himself was a political powerhouse, a canny political and media operator and a man of deep-personal conviction. He out of anyone was truly in politics to do good. Compare Brown to Teflon Tony who in retrospect has made the office of PM seem like a staging post on the way to becoming a millionaire member of the global-elite
As a catholic, McBride's account of his time is definitely a mea culpa. It is as if he is atoning for his sins, fessing up to all the bad things he did in years as Brown's press advisor to absolve his guilt. This memoir is an expiation and as such will give you the fullest picture of how politics really works. In the post-Leveson world, with more focus on the interplay between government and media this practical guide of how leaks, private briefings, smears work is invaluable. As such this book is a sort of modern day, 'Book of the Courtier’ or Machiavelli’s ‘The Prince’ but for press advisors.
The book is further bolstered by the personal. McBride is not sugar coating his actions and does not present himself as some sort of hero. He is a sad, flawed man, a borderline alcoholic who abandons any principals because of his rabid competitiveness. His team must win whether it is Team Brown or more generally Team Labour regardless of who gets hurt, and lots of people do.This human element of politics is mostly missing from most political biographies I have read. We read about actions, but the psychology behind them is mostly missing. His depiction of the seductive and conversely destructive nature of politics is illuminating.
Yet there is extreme pathos in ‘Power Trip’, you feel sorry for McBride who probably deserved everything he got. Here is a man who dedicated so much of his personal life to his job and is cast-out out of the Westminster, a world he most cherished and one he can no longer return to. The book transcends the merely political biography and becomes almost biblical, almost.
McBride has a keen political intelligence and the passages where he discusses the failings of the current government are based on his insider’s knowledge of how government works. He writes detailed sections about the civil service, about how the budget is formulated and gives a nuts and bolts look at the workings of government itself. It is this sort of detail which is lost amongst discussion about ideology and speeches in most political histories. Yet I think the most important insider-look McBride offers is of the two Eds (Miliband and Balls). McBride worked closely with these two men over many years and his analysis of their characters, of their strengths and their weaknesses is surely important given these two men may end up in Number 10 and Number 11, hopefully with less acrimony than previous Labour incumbents.
Damian McBride was a key member of Brown’s inner circle, a civil servant who followed his boss fro the Treasury to Number 10. Nick-named Mad Dog, he was Brown’s key hatchet man and was a feared figure in the Westminster village. McBride lived by the sword and was certainly eviscerated by it, having been caught smearing political opponents in a notorious email (email-gate) he was ignominiously forced to resign and was cast out of Brown’s inner circle and out of Westminster.
It was refreshing to read about this familiar period from the view of the Treasury and latterly from within the Brown government, giving a whole different perspective on the troubled, unloved Brown. Brown is undoubtedly the least popular Prime Minister of living memory but his intervention during the financial crisis may have saved the world economy. His reputation may yet be salvaged. Reading this book, reminded me how close we actually came to financial armageddon and to understand Brown’s handling of the crisis should be enough to rehabilitate his reputation for future generations.
Although widely disliked, Brown himself was a political powerhouse, a canny political and media operator and a man of deep-personal conviction. He out of anyone was truly in politics to do good. Compare Brown to Teflon Tony who in retrospect has made the office of PM seem like a staging post on the way to becoming a millionaire member of the global-elite
As a catholic, McBride's account of his time is definitely a mea culpa. It is as if he is atoning for his sins, fessing up to all the bad things he did in years as Brown's press advisor to absolve his guilt. This memoir is an expiation and as such will give you the fullest picture of how politics really works. In the post-Leveson world, with more focus on the interplay between government and media this practical guide of how leaks, private briefings, smears work is invaluable. As such this book is a sort of modern day, 'Book of the Courtier’ or Machiavelli’s ‘The Prince’ but for press advisors.
The book is further bolstered by the personal. McBride is not sugar coating his actions and does not present himself as some sort of hero. He is a sad, flawed man, a borderline alcoholic who abandons any principals because of his rabid competitiveness. His team must win whether it is Team Brown or more generally Team Labour regardless of who gets hurt, and lots of people do.This human element of politics is mostly missing from most political biographies I have read. We read about actions, but the psychology behind them is mostly missing. His depiction of the seductive and conversely destructive nature of politics is illuminating.
Yet there is extreme pathos in ‘Power Trip’, you feel sorry for McBride who probably deserved everything he got. Here is a man who dedicated so much of his personal life to his job and is cast-out out of the Westminster, a world he most cherished and one he can no longer return to. The book transcends the merely political biography and becomes almost biblical, almost.
McBride has a keen political intelligence and the passages where he discusses the failings of the current government are based on his insider’s knowledge of how government works. He writes detailed sections about the civil service, about how the budget is formulated and gives a nuts and bolts look at the workings of government itself. It is this sort of detail which is lost amongst discussion about ideology and speeches in most political histories. Yet I think the most important insider-look McBride offers is of the two Eds (Miliband and Balls). McBride worked closely with these two men over many years and his analysis of their characters, of their strengths and their weaknesses is surely important given these two men may end up in Number 10 and Number 11, hopefully with less acrimony than previous Labour incumbents.
October 12, 2025
probably one of my favourite reads this year but only relevant if you’re a heavy political nerd and/or work in PR
September 26, 2016
A book that made plenty of headlines on its 2013 publication and tabloid serialisation, brutish Labour spin doctor McBride's account of his time at the Treasury and No. 10, working for Gordon Brown is a great, illuminating, and even an opinion-changing read. Albeit with some huge and fundamental flaws.
The Gordon Brown portrayed by someone who knew him well is very different from the socially bumbling, policy wonk automaton who took up the leadership of the Labour Party (and the country) at the arse-end of New Labour. This Gordon Brown is, at times, even more awkward, other-worldly and significantly more prone to rage than the one the public saw. But he's also a far more sympathetic figure. Immensely hardworking, hugely intelligent, protective of his family, even at the expense of his career prospects, and essentially, the sort of principled, brave, committed politician people claim they want to see. And then vote for the slick fella who looks good on telly or peddles a populist narrative that 'feels' true.
McBride's closeness to the two Eds (Balls and Miliband) also reveals much about them that made me at least somewhat reassess my feelings about them. Not enough to make me think either of them should ever have been in a leadership position but enough to leave them, in my mind at least, bigger, better men. But the book is really about Brown. And McBride, a man who comes across in a far less admirable way.
Is McBride really being brutally honest when he writes about his thuggish behaviour, his 'heroic' drinking, his arrogance and his sometimes rampant stupidity or is he simply using the old Hulk Hogan trick whereby the giant, orange bullshitter would admit to something startlingly 'honest' that would allow him to sucker his reader/viewer/interviewer into thinking he was being straight about everything else? It's impossible to tell. But at least he has the decency to share a fantastic party conference anecdote about Ed Balls having to wake him up by throwing a binful of cold water over his naked, drunken body.
It's certainly hard to believe everything he says when he discusses just how much of his work involved lying, briefing against his own party and saying anything he could to gain an advantage. But McBride tells his story well and, along the way, has plenty of interesting, and convincing, things to say - from the way Westminster runs and the ever-decreasing circles of talent and experience that recruitment methods of the upper ranks of the civil service inevitably lead to, or the importance of Select Committee work and how to handle lobby journalists. There's even some fascinating stuff (honestly, there really is) on how Gordon Brown's Treasury decided what should go into the Budget and some none-too-subtle digs at his successors' (both Darling and Osborne) own methods, abilities and characters.
McBride is full of intriguing insights, including how to break bad news to the volatile Brown, how to look after the British press on foreign trips, what British politicians can and should learn from American politics and Brown's genuine passion for international development. He shares his theory that the Blair-Brown soap opera was the best thing possible for Labour because it kept the focus on them, and their political dominance of the political market, not the Tories. It's not entirely convincing, and he doesn't seem to see how that led directly to the abortive coups and intrigues against Prime Minister Brown (and his successors) that followed but it it as least interesting.
No fan of the EU (he came out pro-Brexit before the referendum) McBride may or may not be projecting his own feelings when he claims that "Brussels epitomised Gordon's two general hatters: bastards who wasted your time and bastards who were up to no good" but his account of Brown ("a man to bang desks, bash heads and get the job done") chairing meetings where he treated the wind-baggery of his fellow EU leaders with disdain and got scheduled day long meetings over with in a couple of hours is convincing and funny.
In McBride's telling, the infamous Granita agreement between Blair and Brown can be explained away by the many times he saw Brown leave meetings with one impression of what happened and, the poor soul who'd had their ears bent by him, with something else entirely. Again, an interesting theory but one that smacks of story-telling.
Reading this book in September 2016, it's fascinating to reflect on the current state of the Labour Party. McBride details several proto-coups, intrigues and shenanigans, clearly demonstrating that internecine plotting is endemic and not something that popped up due to Jeremy Corbyn's misrule. Corbyn himself is never mentioned, not even being a marginal figure in this story, but Tom Watson is portrayed as a double-hard (but principled) bastard you do not want to mess with and Jezza's great ally John McDonnell is dismissed as someone who made Leon Trotsky look "fairly moderate." As for David Miliband (who many, me included, have thought might be Labour's eventual saviour) McBride cuttingly dismisses him as someone who "could stand in conversation it's Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama, and still look over their shoulders to see if anyone more important was around" and notes that he couldn't even be bothered phoning Labour MPs personally during his leadership campaign.
But back to McBride's story. He makes a spirited, and compelling case for his former boss Gordon being a great man laid low by bad luck, events out of his control and, yes, some poor decisions. His account of the disastrous dithering over whether to call an election in 2007 is particularly compelling stuff. As is the story of his own resignation, and the grubby circumstances surrounding it.
Basically, McBride's book is essential to gaining any real understanding of Gordon Brown, his government and his legacy (in which history will undoubtedly judge him more fairly than the tabloids did and social media morons still do) but given McBride's own credibility 'issues' and some of his more bizarre pronouncements (the added epilogue has some awfully mawkish twaddle about how he's changed and some downright bizarre drivel about the world economy being on it's way to further, apocalyptic disaster while simultaneously gushing about a bright, happy future) it's a troublesome and sometimes troubling book. Like it's author.
The Gordon Brown portrayed by someone who knew him well is very different from the socially bumbling, policy wonk automaton who took up the leadership of the Labour Party (and the country) at the arse-end of New Labour. This Gordon Brown is, at times, even more awkward, other-worldly and significantly more prone to rage than the one the public saw. But he's also a far more sympathetic figure. Immensely hardworking, hugely intelligent, protective of his family, even at the expense of his career prospects, and essentially, the sort of principled, brave, committed politician people claim they want to see. And then vote for the slick fella who looks good on telly or peddles a populist narrative that 'feels' true.
McBride's closeness to the two Eds (Balls and Miliband) also reveals much about them that made me at least somewhat reassess my feelings about them. Not enough to make me think either of them should ever have been in a leadership position but enough to leave them, in my mind at least, bigger, better men. But the book is really about Brown. And McBride, a man who comes across in a far less admirable way.
Is McBride really being brutally honest when he writes about his thuggish behaviour, his 'heroic' drinking, his arrogance and his sometimes rampant stupidity or is he simply using the old Hulk Hogan trick whereby the giant, orange bullshitter would admit to something startlingly 'honest' that would allow him to sucker his reader/viewer/interviewer into thinking he was being straight about everything else? It's impossible to tell. But at least he has the decency to share a fantastic party conference anecdote about Ed Balls having to wake him up by throwing a binful of cold water over his naked, drunken body.
It's certainly hard to believe everything he says when he discusses just how much of his work involved lying, briefing against his own party and saying anything he could to gain an advantage. But McBride tells his story well and, along the way, has plenty of interesting, and convincing, things to say - from the way Westminster runs and the ever-decreasing circles of talent and experience that recruitment methods of the upper ranks of the civil service inevitably lead to, or the importance of Select Committee work and how to handle lobby journalists. There's even some fascinating stuff (honestly, there really is) on how Gordon Brown's Treasury decided what should go into the Budget and some none-too-subtle digs at his successors' (both Darling and Osborne) own methods, abilities and characters.
McBride is full of intriguing insights, including how to break bad news to the volatile Brown, how to look after the British press on foreign trips, what British politicians can and should learn from American politics and Brown's genuine passion for international development. He shares his theory that the Blair-Brown soap opera was the best thing possible for Labour because it kept the focus on them, and their political dominance of the political market, not the Tories. It's not entirely convincing, and he doesn't seem to see how that led directly to the abortive coups and intrigues against Prime Minister Brown (and his successors) that followed but it it as least interesting.
No fan of the EU (he came out pro-Brexit before the referendum) McBride may or may not be projecting his own feelings when he claims that "Brussels epitomised Gordon's two general hatters: bastards who wasted your time and bastards who were up to no good" but his account of Brown ("a man to bang desks, bash heads and get the job done") chairing meetings where he treated the wind-baggery of his fellow EU leaders with disdain and got scheduled day long meetings over with in a couple of hours is convincing and funny.
In McBride's telling, the infamous Granita agreement between Blair and Brown can be explained away by the many times he saw Brown leave meetings with one impression of what happened and, the poor soul who'd had their ears bent by him, with something else entirely. Again, an interesting theory but one that smacks of story-telling.
Reading this book in September 2016, it's fascinating to reflect on the current state of the Labour Party. McBride details several proto-coups, intrigues and shenanigans, clearly demonstrating that internecine plotting is endemic and not something that popped up due to Jeremy Corbyn's misrule. Corbyn himself is never mentioned, not even being a marginal figure in this story, but Tom Watson is portrayed as a double-hard (but principled) bastard you do not want to mess with and Jezza's great ally John McDonnell is dismissed as someone who made Leon Trotsky look "fairly moderate." As for David Miliband (who many, me included, have thought might be Labour's eventual saviour) McBride cuttingly dismisses him as someone who "could stand in conversation it's Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama, and still look over their shoulders to see if anyone more important was around" and notes that he couldn't even be bothered phoning Labour MPs personally during his leadership campaign.
But back to McBride's story. He makes a spirited, and compelling case for his former boss Gordon being a great man laid low by bad luck, events out of his control and, yes, some poor decisions. His account of the disastrous dithering over whether to call an election in 2007 is particularly compelling stuff. As is the story of his own resignation, and the grubby circumstances surrounding it.
Basically, McBride's book is essential to gaining any real understanding of Gordon Brown, his government and his legacy (in which history will undoubtedly judge him more fairly than the tabloids did and social media morons still do) but given McBride's own credibility 'issues' and some of his more bizarre pronouncements (the added epilogue has some awfully mawkish twaddle about how he's changed and some downright bizarre drivel about the world economy being on it's way to further, apocalyptic disaster while simultaneously gushing about a bright, happy future) it's a troublesome and sometimes troubling book. Like it's author.
June 28, 2020
A mea culpa by a ruthless special advisor that sheds light on the political machinations of Westminster under New Labour. It’s a fascinating window into spin, replete with humour and intriguing to me for all the same reasons Malcolm Tucker is.
Strange reading with Brexit, Corbyn and a pandemic occupying the interim since publication. Some observations are therefore noticeably outdated but I was struck by just how many prove painfully prescient.
It does drag and repeat itself in sections (perhaps something to do with the 6 figure sum McBride was paid by the Daily Mail to serialise it... hmm hmm), but making it to the end is worth it because the epilogue chapters offer very interesting insights.
Strange reading with Brexit, Corbyn and a pandemic occupying the interim since publication. Some observations are therefore noticeably outdated but I was struck by just how many prove painfully prescient.
It does drag and repeat itself in sections (perhaps something to do with the 6 figure sum McBride was paid by the Daily Mail to serialise it... hmm hmm), but making it to the end is worth it because the epilogue chapters offer very interesting insights.
April 18, 2022
The rise and fall of Gordon Brown’s former spin doctor, Damian McBride. A warts-and-all look at British politics, it’s corrupting nature, and the media’s stranglehold on it. Liked the honesty of our anti-hero, a thoughtful but flawed man coming to terms with his deceitful past. The book has the right balance of juicy Westminster gossip and detailed policy/political analysis.
October 17, 2025
I was both eager and forced to read this book by a cabal of centre left politicos. It lived up to expectation and promise and I’d recommend to anyone else my age with a vague interest in the TBGB years. I probably enjoyed it more as a Brown fan but still ended up putting it down to read other books as there wasn’t any kind of plot twist or narrative to fixate on. The author is very self deprecating but in a way that means he comes across wonderfully and I suspect there was plenty more actual nasty stuff left out.
November 20, 2021
I had recently read A Promised Land by Barack Obama and greatly enjoyed it as it gave me an internal view of how the government machinery works and showed me how vulnerable a leader is even though he/she may look all supreme on the outside. I had similar expectations from this book but this one fell way short. You get an inside view of the govt - but only a sneak peek. Instead what you get is a long alibi from Damian McBride for the different things he has been accused of during his career. It does give a good view of Gordon Brown's personality but has a very limited view on the actual workings of the government. In hindsight, it was actually wrong of me to have these expectations from a diary written by the press secretary of the government. I recommend this book to you only if you were knee deep in the whispers going around the Whitehall corridors during Gordon Brown's era. Anything else, and it is a pass.
November 24, 2025
It’s interesting in a historical sense, but an overarching thought from reading this many years later is how many “big moments” or “scandals” mentioned in this book are now completely forgotten and lost to time. Even the reason why the author was fired is not remembered by 99.999% of people.
Overall there are good parts of this book but there is no reason why it needed to be longer than War and Peace. I was surprised when the acknowledgments mentioned an editor because there was about 20% of this book that could have been removed, at least.
The author comes across as an awful human being and says that politics made him that way - despite him clearly being an awful human being throughout his school and uni years. The chapter where he detailed exactly what Gordon Brown said and did when his son’s cystic fibrosis diagnosis became known to the media was a massive over-share and should not have been included.
Overall there are good parts of this book but there is no reason why it needed to be longer than War and Peace. I was surprised when the acknowledgments mentioned an editor because there was about 20% of this book that could have been removed, at least.
The author comes across as an awful human being and says that politics made him that way - despite him clearly being an awful human being throughout his school and uni years. The chapter where he detailed exactly what Gordon Brown said and did when his son’s cystic fibrosis diagnosis became known to the media was a massive over-share and should not have been included.
August 8, 2021
I’m very political and this book was great, it’s written by a guy called Damian McBride who worked first in the Treasury and then at Number 10 alongside Gordon Brown.
It mainly focuses on himself, Gordon Brown, Ed Balls and Ed Miliband and it was so good I gasped once while drinking a cup of tea and it almost came out my nose 😂
Damian basically handled all of Gordon’s press and you soon see what a stressful, murky world it was. I couldn’t believe how him and the Ed’s had to handle Gordon, at times he seemed like a teddy bear, at other times he sounded terrifying!
If political numbers are up your street and you want to read more about the feud between Brown and Blair, the Financial crash and so much more READ THIS NOW! It’s BRILLIANT.
It mainly focuses on himself, Gordon Brown, Ed Balls and Ed Miliband and it was so good I gasped once while drinking a cup of tea and it almost came out my nose 😂
Damian basically handled all of Gordon’s press and you soon see what a stressful, murky world it was. I couldn’t believe how him and the Ed’s had to handle Gordon, at times he seemed like a teddy bear, at other times he sounded terrifying!
If political numbers are up your street and you want to read more about the feud between Brown and Blair, the Financial crash and so much more READ THIS NOW! It’s BRILLIANT.
August 29, 2025
To say this is candid doesn’t do it justice - unbelievably forthright account written by Gordon Brown’s top press adviser, described by both enemies and allies inside and outside Labour as Brown’s attack dog.
Maybe my top political book I’ve ever read - it’s like The Thick Of It but way more high stakes and horrible, because this is real life. Read if you want to see how the sausage is made and feel horrified while finding out.
It was written in 2013, but it’s now more relevant than at any point since then. Labour stormed back into government last year with many of the characters in this book currently in positions of power, including the author, who’s now back in the fold as an adviser to Yvette Cooper.
Maybe my top political book I’ve ever read - it’s like The Thick Of It but way more high stakes and horrible, because this is real life. Read if you want to see how the sausage is made and feel horrified while finding out.
It was written in 2013, but it’s now more relevant than at any point since then. Labour stormed back into government last year with many of the characters in this book currently in positions of power, including the author, who’s now back in the fold as an adviser to Yvette Cooper.
April 22, 2019
A compelling insider tale of the New Labour years, but from the rarer perspective of the Brownite camp.
For me, this was an exercise in nostalgia. I was in my late teens when Brown entered office, and many of these moments I’d forgotten about until now. It also showed the ugly side of governing, that is often hidden from public eye.
But my main takeaway? McBride clearly thinks the world of Gordon Brown. Given how low Brown’s reputation went, this is a chance to see him in a different light.
Oh, and that Labour were actually in office within this decade. It definitely seems a lot, lot longer.
For me, this was an exercise in nostalgia. I was in my late teens when Brown entered office, and many of these moments I’d forgotten about until now. It also showed the ugly side of governing, that is often hidden from public eye.
But my main takeaway? McBride clearly thinks the world of Gordon Brown. Given how low Brown’s reputation went, this is a chance to see him in a different light.
Oh, and that Labour were actually in office within this decade. It definitely seems a lot, lot longer.
April 3, 2018
Compulsive tale of political intrigue
A honest self assessment mixed with a distorted can worship of Gordon Brown, this tale explains the moral vacuum at the centre of Brown's boys detached from reality and governing out of fear.. Samsung's loyalty glosses over the lack of vision or awareness of the impact of the Brown clique on its own supporters. His ardent endorsement of Ed Balls coincided with his constituents rejecting him, really sums up the limits of Damien"s predictive powers.
If you like your politics dirty, you will love this.
A honest self assessment mixed with a distorted can worship of Gordon Brown, this tale explains the moral vacuum at the centre of Brown's boys detached from reality and governing out of fear.. Samsung's loyalty glosses over the lack of vision or awareness of the impact of the Brown clique on its own supporters. His ardent endorsement of Ed Balls coincided with his constituents rejecting him, really sums up the limits of Damien"s predictive powers.
If you like your politics dirty, you will love this.
April 7, 2019
I’ve had this book for seven years. Initially I was enjoying this book, enjoyed the writing style it’s pacy, I was fascinated about how civil servants and governments work. However the more I read the more I got frustrated tad vexed .... is this how all politicians and civil servants work ...... it’s a lot of over paid people with over inflated egos trying constantly to get one over the other team. Wether the team is same team or opposition. I did enjoy the book just ........
January 30, 2024
i suspect (and contemporary reviews would confirm) that this was Shocking at the time but tbh i just read it going "yep, yep, yep". nevertheless i suspect (wouldn't know cos I'm not gonna bother to read any of the other shite. biography of Blair 😂😂😂) much more interesting than any other new labour memoir.
4* as a biography, 3* as person (compare to my review about Elon). geezers a w*nker but at least he owns it (again, compare and contrast to Elon).
4* as a biography, 3* as person (compare to my review about Elon). geezers a w*nker but at least he owns it (again, compare and contrast to Elon).
May 6, 2021
Possibly the best political book I've ever read - brutally honest and illuminating insider account of noughties Labour politics.
September 27, 2021
I know it's a personal memoir but it shouldn't have been nearly as much all about him as it was.
December 28, 2021
A brilliant book that offers insight into the New Labour years and the relationship between power and the media. McBride is an excellent narrator and his own journey is an interesting and tragic one.
August 28, 2022
I enjoyed the book. A great inside to the Blair era.
August 11, 2024
Couldn't put it down. Equal part hilarious and outrageous, it let's you see a side to government which, for better or (mostly) worse, you wouldn't know was there. Knowing what goes into the timing and content, I'll probably never look at newspaper headlines the same again. A must-read for anyone who is vaguely interested in politics or has watched The Thick of It.
April 2, 2025
Great for a ruthless behind the scenes look at government in the New Labour years but flip me it seems dated and shit
September 3, 2025
Ex-spin-doctor Damian McBride's "Power Trip" is a masterfully sympathetic portrait of Gordon Brown as the best PM we never really had.
February 26, 2017
I was expecting an interesting read but I was also expecting to have to do a great deal of reading between the lines to sift truth from what now might be called alt-truth, and considering the reputation of the author I expected to encounter a series of justifications and obfuscations to be hedged around a troubling approach to political PR. However I was pleasantly surprised to find in the text that there was a significant degree of contrition and self-critical reflection.
I do think the reader still needs to approach this book with the sense that that they may still be dealing with a potentially unreliable narrator, but the authour does at least seem to be trying hard to put aside old habits, and it’s an unique and intriguing insider’s viewpoint of a recent period of UK political history.
I do think the reader still needs to approach this book with the sense that that they may still be dealing with a potentially unreliable narrator, but the authour does at least seem to be trying hard to put aside old habits, and it’s an unique and intriguing insider’s viewpoint of a recent period of UK political history.
September 11, 2014
By rights I should have loved this book. I've got a degree in Government, am very interested in politics, am a member of the Labour Party and - like the author - think Gordon Brown does not get the credit he deserves. Nothing like it, in fact.
There are parts of this book I found very interesting. Damian McBride was clearly exceptionally good at his job. His story of how he found himself doing that job in the first place is pretty impressive stuff. He's obviously very clever and extremely sharp - you don't get to that sort of position, that quickly, if you're not right on top of your game. He quite clearly was.
He also - by the end - is prepared to admit what an absolute arsehole he was for long spells of time. Since resigning, he has gone on to work for a school and for a charity, which is obviously a pretty good indicator that he's had a rethink about how he wants to spend his working life.
So why didn't I like it more?
It felt to me like a long list of set-pieces thrown together rather than an ongoing narrative. We'd move from one story of leaking or similar derring-do to another one at a rate of knots, and there really are quite a lot of "incidents" to talk about.
He tells the sort of story that, if it were a bloke in the pub telling you this, you'd have a great night listening to. And that is part of the problem, it is written very much in that style, and it is a style which, after a hundred pages or so, starts to grate.
I have a general distaste for this sort of spin doctoring on the whole - to my mind, it is the least edifying memory of New Labour.
They didn't invent this kind of "information management" - far from it - anyone who remembers Bernard Ingham's relationship with Thatcher will appreciate that, but the New Labour machine absolutely perfected it, and McBride's talk of how he couldn't believe the amateurishness of the Tory administration that followed is both believable and entertaining.
It isn't this distaste for this kind of thing that made me dislike the book, though, it is just that there's a limit to how much I want to read about it.
I found myself skim-reading at one point, purely as there are only so many variations of stories about Brown, Balls and Miliband that grab the interest.
The epilogue featured some more information on phone hacking (which had been suppressed by lawyers in the earlier editions), plus - slightly oddly - McBride giving his opinions on some of the major issues of the day.
McBride comes across as - frankly - a bit of a wanker for much of the book, but not a hugely dislikable one, certainly considering the environment in which he was working.
His utter, absolute devotion to Brown is quite touching, and much of what he wrote about him, I found myself agreeing with. The "two Eds" - Balls and Miliband - come out of it pretty well, too.
I just found myself thinking, while ploughing through it, that while this would have made a brilliant documentary, magazine serialisation or television documentary, over 300 pages it was stretched extremely thin.
There are parts of this book I found very interesting. Damian McBride was clearly exceptionally good at his job. His story of how he found himself doing that job in the first place is pretty impressive stuff. He's obviously very clever and extremely sharp - you don't get to that sort of position, that quickly, if you're not right on top of your game. He quite clearly was.
He also - by the end - is prepared to admit what an absolute arsehole he was for long spells of time. Since resigning, he has gone on to work for a school and for a charity, which is obviously a pretty good indicator that he's had a rethink about how he wants to spend his working life.
So why didn't I like it more?
It felt to me like a long list of set-pieces thrown together rather than an ongoing narrative. We'd move from one story of leaking or similar derring-do to another one at a rate of knots, and there really are quite a lot of "incidents" to talk about.
He tells the sort of story that, if it were a bloke in the pub telling you this, you'd have a great night listening to. And that is part of the problem, it is written very much in that style, and it is a style which, after a hundred pages or so, starts to grate.
I have a general distaste for this sort of spin doctoring on the whole - to my mind, it is the least edifying memory of New Labour.
They didn't invent this kind of "information management" - far from it - anyone who remembers Bernard Ingham's relationship with Thatcher will appreciate that, but the New Labour machine absolutely perfected it, and McBride's talk of how he couldn't believe the amateurishness of the Tory administration that followed is both believable and entertaining.
It isn't this distaste for this kind of thing that made me dislike the book, though, it is just that there's a limit to how much I want to read about it.
I found myself skim-reading at one point, purely as there are only so many variations of stories about Brown, Balls and Miliband that grab the interest.
The epilogue featured some more information on phone hacking (which had been suppressed by lawyers in the earlier editions), plus - slightly oddly - McBride giving his opinions on some of the major issues of the day.
McBride comes across as - frankly - a bit of a wanker for much of the book, but not a hugely dislikable one, certainly considering the environment in which he was working.
His utter, absolute devotion to Brown is quite touching, and much of what he wrote about him, I found myself agreeing with. The "two Eds" - Balls and Miliband - come out of it pretty well, too.
I just found myself thinking, while ploughing through it, that while this would have made a brilliant documentary, magazine serialisation or television documentary, over 300 pages it was stretched extremely thin.
January 13, 2014
I found this book fascinating. A lot of it I disagreed with, particularly the gushing praise of Gordon, Ed Balls and other Labour figures, but that doesn't take anything away from McBride's frank, honest account of how he saw things whilst in government. His book is part memoir, part confession and I think the fact that he feels remorse for some of the things he did as Gordon's chief spin-doctor helps make him a more likable character, in spite of the dark arts he clearly practiced.
What this book also offers is a shocking insight into the way the media are managed and manipulated by the likes of McBride (and, I have no doubt, those who have come after him - both Labour and Tory). The sheer laziness of journalists ringing up McBride and asking him to write their own copy for them or expecting him to write up an interview when it didn't go the way they wanted it to is appalling. Not only that, but the way senior Labour figures around Gordon would literally keep policies in their 'back pocket' to use as counter-stories whenever something embarrassing might be about to break is hard to stomach. It demonstrates a terrible lack of respect for democracy and good governance, treating legislation as little more than PR.
McBride is unsparing in his criticism of certain figures (Alistair Darling and David Miliband both come off very badly indeed) but he continues to adore Brown and everything Brown ever did. This book is not an exposé of Brown or his clumsy, car-crash Premiership precisely because McBride fundamentally believes in Gordon and sticks up for him at every opportunity - even when, by McBride's own admission, Brown made mistakes. I suppose that kind of loyalty is a redeeming quality in a man who was in many ways a corrosive influence on politics - but it was loyalty misplaced, in my opinion.
It was good to read how McBride had reformed his ways post-2009, and I was actually quite sad to read about how his personal life suffered as a consequence of what he did. He takes it on the chin and calls it penance for his sins, but in spite of myself I can't help feeling a little sorry for him and the way he was effectively dumped by people who - up to his forced resignation - he had considered friends.
Whatever your politics, I strongly recommend reading this book. Credit where it's due to McBride for laying himself bare in the way he has.
What this book also offers is a shocking insight into the way the media are managed and manipulated by the likes of McBride (and, I have no doubt, those who have come after him - both Labour and Tory). The sheer laziness of journalists ringing up McBride and asking him to write their own copy for them or expecting him to write up an interview when it didn't go the way they wanted it to is appalling. Not only that, but the way senior Labour figures around Gordon would literally keep policies in their 'back pocket' to use as counter-stories whenever something embarrassing might be about to break is hard to stomach. It demonstrates a terrible lack of respect for democracy and good governance, treating legislation as little more than PR.
McBride is unsparing in his criticism of certain figures (Alistair Darling and David Miliband both come off very badly indeed) but he continues to adore Brown and everything Brown ever did. This book is not an exposé of Brown or his clumsy, car-crash Premiership precisely because McBride fundamentally believes in Gordon and sticks up for him at every opportunity - even when, by McBride's own admission, Brown made mistakes. I suppose that kind of loyalty is a redeeming quality in a man who was in many ways a corrosive influence on politics - but it was loyalty misplaced, in my opinion.
It was good to read how McBride had reformed his ways post-2009, and I was actually quite sad to read about how his personal life suffered as a consequence of what he did. He takes it on the chin and calls it penance for his sins, but in spite of myself I can't help feeling a little sorry for him and the way he was effectively dumped by people who - up to his forced resignation - he had considered friends.
Whatever your politics, I strongly recommend reading this book. Credit where it's due to McBride for laying himself bare in the way he has.
March 22, 2015
Damian McBride paints himself as a bastard from the out in his book looking at British politics during the Brown years. He's right - he is.
But then he seems, as he says himself, to be in the right company. His book contained no revelations for me but confirmed what I already knew of politicians and the Press or could guess from reading between the lines. McBride confirms that Westminster is the height of the institutionalised corruption which pervades our society with almost complete impunity. The whole thing is a stock market game of chance using scandals and rumour as stocks and shares; outbidding one scandal with another in order to keep your guy from falling or minimising the damage if he does.
I guess what I come away with after reading this spin doctor's first-hand account of government is an even greater lack of sympathy or trust in our political system. At the end of his book McBride paints a bleak picture of the future believing the real economic crash hasn't occurred yet and when it does it will be doomsday. He then, rather like Pink Floyd at the end of their 'Wall' story, attempts to give a message of hope somewhat akin to 'from the smouldering wreck of a ruined society we'll stand holding hands'. It fails to be believable.
There is no doubt this man loved Gordon Brown and considered him the most honourable and brilliant politician we've ever had. There's some truth in this I think - the Press and general opinion has always been that he was just so and it was merely a pity he never got to be rightfully elected to the post of Prime Minister. But overall, despite this love, McBride paints him almost as a simpering child incapable of looking after himself and needing an army of advisors and people like McBride even to make sure, literally, that his hair was done right and he had dressed himself correctly.
I came away depressed with the leaders of our country, despairing of what will happen after the elections in May and sickened by who McBride was, what he became and who he is now. But greater condemnation lies with the system which embraced him, encouraged him and, ultimately, spat him out when it was done with him.
But then he seems, as he says himself, to be in the right company. His book contained no revelations for me but confirmed what I already knew of politicians and the Press or could guess from reading between the lines. McBride confirms that Westminster is the height of the institutionalised corruption which pervades our society with almost complete impunity. The whole thing is a stock market game of chance using scandals and rumour as stocks and shares; outbidding one scandal with another in order to keep your guy from falling or minimising the damage if he does.
I guess what I come away with after reading this spin doctor's first-hand account of government is an even greater lack of sympathy or trust in our political system. At the end of his book McBride paints a bleak picture of the future believing the real economic crash hasn't occurred yet and when it does it will be doomsday. He then, rather like Pink Floyd at the end of their 'Wall' story, attempts to give a message of hope somewhat akin to 'from the smouldering wreck of a ruined society we'll stand holding hands'. It fails to be believable.
There is no doubt this man loved Gordon Brown and considered him the most honourable and brilliant politician we've ever had. There's some truth in this I think - the Press and general opinion has always been that he was just so and it was merely a pity he never got to be rightfully elected to the post of Prime Minister. But overall, despite this love, McBride paints him almost as a simpering child incapable of looking after himself and needing an army of advisors and people like McBride even to make sure, literally, that his hair was done right and he had dressed himself correctly.
I came away depressed with the leaders of our country, despairing of what will happen after the elections in May and sickened by who McBride was, what he became and who he is now. But greater condemnation lies with the system which embraced him, encouraged him and, ultimately, spat him out when it was done with him.
February 12, 2015
Damian McBride does not come well out of ‘Power Trip’ – but then barely anyone does.
The book is full of anecdotes, gossip and insidery tale-telling, and is obviously only for people with a serious and geeky interest in journalism and politics and the dark sides of both.
McBride was brought low by a scandal that he covers in quite some detail, but that’s all pretty academic by this point. What was more interesting was his rise through the ranks, from the lower rungs of the civil service, dealing with customs and tax issues, to the Treasury and No 10 in communications and press. A lot of this was by chance – he was ambitious and obviously a big personality, but you get the sense he ended up with role by getting the opportunity to have a go at it and being good at it – not through formal experience, interviews, training or anything else, especially not knowledge of the media as such.
As a fervent member of ‘Team Brown’, McBride is never shy in his gushing love for the man, or for the ‘Two Eds’, Balls and Miliband, who were there during the Treasury years. He thinks they are flawed, that they mess up, but he basically adores these people. It’s very odd to read such praise for these politicians, who are traduced so regularly by the press and Blairites and, well, common sense. But at least he’s so utterly open about his love for them that you know where he’s coming from and he doesn’t try to hide it behind reasoned argument.
McBride was into tribal politics, through and through, usually able to only see things in terms of the power and prestige and reputation and standing of his ‘team’ – sometimes Labour, more often his particular cabal within it. His beliefs do not seem particularly fixed, beyond a basic trust in those he works for, that they want to do good by the right kind of people, sometimes in less-than-open ways.
As a look at how spin and media communications works at the very top, and to understand the somewhat warped perspective of a dyed-in-the-wool Brownite, the book certainly succeeds.
The book is full of anecdotes, gossip and insidery tale-telling, and is obviously only for people with a serious and geeky interest in journalism and politics and the dark sides of both.
McBride was brought low by a scandal that he covers in quite some detail, but that’s all pretty academic by this point. What was more interesting was his rise through the ranks, from the lower rungs of the civil service, dealing with customs and tax issues, to the Treasury and No 10 in communications and press. A lot of this was by chance – he was ambitious and obviously a big personality, but you get the sense he ended up with role by getting the opportunity to have a go at it and being good at it – not through formal experience, interviews, training or anything else, especially not knowledge of the media as such.
As a fervent member of ‘Team Brown’, McBride is never shy in his gushing love for the man, or for the ‘Two Eds’, Balls and Miliband, who were there during the Treasury years. He thinks they are flawed, that they mess up, but he basically adores these people. It’s very odd to read such praise for these politicians, who are traduced so regularly by the press and Blairites and, well, common sense. But at least he’s so utterly open about his love for them that you know where he’s coming from and he doesn’t try to hide it behind reasoned argument.
McBride was into tribal politics, through and through, usually able to only see things in terms of the power and prestige and reputation and standing of his ‘team’ – sometimes Labour, more often his particular cabal within it. His beliefs do not seem particularly fixed, beyond a basic trust in those he works for, that they want to do good by the right kind of people, sometimes in less-than-open ways.
As a look at how spin and media communications works at the very top, and to understand the somewhat warped perspective of a dyed-in-the-wool Brownite, the book certainly succeeds.
October 17, 2015
absolutely fascinating book about the Blair \ Brown era and the spin doctoring that goes on beneath the politics. The fact that Damian says the huge rift between the two leaders actually helped Labour at that time is really telling. I think he's right, inject a bit of personal tension and a boring politics story becomes something more. Something you can sell.
Reading though the very interesting tidbits, It's fairly grotesque that the queen gets to push her agenda. Horse racing. with so many unfair things happening in this country and its people, this is the one she has chosen to get involved with? Just so she can have her horse racey fun. This makes me furious we keep that woman with tax payers money. So I can thank this book for making me dislike the royal family even more.
And even worse is the absolute power of the press over everything. I knew it was bad but the idea that you need a bad person to deal with really bad people shows how low we are as a society. These are the people in charge and they have no morals. And they are supposed to be the good guys.
One slight drawback is that on many occasions the book assumes you know who people are and what the story is. As I don't know who many of the players are I found that a little bewildering.
Other than than though a fantastic read, he obviously has a lot of respect for Gordon Brown and his opinion on politics in general is one where you go, 'yep I guessed it was as bad as that'
It's also left me really wanting to know what those final emails were all about.
Reading though the very interesting tidbits, It's fairly grotesque that the queen gets to push her agenda. Horse racing. with so many unfair things happening in this country and its people, this is the one she has chosen to get involved with? Just so she can have her horse racey fun. This makes me furious we keep that woman with tax payers money. So I can thank this book for making me dislike the royal family even more.
And even worse is the absolute power of the press over everything. I knew it was bad but the idea that you need a bad person to deal with really bad people shows how low we are as a society. These are the people in charge and they have no morals. And they are supposed to be the good guys.
One slight drawback is that on many occasions the book assumes you know who people are and what the story is. As I don't know who many of the players are I found that a little bewildering.
Other than than though a fantastic read, he obviously has a lot of respect for Gordon Brown and his opinion on politics in general is one where you go, 'yep I guessed it was as bad as that'
It's also left me really wanting to know what those final emails were all about.
August 27, 2014
If a 5 star read makes a 5 star book then this deserves the full 5. It really is a fantastically readable account from a media perespective of the the Gordon Brown years. McBride is, lets have no doubt, a self serving ,unscrupulous, viscious, thug, but boy can he string words together. He is probably fantastic company and if he is on your side you are grateful (until he gets too close). The book gives brilliant portraits of the Brownites, is wonderful in explaining how newspapers/ media really works. Who emerges with credit? Mcbide (obviously), Balls, Brown . To a lesser extent Ed Milliband though his falling out with McBride perhaps reflectrs better on his foresight than Balls. Would you buy a used car off Mcbride? No- but it would be great fun haggling with him for an hour or two. I'm sure the book is a partial attempt to get himself back in the corridors of power (not going to happen) and his account of the return of Mandelson drips with envy but though that will fail the man is such an operator and so bright that there is no doubt he will not be out of the public eye for ever. He would be superb at replacing the hopeless Andrew neill on the BBC for a start!
October 12, 2014
A great, anecdotal look at what the Labour policy/media complex was like under the last government, as well as at Labour's civil wars. Provides an inside look at many incidents, especially the election that never was, the end of David Miliband's political career, and the phone hacking scandal. An interesting book for those interested in whether modern media management in politics is just a necessary response to an insatiable 24/7 media, or has improperly focused politics on the mere management of image. Also quite a disturbing look at the role of alcohol in Westminster politics.
The author says he is being entirely honest and does seem to provide a lot of revelatory detail, including about his own misdeeds. But while it's hard to imagine McBride having a role in the Labour Party any time in the near future, he is fiercely tribal and retains his loyalty to Gordon Brown and Ed Balls - but certainly not Ed Miliband, who he sticks the knife into as often as possible. Caveat emptor.
The author says he is being entirely honest and does seem to provide a lot of revelatory detail, including about his own misdeeds. But while it's hard to imagine McBride having a role in the Labour Party any time in the near future, he is fiercely tribal and retains his loyalty to Gordon Brown and Ed Balls - but certainly not Ed Miliband, who he sticks the knife into as often as possible. Caveat emptor.
September 30, 2015
He was working hard, playing even harder. He was master of spin, well versed in dark arts. And here he tells his story, of his rise and fall and of beginning of rest of his life. In New Labour government, notorious for its spin-doctors, attempts on media manipulations and so on, he worked in most notorious bunch of them all: Browns team at Treasury and later in Number 10. His account is well written - of course; revealing and shocking, of course too. Being such a master of spin, one cannot be wholy sure if he writes with relish, only to better sell his regret about lot of things he did, or if he uses his regret to return to relish he once felt. Be it as it may, he seems aware of human cost of his job, certainly on himself and finally, at least that is how he tells that also on those who happened to fell into whirlwinds of his various spin operations.
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