Haywire: A Political History of Britain since 2000

by Andrew Hindmoor

Vladimir Lenin, an occasional resident of North London who went on to other things, has been credited with once saying that there are decades where nothing happens but weeks when decades happen. The first two and a half decades of this century in Britain have had plenty of those weeks. Indeed, our recent history has at times resembled an episode of Casualty, the long-running BBC hospital drama in which every hedge trimmer slips, every gas pipe leaks, every piece of scaffolding collapses and everyone ends up in intensive care.In Haywire Andrew Hindmoor makes sense of the deluge of events which have rained down on Britain since 2000, from the Iraq War to financial collapse, austerity to Brexit, as well as more easily forgotten moments such as the MP’s expenses scandal. He shows not simply how one crisis has quickly followed another, but how each crisis has compounded the next, so that disaster feels like the new normal. Has Britain simply been the victim of a particularly prolonged run of bad luck which will, sooner or later, come to an end? No. Hindmoor argues that the way the British state is organised has, time and again, made a crisis out of a drama – and that it is time to find an alternative before we all go haywire.

Genres: History, British Literature, Nonfiction

649 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 13, 2024

Reviews

[Peter Baran · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was with a sense of masochism I delved into Haywire, a modern history of British politics from 2000 - 2023. We've just had an election which leaves some of this now moot, or at least consigned to the dustbin of history thank goodness, and there are a couple of predictions near the end (not least the political system no longer delivering large majorities), that I am sure will be edited for second / paperback edition. When I ordered this I assumed, partially because of the title, that this was actually a history from 2010 to the present, and it is a little odd coming into the Blair years three years in. Hindmoo does a good job justifying this period as a coherent set of crises that the government of whatever flavour didn't deal with particularly well, but in the process feeds into the criticism that all politicians are the same, one which he sees is at the heart of some of the problems of our party political system. Indeed whilst this is a very long book, he resists delving deeply into the personalities or driving motivations of his lead actors particularly. It seems odd to talk about Blair without mentioning his later Catholicism, or how Iraq seemed like a crusade for him, and whilst you get a solid sense of Boris Johnson from his chaotic actions, there isn't really any attempt to contextualise that within a chaotic career.

That said with a book like this, criticism is the default mode from the reader. Things don't quite happen how you remember them or for reasons other than the ones Hindmoor ascribes. It is first and foremost an attempt to wrestle the various themes of the last twenty-three years into a coherent narrative, even though history doesn't really unfold like that. COVID is concurrent with the last year of Brexit negotiations, which is mentioned several times, but the process of that happening isn't always laid on as thick as perhaps it should. But there are a few aims here, he doesn't just want to look back and be critical of the (many many) mistakes made, indeed there is a thorough but somewhat threadbare set of suggestions to improve British democracy that I am sure will continue to be ignored by politicians of all stripes. Nevertheless, the value of a book like this is hopefully to show a route to not make the same mistakes again. Should Kier Starmer end up governing too centrally as Blair did, will he pick up on the inevitable endgame of that process? Can it be used to temper political feuds within parties so they work better?

Haywire is interesting partially because it compares the two most recent periods of government, and identifies many of their problems as procedural (and truth be told sometimes overcorrections from previous governments). I think it is a little too harsh on Labour, and if anything a little too soft on the Tories, particularly post-Brexit. But then I would say that that is where my politics lie. The success here is to tell two stories from a relatively neutral viewpoint, identifying flaws without being wholly negative. I am sure it is the first of many modern political histories that will show up, but it does set a pretty high bar.

[Simon Mee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Haywire sets out the first quarter century of the 21st millennium by way of semi-chronological themes. It is a fair criticism that this style isolates elements whose interactions may driven decision-making. Despite this, the author does do solid cross referencing work between each theme so I was personally relaxed about the approach. I do prefer Hindmoor's style as I found leaping of crisis to crisis without proper explanation of each problem quite exhausting in The Winner. Haywire devotes a reasonable amount to explaining why the particular issue mattered as much as how the government of the day did or didn’t deal with it.

The narrative was clear, notwithstanding the ostensibly dry presentation where Hindmoor avoids delving into personal foibles and scandals, preferring the rise of broader forces such as populism for their explanatory power (while still holding the relevant governments responsible). Hindmoor does have a dry sense of humour which he deploys occasionally without turning the book into some form of polemic.

While my view is a distant one, he does appear even-handed in his contributions of the parties. I have seen mention that Labour gets a harsher treatment than expected, but I consider that he (while presenting it as a balanced assessment) is quite critical of the austerity measures of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition.