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How They Broke Britain
This is an alternative cover edition for ISBN 9780753560365
Our economy has tanked, our freedoms are shrinking, and social divisions are growing. Our politicians seem most interested in their own careers, and much of the media only make things worse. We are living in a country almost unrecognisable from a decade ago. Here, radio and Twitter phenomenon James O'Brien explains whose fault it is. Who broke Britain and how did they do it?
Our economy has tanked, our freedoms are shrinking, and social divisions are growing. Our politicians seem most interested in their own careers, and much of the media only make things worse. We are living in a country almost unrecognisable from a decade ago. Here, radio and Twitter phenomenon James O'Brien explains whose fault it is. Who broke Britain and how did they do it?
406 pages, Paperback
First published November 2, 2023
624 people are currently reading
3452 people want to read
About the author
James O'Brien
126 books343 followersJames Edward O'Brien is an English radio presenter and podcaster. He is one of the presenters on talk station LBC, presenting on weekdays between 10 am and 1 pm, hosting a phone-in discussion of current affairs, views and real-life experiences. He hosted a weekly interview series with JOE titled Unfiltered with James O'Brien. He has previously occasionally presented Newsnight for the BBC.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 506 reviews
November 27, 2023
Please read this before the next general election.
February 7, 2024
The Wail of Waterstones Man
I should start out by saying that I didn’t like this book, in fact I quite intensely disliked it. Which is strange, because I agree with almost all of it. I mean it felt like I was being shouted at by a particularly irate student at a Labour Party fringe meeting, but in terms of subject matter: fine.
James O’Brien, who earns his crust arguing with strangers on the radio, has produced an updated version of Cato’s 1940 Guilty Men. Except this era’s cohort, rather than allowing us to slide into a world war, have just made Britain a bit shitter.
Over 350 pages we are treated to the evisceration of ten (nine men and one woman) public figures who represent a nexus of media and political power, which has allowed Britain to be irrevocably damaged. In each case perpetrators, having wreaked havoc, were able to escape unscathed and even go onto greater things.
Beyond this it’s quite hard to think of anything substantial to say about this book. My principal thoughts on finishing it were unsatisfyingly trite. I agree with most of it but found it largely unfulfilling. There are perhaps too many ad hominem attacks which come across as unpleasant. There is a strange grand-eloquence which is slightly annoying and that will at times confuse and belittle some readers (I have a nasty suspicion this may be the intention).
However my lasting impression is that of having learned nothing. There is nothing here that I didn’t know as a moderate consumer of news living in the UK for the past thirteen years. I feel like I have just been subjected to the belligerent recitation of Guardian articles and come away with nothing for the experience. This is unforgivable, first because this book costs £20 and the Guardian is free, and second because enumerating the ways in which Boris Johnson damaged Britain is easy, finding ways to fix the damage is far harder.
The problem is that there doesn’t appear to be anything resembling a political philosophy under all this. It is not clear how O’Brien believes Britain should be run - yes there are notions about honesty and integrity and public-spiritedness but the problem with Liz Truss is not that she was corrupt, but that she was just plain wrong. It isn’t that Dominic Cummings was just fine if we leave aside the lie on the bus and the jaunt to Bernard Castle. These people have a political philosophy which is deranged, but to show that there has to be an alternative.
The lack of a coordinated schema against which he can measure his guilty men (and woman) means many of his criticisms are contradictory and make little sense. Take the trio who represent the media: Rupert Murdoch, Paul Dacre, and Andrew Neil:
Rupert Murdoch is the personification of cynicism; he adopts whichever politics allow him to make the most money. In effect he has no politics. Paul Dacre, on the other hand, is the real deal. He genuinely, and fervently, believes in the stuff the Mail group churns out. He, in effect, has too much politics. Murdoch, in his pursuit of profit, dictates an editorial line to his editors. Whereas Andrew Neil is vilified for not doing so and allowing The Spectator to print bilge. There may be some golden mean in there, but O’Brien doesn’t do much to point it out.
Andrew Neil is one of the more mysterious bêtes noires of the modern British left. Owen Jones has been waging a one man crusade against him for almost a decade. To be honest I cannot see why. I rather think they dislike the idea of him rather than him as he actually is. Neil chairs The Spectator and who formerly edited the Sunday Times after it was bought by Murdoch. He also has a high profile, if short-lived, role in setting up the unquenchable dumpster fire which is GB News.
It’s a fair bet that Neil has pretty right wing politics. But I watched him on the BBC day in day out for years and I don’t think you could determine that from his interviews. He was a tough interviewer for both Conservative and Labour ministers and shadows. Indeed, in the 2019 election campaign his piece to camera about Boris Johnson being too scared to sit down for an interview with him was a far greater blow than any the Corbyn was able to land.
O’Brien accepts that there is nothing much wrong with Neil as an individual (except that he disagrees with him) but that what is appalling is the way in which he represents ideological capture of the BBC and a left wing equivalent of Neil would never be allowed to rise through the ranks of BBC News. This may well be true. But it seems a tad vituperative to include Neil on a list of people who have ruined the country because you don’t like something he supposedly represents.
That perennially Insipid organ of the British left, The New Statesman describes O’Brien as “the conscience of liberal Britain”. If this were true then liberal Britain would be a pretty awful place where people just yell ‘racist’ at those they disagree with and think it is clever to always enclose the words ‘think tank’ in quotation marks. It would also be going out of business.
Fortunately it isn’t. There are a whole host of progressive ideas which can be debated and argued for. Just don’t look for them here.
There is a way to write forceful, aggressive polemics but it isn’t this. You need an idea, a project, a philosophy against which you can critique people and their ideas. Without that you are just someone yelling into the wind that David Davis is “as thick as mince”.
I should start out by saying that I didn’t like this book, in fact I quite intensely disliked it. Which is strange, because I agree with almost all of it. I mean it felt like I was being shouted at by a particularly irate student at a Labour Party fringe meeting, but in terms of subject matter: fine.
James O’Brien, who earns his crust arguing with strangers on the radio, has produced an updated version of Cato’s 1940 Guilty Men. Except this era’s cohort, rather than allowing us to slide into a world war, have just made Britain a bit shitter.
Over 350 pages we are treated to the evisceration of ten (nine men and one woman) public figures who represent a nexus of media and political power, which has allowed Britain to be irrevocably damaged. In each case perpetrators, having wreaked havoc, were able to escape unscathed and even go onto greater things.
Beyond this it’s quite hard to think of anything substantial to say about this book. My principal thoughts on finishing it were unsatisfyingly trite. I agree with most of it but found it largely unfulfilling. There are perhaps too many ad hominem attacks which come across as unpleasant. There is a strange grand-eloquence which is slightly annoying and that will at times confuse and belittle some readers (I have a nasty suspicion this may be the intention).
However my lasting impression is that of having learned nothing. There is nothing here that I didn’t know as a moderate consumer of news living in the UK for the past thirteen years. I feel like I have just been subjected to the belligerent recitation of Guardian articles and come away with nothing for the experience. This is unforgivable, first because this book costs £20 and the Guardian is free, and second because enumerating the ways in which Boris Johnson damaged Britain is easy, finding ways to fix the damage is far harder.
The problem is that there doesn’t appear to be anything resembling a political philosophy under all this. It is not clear how O’Brien believes Britain should be run - yes there are notions about honesty and integrity and public-spiritedness but the problem with Liz Truss is not that she was corrupt, but that she was just plain wrong. It isn’t that Dominic Cummings was just fine if we leave aside the lie on the bus and the jaunt to Bernard Castle. These people have a political philosophy which is deranged, but to show that there has to be an alternative.
The lack of a coordinated schema against which he can measure his guilty men (and woman) means many of his criticisms are contradictory and make little sense. Take the trio who represent the media: Rupert Murdoch, Paul Dacre, and Andrew Neil:
Rupert Murdoch is the personification of cynicism; he adopts whichever politics allow him to make the most money. In effect he has no politics. Paul Dacre, on the other hand, is the real deal. He genuinely, and fervently, believes in the stuff the Mail group churns out. He, in effect, has too much politics. Murdoch, in his pursuit of profit, dictates an editorial line to his editors. Whereas Andrew Neil is vilified for not doing so and allowing The Spectator to print bilge. There may be some golden mean in there, but O’Brien doesn’t do much to point it out.
Andrew Neil is one of the more mysterious bêtes noires of the modern British left. Owen Jones has been waging a one man crusade against him for almost a decade. To be honest I cannot see why. I rather think they dislike the idea of him rather than him as he actually is. Neil chairs The Spectator and who formerly edited the Sunday Times after it was bought by Murdoch. He also has a high profile, if short-lived, role in setting up the unquenchable dumpster fire which is GB News.
It’s a fair bet that Neil has pretty right wing politics. But I watched him on the BBC day in day out for years and I don’t think you could determine that from his interviews. He was a tough interviewer for both Conservative and Labour ministers and shadows. Indeed, in the 2019 election campaign his piece to camera about Boris Johnson being too scared to sit down for an interview with him was a far greater blow than any the Corbyn was able to land.
O’Brien accepts that there is nothing much wrong with Neil as an individual (except that he disagrees with him) but that what is appalling is the way in which he represents ideological capture of the BBC and a left wing equivalent of Neil would never be allowed to rise through the ranks of BBC News. This may well be true. But it seems a tad vituperative to include Neil on a list of people who have ruined the country because you don’t like something he supposedly represents.
That perennially Insipid organ of the British left, The New Statesman describes O’Brien as “the conscience of liberal Britain”. If this were true then liberal Britain would be a pretty awful place where people just yell ‘racist’ at those they disagree with and think it is clever to always enclose the words ‘think tank’ in quotation marks. It would also be going out of business.
Fortunately it isn’t. There are a whole host of progressive ideas which can be debated and argued for. Just don’t look for them here.
There is a way to write forceful, aggressive polemics but it isn’t this. You need an idea, a project, a philosophy against which you can critique people and their ideas. Without that you are just someone yelling into the wind that David Davis is “as thick as mince”.
January 5, 2024
An excellent but utterly depressing summary of the decline of the country in recent years - something we’ve all felt in a million different ways but seeing it summarised and analysed so clearly is pretty horrific. A forensic and exhaustive documentation of the nation’s deliberate dismantling, the book is equally exhausting to read but should be mandated for every single person before they ever set foot in a UK polling station.
March 10, 2024
I’ve never listened to James O’Brien’s radio show nor read his previous books, so I went into How They Broke Britain knowing little of the man except for my vague impression that he’s a self-important, sanctimonious, uninteresting loudmouth. Ten hours of audiobook later, I can’t say he proved me wrong, and that’s despite the fact that I agreed with at least 90% of the book's politics.
O’Brien’s thesis is that Britain has been run into the ground by a malevolent clique of miscreants and incompetents, most but not all of whom are affiliated with the Conservative Party. Ten bad actors are singled out in particular - a better title might have been Ten People James O’Brien Really Hates - and each gets a dedicated chapter: Nigel Farage, Dominic Cummings, David Cameron, Boris Johnson, and all the other usual suspects. O'Brien's hardly wrong in his survey of the state of Britain, but the book is a shallow, boring, adolescent rant that told me nothing I hadn’t heard a million times before.
To give credit to the author, he did make me laugh out loud at least once. I have the audiobook, not the print version, so forgive me for not remembering the exact wording, but the funny part went something like this: “it’s just another example of how these incompetent, inadequate, corrupt, talentless, mendacious charlatans suffer no consequences for being wrong!” (It’s hard to convey the tone of the narration, but imagine if the most condescending teacher you ever had got a second job as a parking attendant.) I’m in stitches: is this the same James O’Brien who spent years ruining lives by using his popular radio show to amplify a fraudster's false sex abuse allegations? What consequences did he suffer for that error, pray tell?
“Conspiracy theorist” is another of O’Brien's favourite insults, which is a curious accusation from a man who once suggested that the Nigel Farage milkshaking incident was a false flag staged by fake protestors to divert public attention from some Brexit problem or something. He hasn't stopped; O'Brien's latest “just asking questions” absurd conspiratorial half-thought was tweeted mere days after the book's publication. Stones, glass houses, etc..
By now you might be complaining that I'm engaging in ad hominem, attacking the author's character without engaging with the actual book. You’d be correct, but then I'm only being fair, because How they Broke Britain contains almost nothing but ad hominem. Despite the title I learnt very little about how “they” actually broke Britain; instead O'Brien just strings together a long list of vague allegations and dubious "six degrees of Kevin Bacon" guilt-by-associations, jumping around in so many directions that if you’re not paying attention (and it’s easy to doze off) you might think he's being thorough, but when you step back you’ll realise it has the depth of puddle. Wow: conservative politicians have ties with conservative political theorists at conservative think tanks! Who'd have guessed? O’Brien’s only other tactic involves digging through his opponents’ histories (or at least their Wikipedia pages) to find objectionable quotes for him to snarl at in performative outrage. The point is never to understand the opposing position, far less to engage in anything resembling good-faith debate - O'Brien's only interested in ranting about the moral inferiority of everyone he disagrees with. It's hardly a productive contribution to the discourse, but most of all it's just boring.
O’Brien lobs some pot shots at the political scientist Matthew Goodwin, whose recent book Values, Voice and Virtue argues that Britain is dominated by a “New Elite” of middle-class, city-dwelling graduates (such as James O’Brien) whose self-styled “progressive” politics are unpopular with the wider public but hegemonic in our institutions. I’ve read Goodwin’s book and I found it interesting if not entirely convincing, but the one-sentence summary in my previous sentence is a deeper analysis than you’ll get from O’Brien, who offers no evidence that he’s actually read it, and instead just sneers at a caricature: can you believe this right-wing nutjob thinks that I’m part of the elite? I’m not sure what definition of “elite” excludes popular radio hosts with huge audiences, but to engage with O’Brien’s “arguments” (insofar as he actually makes any) would be a charity that he never extends to the targets of his ire.
Elsewhere it’s just embarrassing. O’Brien thinks that Theresa May salvaged her premiership in 2017 by making a “supply and demand” agreement with the DUP. It was actually a “confidence and supply” agreement, but then why should one of the nation's most popular political commentators need to know the difference between parliamentary procedures and his Economics A-Level? That wasn’t the only time I rewound the Audible app because I was sure I must have misheard, but no, he really did accuse Donald Trump of trying to steal “the 2022 presidential election”. Wow, James - we all make typos, but if you’re going to write an entire book about how other people don’t care about the truth, maybe you should be a bit more diligent with your own proofreading? Did you not even spot that error when you were reading out your own words for the audiobook recording?
And what’s with all the alliteration? Once I noticed how frequently the author does this, it was all I could hear: “Cummings-coined catchphrase” … “fighting feelings and falsehoods with facts” … “the catalogue of calumny corruption” … God, make it stop! Or should that be “Deity, I demand you desist”? The awkward, annoying assonance of these orthographic ostentations occurs so obnoxiously often that I can only deduce it’s deliberate. Stop it, James: it’s not clever, canny or cunning, it’s just grating and gratuitous.
I have many more gripes (why does he keep saying “so-called small boats” when discussing illegal immigration? Are the migrants actually coming here on cruise ships?) but the sooner I stop typing, the sooner I can stop thinking about this stupid book and its obnoxious author. I truly don’t understand why anyone pays attention to this smug, sanctimonious simpleton.
O’Brien’s thesis is that Britain has been run into the ground by a malevolent clique of miscreants and incompetents, most but not all of whom are affiliated with the Conservative Party. Ten bad actors are singled out in particular - a better title might have been Ten People James O’Brien Really Hates - and each gets a dedicated chapter: Nigel Farage, Dominic Cummings, David Cameron, Boris Johnson, and all the other usual suspects. O'Brien's hardly wrong in his survey of the state of Britain, but the book is a shallow, boring, adolescent rant that told me nothing I hadn’t heard a million times before.
To give credit to the author, he did make me laugh out loud at least once. I have the audiobook, not the print version, so forgive me for not remembering the exact wording, but the funny part went something like this: “it’s just another example of how these incompetent, inadequate, corrupt, talentless, mendacious charlatans suffer no consequences for being wrong!” (It’s hard to convey the tone of the narration, but imagine if the most condescending teacher you ever had got a second job as a parking attendant.) I’m in stitches: is this the same James O’Brien who spent years ruining lives by using his popular radio show to amplify a fraudster's false sex abuse allegations? What consequences did he suffer for that error, pray tell?
“Conspiracy theorist” is another of O’Brien's favourite insults, which is a curious accusation from a man who once suggested that the Nigel Farage milkshaking incident was a false flag staged by fake protestors to divert public attention from some Brexit problem or something. He hasn't stopped; O'Brien's latest “just asking questions” absurd conspiratorial half-thought was tweeted mere days after the book's publication. Stones, glass houses, etc..
By now you might be complaining that I'm engaging in ad hominem, attacking the author's character without engaging with the actual book. You’d be correct, but then I'm only being fair, because How they Broke Britain contains almost nothing but ad hominem. Despite the title I learnt very little about how “they” actually broke Britain; instead O'Brien just strings together a long list of vague allegations and dubious "six degrees of Kevin Bacon" guilt-by-associations, jumping around in so many directions that if you’re not paying attention (and it’s easy to doze off) you might think he's being thorough, but when you step back you’ll realise it has the depth of puddle. Wow: conservative politicians have ties with conservative political theorists at conservative think tanks! Who'd have guessed? O’Brien’s only other tactic involves digging through his opponents’ histories (or at least their Wikipedia pages) to find objectionable quotes for him to snarl at in performative outrage. The point is never to understand the opposing position, far less to engage in anything resembling good-faith debate - O'Brien's only interested in ranting about the moral inferiority of everyone he disagrees with. It's hardly a productive contribution to the discourse, but most of all it's just boring.
O’Brien lobs some pot shots at the political scientist Matthew Goodwin, whose recent book Values, Voice and Virtue argues that Britain is dominated by a “New Elite” of middle-class, city-dwelling graduates (such as James O’Brien) whose self-styled “progressive” politics are unpopular with the wider public but hegemonic in our institutions. I’ve read Goodwin’s book and I found it interesting if not entirely convincing, but the one-sentence summary in my previous sentence is a deeper analysis than you’ll get from O’Brien, who offers no evidence that he’s actually read it, and instead just sneers at a caricature: can you believe this right-wing nutjob thinks that I’m part of the elite? I’m not sure what definition of “elite” excludes popular radio hosts with huge audiences, but to engage with O’Brien’s “arguments” (insofar as he actually makes any) would be a charity that he never extends to the targets of his ire.
Elsewhere it’s just embarrassing. O’Brien thinks that Theresa May salvaged her premiership in 2017 by making a “supply and demand” agreement with the DUP. It was actually a “confidence and supply” agreement, but then why should one of the nation's most popular political commentators need to know the difference between parliamentary procedures and his Economics A-Level? That wasn’t the only time I rewound the Audible app because I was sure I must have misheard, but no, he really did accuse Donald Trump of trying to steal “the 2022 presidential election”. Wow, James - we all make typos, but if you’re going to write an entire book about how other people don’t care about the truth, maybe you should be a bit more diligent with your own proofreading? Did you not even spot that error when you were reading out your own words for the audiobook recording?
And what’s with all the alliteration? Once I noticed how frequently the author does this, it was all I could hear: “Cummings-coined catchphrase” … “fighting feelings and falsehoods with facts” … “the catalogue of calumny corruption” … God, make it stop! Or should that be “Deity, I demand you desist”? The awkward, annoying assonance of these orthographic ostentations occurs so obnoxiously often that I can only deduce it’s deliberate. Stop it, James: it’s not clever, canny or cunning, it’s just grating and gratuitous.
I have many more gripes (why does he keep saying “so-called small boats” when discussing illegal immigration? Are the migrants actually coming here on cruise ships?) but the sooner I stop typing, the sooner I can stop thinking about this stupid book and its obnoxious author. I truly don’t understand why anyone pays attention to this smug, sanctimonious simpleton.
November 4, 2023
Very well researched and written O’Brien’s book delivers on its promise to explain how the UK finds itself sliding backwards in the world, morally, politically and of course financially. A chilling but essential read, I came away better informed, chilled to my core and damned angry. The shameless selfishness and wanton lies throughout should serve as a reminder for all countries and societies to be aware and taken action to actively fight against the charlatans, racists and sociopaths that will say anything to feather their nests or plump up their future with no regard for the commonwealth’s health and well-being. Oh, and a last, lighter note, the brevity with which Liz Truss is dealt with comes across as a laugh out loud ‘well, it has to be said but let’s only give her the space she deserves’ moment to lighten the end of the journey.
June 16, 2024
One only hopes the next book is How Britain Was Mended
July 6, 2024
I read this at just the right time, finishing days before the election. I think we will all look back at the 14 years of Tory rule, historically, amazed that people put up with this for so long. The relief of being rid of these people is beyond anything I can describe. I think James' outrage at the depravity, incompetence and extremism of the group of people he writes about is pitched exactly right. It reminds you to not stop being outraged and to not let your standards for public servants slip. Like the gradually boiling frog that doesn't realise it's being cooked, I really feared the British electorate had lost its ability to feel any surprise or indignation at these people anymore. And the right-wing media gaslighted us for so long, as well, it just became normal to be shown pictures of a guy clearly drinking at a party during lockdown while at the same time being told "this is a work gathering" and to have your brain short-circuit and stop processing reality altogether.
Anyway, while I hope this stays in people's minds for a good long time, to prevent them voting for these bastards again, I also never want to see or hear from them again. That being said, this is a book people should read and never forget.
Anyway, while I hope this stays in people's minds for a good long time, to prevent them voting for these bastards again, I also never want to see or hear from them again. That being said, this is a book people should read and never forget.
January 4, 2024
Outstanding albeit depressingly brutal review of the main characters who have sold the UK down the river for the benefit of themselves and their associates. A must read if only to open your eyes to the blatant corruption at the top
March 12, 2024
I agree with a lot of what is said in this book. Britain IS broken. Modern politics is not fit for purpose, mainly due to politicians and mainstream media that are inept, biased, arrogant and downright corrupt.
But I found the author to be just as arrogant and biased as the people he condemns.
The book is a 'one eyed' polemic lacking in balance and often accusing his subjects of the very thing he is guilty of in his own book. The blatant imbalance of his views and obvious hatred of many of his subjects made it difficult for me to finish the book. But as it was a gift I ploughed on. However, I wont be reading any more of this 'best selling' author's work.
His bio inside the book says that he can often be found on Twitter (X) trying not to get into arguments. I checked him out only to find he had blocked me ! I don't even recall having anything to do with him. But reading comments about him from other Twitter users, he has a reputation for blocking people who disagree with him. So that's how he avoids getting into 'arguments.' (Debates.)
But I found the author to be just as arrogant and biased as the people he condemns.
The book is a 'one eyed' polemic lacking in balance and often accusing his subjects of the very thing he is guilty of in his own book. The blatant imbalance of his views and obvious hatred of many of his subjects made it difficult for me to finish the book. But as it was a gift I ploughed on. However, I wont be reading any more of this 'best selling' author's work.
His bio inside the book says that he can often be found on Twitter (X) trying not to get into arguments. I checked him out only to find he had blocked me ! I don't even recall having anything to do with him. But reading comments about him from other Twitter users, he has a reputation for blocking people who disagree with him. So that's how he avoids getting into 'arguments.' (Debates.)
November 28, 2023
Would have been 5* had Matt Hancock and Priti Patel been hauled over the hot coals with their own respective chapters, as their deplorable actions whilst in government warranted. The fact they were left out but Jeremy Corbyn was scrutinised in such detail makes a bit of a mockery of the premise when you consider his impact on Britain versus the other two names.
May 1, 2025
I do like James O’Brien. I don’t agree with him on everything but I listen to his LBC show regularly and generally I think it’s important for the UK to have someone who is so vocally ‘woke’ and willing to argue with bigots on the daily.
His habit to be utterly petrified anything left of liberal is a bit 🙄. At one point O’Brien compares Jeremy Corbyn to Trump. Really. Then in the next chapter he goes on to claim that despite his track record of nothing but destruction, deception, and ruin – he does think that Dominic Cummings had ‘good intentions’. No such empathy or even attempt at understanding is awarded to Jeremy.
Overall though a well-written and important take on the past 10 years of British politics and how we’re in the mess we are now. Lovely and bleak.
His habit to be utterly petrified anything left of liberal is a bit 🙄. At one point O’Brien compares Jeremy Corbyn to Trump. Really. Then in the next chapter he goes on to claim that despite his track record of nothing but destruction, deception, and ruin – he does think that Dominic Cummings had ‘good intentions’. No such empathy or even attempt at understanding is awarded to Jeremy.
Overall though a well-written and important take on the past 10 years of British politics and how we’re in the mess we are now. Lovely and bleak.
June 14, 2024
An insightful and rage-inducing page turner. Please read this, even just the last 3 chapters, before the next election.
February 22, 2024
I started listening to this with a completely open mind as I’ve never much listened to James o’brien and as politics is in such a mess rife with sleaze and corruption I thought this would be an interesting listen. Wrong. The book should just be titled James O’Brien hates Brexit.
He criticises people, in a name calling, childish-look at me I’m so angry-way, and doesn’t realise the extremity and tunnel vision in his own views. And lack of balance in his arguments or any accountability for why people aren’t persuaded by his politics and opinion, other than to basically call people stupid and claim them to be fooled by the lying media and Nigel farage. There is nothing new in this book, nothing intellectual or intelligent, it’s just one long rant.
For example, he claims Nigel farage will make anything racist and about immigration, such as being in a traffic jam/levels of traffic, making him late to an appearance, or hearing foreign languages on the train. In context, with a small country adding hundreds of thousands to the population each year of course this is having an impact on traffic levels, and, as a small build female already feeling vulnerable when I travel alone I too feel more uncomfortable when I am surrounded by men and can’t understand what they are saying. This isn’t racist, it is natural human behaviour and instinct. And when no one mentions this, and actually sneers like James O’Brien does, when this is mentioned, what are people supposed to do or who do they turn to? O’Brien’s total lack of comprehension at any opposing view to his own and his obsession with Brexit overwhelms what could have been an interesting book and a proper examination at how things have become as corrupt and broken as they have done. O’Brien seems to think he is compassionate and inclusive, but continually punches down throughout this book.
He criticises people, in a name calling, childish-look at me I’m so angry-way, and doesn’t realise the extremity and tunnel vision in his own views. And lack of balance in his arguments or any accountability for why people aren’t persuaded by his politics and opinion, other than to basically call people stupid and claim them to be fooled by the lying media and Nigel farage. There is nothing new in this book, nothing intellectual or intelligent, it’s just one long rant.
For example, he claims Nigel farage will make anything racist and about immigration, such as being in a traffic jam/levels of traffic, making him late to an appearance, or hearing foreign languages on the train. In context, with a small country adding hundreds of thousands to the population each year of course this is having an impact on traffic levels, and, as a small build female already feeling vulnerable when I travel alone I too feel more uncomfortable when I am surrounded by men and can’t understand what they are saying. This isn’t racist, it is natural human behaviour and instinct. And when no one mentions this, and actually sneers like James O’Brien does, when this is mentioned, what are people supposed to do or who do they turn to? O’Brien’s total lack of comprehension at any opposing view to his own and his obsession with Brexit overwhelms what could have been an interesting book and a proper examination at how things have become as corrupt and broken as they have done. O’Brien seems to think he is compassionate and inclusive, but continually punches down throughout this book.
December 30, 2023
This has done my blood pressure no good at all. But gosh, seeing all the evidence laid bare makes me even angrier than I was already about the sheer avarice and opportunism of Brexit. Grim.
September 5, 2024
Политическите книги могат да бъдат много депресиращи. Тази не е изключение.
Авторът е политически журналист и доста умело показва пътят на самоунищожение, който UK е поел през 2010 година и продължава да върви по него. Всяка глава е различна политическа или медийна личност, която според неговата гледна точка (доста коректна гледна точка) е част от този път на саморазруха. Започна с трима медийни личности, които отговарят за 90% от медиите в UK и премина през Дейвид Камерън, Джеръми Корбин, Доминик Къмингс, Борис Джонсън, Лиз Тръс и Руши Сунак.
Провокиращо интересен е домино ефектът, който се е получил и как ако едно нещо да не е било, то нищо от останалите неща не биха се случили. Като при самолетните катастрофи - никога не е една причината.
Имаше някои неща, с които бях наясно от други политически книги, които прочетох в последно време, но имаше и неща, които ми бяха нови. Напрягащо дразнещи, но неизненадващи. Например, че почти всичките личности на високи политически постове, са дошли от Eton, колежът на най-богатите. Мдааа...
Книгата е доста отваряща очите и депресираща, защото осъзнаваш, че страната е много далеч от това да си признае, че Брекзит е най-голямата грешка и всичко е тръгнало от там. Никой политик няма да го направи, а хората, манипулирани от крайно-десните медии - естествено, ще продължават да вярват, че бежанците и имигрантите им са виновни.
Единственият недостатък на книгата е, че авторът макар и добър журналист и писател, има слабост да се фокусира върху излишни детайли и така да утежнява текста си, че на места е просто нечетим. Не ми се мисли как е изглеждала книгата преди да бъде редактирана, защото дори в този финален вариант, имаше много излишна информация, която не спомагаше за изчистеното и ясно послание, което гони авторът.
Авторът е политически журналист и доста умело показва пътят на самоунищожение, който UK е поел през 2010 година и продължава да върви по него. Всяка глава е различна политическа или медийна личност, която според неговата гледна точка (доста коректна гледна точка) е част от този път на саморазруха. Започна с трима медийни личности, които отговарят за 90% от медиите в UK и премина през Дейвид Камерън, Джеръми Корбин, Доминик Къмингс, Борис Джонсън, Лиз Тръс и Руши Сунак.
Провокиращо интересен е домино ефектът, който се е получил и как ако едно нещо да не е било, то нищо от останалите неща не биха се случили. Като при самолетните катастрофи - никога не е една причината.
Имаше някои неща, с които бях наясно от други политически книги, които прочетох в последно време, но имаше и неща, които ми бяха нови. Напрягащо дразнещи, но неизненадващи. Например, че почти всичките личности на високи политически постове, са дошли от Eton, колежът на най-богатите. Мдааа...
Книгата е доста отваряща очите и депресираща, защото осъзнаваш, че страната е много далеч от това да си признае, че Брекзит е най-голямата грешка и всичко е тръгнало от там. Никой политик няма да го направи, а хората, манипулирани от крайно-десните медии - естествено, ще продължават да вярват, че бежанците и имигрантите им са виновни.
Единственият недостатък на книгата е, че авторът макар и добър журналист и писател, има слабост да се фокусира върху излишни детайли и така да утежнява текста си, че на места е просто нечетим. Не ми се мисли как е изглеждала книгата преди да бъде редактирана, защото дори в този финален вариант, имаше много излишна информация, която не спомагаше за изчистеното и ясно послание, което гони авторът.
December 10, 2024
Reading this book felt like a necessary but sobering journey. A very incisive, urgent, and relatable. From the first page, I was hooked—not just by the meticulous research but by the humanity that runs through every chapter.
The author doesn’t just recount facts; O’Brien weaves a narrative that feels personal, almost like they’re sitting across the table from you, sharing their outrage, their heartbreak, and their determination to uncover the truth. Each revelation about the systems and decisions that have led to Britain’s unraveling left me with a mix of anger and clarity.
I couldn’t stop thinking about the anecdotes shared, the families affected, and the sheer audacity of those in power who failed them.
This book made me reflect on my own experiences of living in Britain during tumultuous times, and it gave words to frustrations I didn’t even know how to articulate. It’s not just a critique; it’s a rallying cry for accountability and change.
The author doesn’t just recount facts; O’Brien weaves a narrative that feels personal, almost like they’re sitting across the table from you, sharing their outrage, their heartbreak, and their determination to uncover the truth. Each revelation about the systems and decisions that have led to Britain’s unraveling left me with a mix of anger and clarity.
I couldn’t stop thinking about the anecdotes shared, the families affected, and the sheer audacity of those in power who failed them.
This book made me reflect on my own experiences of living in Britain during tumultuous times, and it gave words to frustrations I didn’t even know how to articulate. It’s not just a critique; it’s a rallying cry for accountability and change.
April 1, 2025
I’d say this was 3.5, but mostly just because of how depressing it is that these people still have power and haven’t been shamed into obscurity or at least held accountable to their actions 🙃
July 15, 2024
This seemed like a fitting choice to begin the day before the Tories are finally annihilated for good.
June 28, 2024
Amazing, amazing, amazing. Should be compulsory reading for everybody. John McWhorter’s Woke Racism was once my favourite non-fiction book, before it was pushed to second place by Hannah Barnes’s Time To Think…has this now made first place? Possibly. Or maybe it ties with Hannah Barnes’s book. (By the way, I am smugly congratulating myself on my good taste; the paragon of wisdom Emily Maitlis gave quotations to both O’Brien and Barnes’s books.)
Anyway, suffice it to say, this book is amazing, if occasionally too erudite for my limited knowledge of the labyrinthine social networks of government. O’Brien acknowledges this himself, pointing out that this is only proof of how in-each-other’s-pockets the government, media, and so-called “think tanks” are.
Critics may say that his analysis relies too heavily on the work of others. I would argue that that is a positive: O’Brien has done us a public service by putting together a highly comprehensive fact file! We can access the evidence of Tory corruption all in one place.
For my memory only, here is the casting call of the ten culprits. (It is essentially a buildup to Brexit, and how the environment in which Brexit could happen was contributed to.) The following summaries may appear judgemental - they are not my personal opinions necessarily, but rather the ones espoused in the book, summarised purely for memory’s sake.
*
1. Rupert Murdoch: the man who turned the truth into a commodity, setting the precedent for a print media low on fact-checking and high on government influence.
2. Paul Dacre, who used his newspaper as a mouthpiece for his deranged paranoid narratives about “enemies of the people”, and who O’Brien largely blames for manufacturing the current culture war discourse about the “woke” liberal elite. (Whilst I agree with O'Brien that complaints about 'wokeness' can sometimes be manufactured, and I agree that Dacre is a deranged plonker, I do think O’Brien generalises a bit here. Some complaints of far-left authoritarianism are valid! Not Dacre’s though. And I’m sure he’s right that Dacre was crucial in spreading the poisonous sentiment that fed into people voting Brexit.)
3. Andrew Neil, who heralded in racist writers including Douglas Murray and Rod Liddle, while also enjoying unchallenged status in the media despite his overt right-wing bias and very different standards being applied to more left-leaning journalists.
4. Matthew Elliott: chief lobbyist of Vote Leave, an organisation found to have broken the law, and who routinely demonised whistleblowers such as Shahmir Sanni.
5. Nigel Farage: the Leave.EU leader and slippery liar whose poisonous anti-immigration paranoia not only fed into Euroscepticism, but also relied on thinly veiled Enoch-Powell-inspired racism.
6. David Cameron, the Prime Minister responsible for overly heavy-handed austerity cuts, thus straining the NHS and justice system almost to breaking point, and whose complacency when handling the monumental referendum gamble was fatal.
7. Jeremy Corbyn: the Labour leader in a perfect position to finish off the Tories and provide his Labour voters with the clear arguments for Remain, but who utterly sabotaged the campaign with his obstructionism and belligerent refusal to ever properly address the issue with his voters.
8. Dominic Cummings: a career psychopath whose Vote Leave campaign was fettered with lies and evasiveness.
9. Boris Johnson: the man who should have been NOWHERE NEAR 10 Downing Street in a proper political environment. He not only heralded in Brexit; he also set a political precedent of an above-the-rules, undesirably casual relationship with the truth for which he was barely held accountable.
10. And finally - Liz Truss. The woman who managed to cost the UK an estimated £30bn in 45 days via a suicidal policy of £45bn worth of tax cuts.
Anyway, suffice it to say, this book is amazing, if occasionally too erudite for my limited knowledge of the labyrinthine social networks of government. O’Brien acknowledges this himself, pointing out that this is only proof of how in-each-other’s-pockets the government, media, and so-called “think tanks” are.
Critics may say that his analysis relies too heavily on the work of others. I would argue that that is a positive: O’Brien has done us a public service by putting together a highly comprehensive fact file! We can access the evidence of Tory corruption all in one place.
For my memory only, here is the casting call of the ten culprits. (It is essentially a buildup to Brexit, and how the environment in which Brexit could happen was contributed to.) The following summaries may appear judgemental - they are not my personal opinions necessarily, but rather the ones espoused in the book, summarised purely for memory’s sake.
*
1. Rupert Murdoch: the man who turned the truth into a commodity, setting the precedent for a print media low on fact-checking and high on government influence.
2. Paul Dacre, who used his newspaper as a mouthpiece for his deranged paranoid narratives about “enemies of the people”, and who O’Brien largely blames for manufacturing the current culture war discourse about the “woke” liberal elite. (Whilst I agree with O'Brien that complaints about 'wokeness' can sometimes be manufactured, and I agree that Dacre is a deranged plonker, I do think O’Brien generalises a bit here. Some complaints of far-left authoritarianism are valid! Not Dacre’s though. And I’m sure he’s right that Dacre was crucial in spreading the poisonous sentiment that fed into people voting Brexit.)
3. Andrew Neil, who heralded in racist writers including Douglas Murray and Rod Liddle, while also enjoying unchallenged status in the media despite his overt right-wing bias and very different standards being applied to more left-leaning journalists.
4. Matthew Elliott: chief lobbyist of Vote Leave, an organisation found to have broken the law, and who routinely demonised whistleblowers such as Shahmir Sanni.
5. Nigel Farage: the Leave.EU leader and slippery liar whose poisonous anti-immigration paranoia not only fed into Euroscepticism, but also relied on thinly veiled Enoch-Powell-inspired racism.
6. David Cameron, the Prime Minister responsible for overly heavy-handed austerity cuts, thus straining the NHS and justice system almost to breaking point, and whose complacency when handling the monumental referendum gamble was fatal.
7. Jeremy Corbyn: the Labour leader in a perfect position to finish off the Tories and provide his Labour voters with the clear arguments for Remain, but who utterly sabotaged the campaign with his obstructionism and belligerent refusal to ever properly address the issue with his voters.
8. Dominic Cummings: a career psychopath whose Vote Leave campaign was fettered with lies and evasiveness.
9. Boris Johnson: the man who should have been NOWHERE NEAR 10 Downing Street in a proper political environment. He not only heralded in Brexit; he also set a political precedent of an above-the-rules, undesirably casual relationship with the truth for which he was barely held accountable.
10. And finally - Liz Truss. The woman who managed to cost the UK an estimated £30bn in 45 days via a suicidal policy of £45bn worth of tax cuts.
June 16, 2024
Really enjoyed this. Well laid out and researched. Must read for anyone with an interest in British politics!
April 9, 2024
The strength of this book is that while it didn't reveal much that was entirely new to me, the forensic level of detail used by O'Brien left me shocked and angry. He deliberately builds a narrative arc that focuses primarily on the deep connections between the Conservative Party and the right-wing media, culminating in his analysis of Liz Truss, whom he views as the embodiment of decades of cronyism, corruption, and elitism from the political right.
As someone who reads a lot of similar books, I often feel that I've become desensitized to the revelations they contain. However, the blatant, unapologetic racism exhibited by some of the key figures discussed in this book was genuinely shocking to me.
This is not a book that one is likely to "enjoy" in the traditional sense. I approached it more as a necessary but unpleasant task, listening to the audiobook version narrated by O'Brien himself at a slightly slower pace to ensure I didn't miss any of the crucial details.
As a former Corbyn supporter, I found the chapter dealing with him to be personally challenging. I shared O’Brien’s frustration at him just getting angry at the mainstream media rather than finding a workable response. I also remember losing that election but being surrounded by Labour members who seemed to think this was a great victory - utter madness. The Labour Party represents those without power and so we have a duty to be electable in order to gain power on their behalf
Ultimately, I'm not sure what tangible impact this book will have, as I suspect it will primarily be read by those who already agree with O'Brien's perspective. His scathing takedown of Nigel Farage demonstrates that simply exposing lies is no longer enough – desensitized to such revelations. At times, I also felt uncomfortable with the personal nature of some of the attacks, as I share many of the same thoughts and feelings, but wouldn't necessarily want to see them published.
However it is a well crafted polemic that has reminded me why I have spent years on the campaign trail. Maybe that is the intended impact - to fire us up ahead of the next election.
As someone who reads a lot of similar books, I often feel that I've become desensitized to the revelations they contain. However, the blatant, unapologetic racism exhibited by some of the key figures discussed in this book was genuinely shocking to me.
This is not a book that one is likely to "enjoy" in the traditional sense. I approached it more as a necessary but unpleasant task, listening to the audiobook version narrated by O'Brien himself at a slightly slower pace to ensure I didn't miss any of the crucial details.
As a former Corbyn supporter, I found the chapter dealing with him to be personally challenging. I shared O’Brien’s frustration at him just getting angry at the mainstream media rather than finding a workable response. I also remember losing that election but being surrounded by Labour members who seemed to think this was a great victory - utter madness. The Labour Party represents those without power and so we have a duty to be electable in order to gain power on their behalf
Ultimately, I'm not sure what tangible impact this book will have, as I suspect it will primarily be read by those who already agree with O'Brien's perspective. His scathing takedown of Nigel Farage demonstrates that simply exposing lies is no longer enough – desensitized to such revelations. At times, I also felt uncomfortable with the personal nature of some of the attacks, as I share many of the same thoughts and feelings, but wouldn't necessarily want to see them published.
However it is a well crafted polemic that has reminded me why I have spent years on the campaign trail. Maybe that is the intended impact - to fire us up ahead of the next election.
December 24, 2023
Really highlights just how rotten the Tories are.
February 20, 2024
Yes, it’s opinionated; yes, it’s polemical; yes, it’s ferociously angry; but it’s a bloody good read. I doubt it’s going to create any new fans for O’Brien, but those who share his politics and enjoy his radio show will want to read it. And he’s right: the people whose mendaciousness and colossal self-interest is covered in each of the book’s ten chapters really have broken Britain.
June 11, 2024
I think I had a slightly incorrect impression of what this book when I picked it up - my expectation was a satirically humorous review of the various politicians and media moguls who have, over the last decade or so, collectively steered the country into the utter shitstorm that we now find ourselves in. Whilst the latter half is certainly true, it turns out there is very little humour to be found in such an endeavour.
So whilst I expected something akin to a lengthy Private Eye article, what James O'Brien has in fact produced is an incredibly well-researched, detailed and scathing indictment of the key figures who hold ultimate responsibility for the state of the UK today, from the disgustingly fascist skewing of the media from the likes of Rupert Murdoch and Paul Dacre, to the insidiously self-serving and corrupt actions of Boris Johnson, to the utterly laughable incompetence of Dominic Cummings and Liz Truss.
So whilst not as immediately engaging and accessible as I was hoping (though certainly not a slog to get through by any means) this is a book that I'm very glad I read, and that should be read by anybody wishing to be even slightly informed on the state of British politics and perhaps more importantly, how it got to this point in the first place. We've come a long way from the most scandalous event in politics in the UK being an active Prime Minister referring to a bigoted woman as just that on a hot mic, and O'Brien very purposefully lays forth the path taken by certain individuals that now seems to afford most right-wing politicians complete carte blanche in their actions.
That being said, it is not without certain humorous comments along the way, my favourite being easy to pinpoint when he describes Jacob Rees-Mogg as "a penny farthing in human form".
I have a great deal of respect for O'Brien and this book has only served to bolster that feeling. I will never tire of seeing him tear down the ignorant and often downright racist troglodytes who attempt to get the better of him when ringing in to LBC (particularly as usually all he does is ask them simple questions). If more journalists were like him then maybe the country wouldn't be in such a fucking mess.
#fuckthetories
So whilst I expected something akin to a lengthy Private Eye article, what James O'Brien has in fact produced is an incredibly well-researched, detailed and scathing indictment of the key figures who hold ultimate responsibility for the state of the UK today, from the disgustingly fascist skewing of the media from the likes of Rupert Murdoch and Paul Dacre, to the insidiously self-serving and corrupt actions of Boris Johnson, to the utterly laughable incompetence of Dominic Cummings and Liz Truss.
So whilst not as immediately engaging and accessible as I was hoping (though certainly not a slog to get through by any means) this is a book that I'm very glad I read, and that should be read by anybody wishing to be even slightly informed on the state of British politics and perhaps more importantly, how it got to this point in the first place. We've come a long way from the most scandalous event in politics in the UK being an active Prime Minister referring to a bigoted woman as just that on a hot mic, and O'Brien very purposefully lays forth the path taken by certain individuals that now seems to afford most right-wing politicians complete carte blanche in their actions.
That being said, it is not without certain humorous comments along the way, my favourite being easy to pinpoint when he describes Jacob Rees-Mogg as "a penny farthing in human form".
I have a great deal of respect for O'Brien and this book has only served to bolster that feeling. I will never tire of seeing him tear down the ignorant and often downright racist troglodytes who attempt to get the better of him when ringing in to LBC (particularly as usually all he does is ask them simple questions). If more journalists were like him then maybe the country wouldn't be in such a fucking mess.
#fuckthetories
April 14, 2024
3.5 Stars!
“‘Oiling’ is best understood as networking, based on an understanding that in the upper reaches of British society, connections and contacts have always mattered more than intelligence, talent or integrity.”
CRONYISM IS ENGLISH FOR CORRUPTION
As that wonderful artist Jeremy Deller once said. O’Brien is another name I’ve never come across before so I thought I’d give this a shot. Opening up with a great Chomsky quote O’Brien then thunders into a fiery, forty-five page introduction which exposes a veritable hotbed of mediocrity, privilege and incompetence with knowledge and talent being scarcely relevant when it comes to the requirements.
“There are no consequences for appalling personal or political behaviour. There is no semblance of public morality. There is no longer any consensual threshold for career-ending conduct. Simple truth has become negotiable and proven liars have flourished as never before.”
“Face no consequences for being frequently and spectacularly wrong.” He says of the right-wing media and the politicians they protect and support. And it’s so true the depth, breadth and length of lies, greed and corruption is simply astonishing and is surely without comparison in British politics within the modern era.
There is a lot of stuff in here which has been well documented elsewhere, so I found little that was fresh or new, O’Brien’s style can feel a tad shouty and intense after a while, and as much as he has much to say and lots of fine points to make about the dreadful state of British politics there was an uneven quality to this.
But he does a good thing in picking up on some of the lesser known culprits who get away with forwarding the hard right agenda, the likes of Andrew Neil and Laura Kuenssberg. He was also really good in further exposing the right-wing media's crucial role in helping and sustaining what remains the most shambolic government ever to stumble into parliament in the modern era, if not in its entire history.
November 14, 2024
Gah! What a thoroughly depressing book. Expertly written, with the thorough knowledge and presentation of facts you'd expect from the ever-excellent O'Brien, but such a deeply depressing read. The cavalcade of utter cunts discussed and the moronic British (mostly English) public who swallowed their lies, deceits, obfuscations, bullshit, hypocrisy, cronyism, and monumental incompetence in such large numbers (and indeed spouted it themselves) made for 362 pages of very unhappy reading. And zero light at the end of any tunnel or cause for optimism that I can see.
Strictly speaking it deserves 5 stars but I had to knock one off for how miserable it made me.
Strictly speaking it deserves 5 stars but I had to knock one off for how miserable it made me.
March 27, 2024
An eviscerating account of the decline of Britain, showing how key figures have collaborated to ensure that mediocrity trumps merit and lies overcome truth. Truly a depressing narrative of perpetual failure over the last 14 years of Tory rule, as well as showing how a network of elites work together to block real change in this country.
Interesting, and casts a light on some of the lesser known figures, such as the shadowy think tanks and people involved in Vote Leave.
Interesting, and casts a light on some of the lesser known figures, such as the shadowy think tanks and people involved in Vote Leave.
April 1, 2024
An impressive presentation of the key figures who each have contributed to the corrupt state of British politics today.
While I don't agree with some of O'Brien's framing, I think this book is commendable in how it draws multiple threads together cohesively.
O'Brien's writing style is a little bit lackluster but it is digestible
While I don't agree with some of O'Brien's framing, I think this book is commendable in how it draws multiple threads together cohesively.
O'Brien's writing style is a little bit lackluster but it is digestible
February 26, 2024
we are screwed x
January 7, 2025
Depressing but important. Revolving door is real 🚪
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