What do you think?
Rate this book
Britain Is Better Than This: Why a Great Country Is Failing Us All
Bloomsbury presents Britain Is Better Than This written and read by Gavin Esler.
An urgent and timely exploration of a British political system in peril – and what we must do to save it.
For centuries, British identity has been shaped by ideas of exceptionalism, grandeur and competence. Yet British democracy is failing. Governments supported by a minority of voters are elected with enormous majorities under a deeply unrepresentative first-past-the-post system. The result has been failed leaders delivering wounding blows to the country's economy, prosperity and international image.
Britain Is Better Than This explores what lies beneath this sense of malaise, revealing the structural and constitutional failures at the heart of a sclerotic political system. It sheds light on a culture of lies, distrust and corruption. It reveals fundamental flaws in core institutions, including the media, the House of Lords and the House of Commons. It draws on events such as the MP expenses scandal, Brexit, 'Partygate' and the farcical premiership of Liz Truss, as symptoms of a great nation at a turning point yet unsure of which way to turn. And it looks ahead, offering practical solutions to answer the key question of our What do we need to do to build a better future?
'The most compelling, lacerating description of the Muppet Show that is British public life I have yet read.' Will Hutton
'There can be no book more urgently needed than this one.' Steve Richards
An urgent and timely exploration of a British political system in peril – and what we must do to save it.
For centuries, British identity has been shaped by ideas of exceptionalism, grandeur and competence. Yet British democracy is failing. Governments supported by a minority of voters are elected with enormous majorities under a deeply unrepresentative first-past-the-post system. The result has been failed leaders delivering wounding blows to the country's economy, prosperity and international image.
Britain Is Better Than This explores what lies beneath this sense of malaise, revealing the structural and constitutional failures at the heart of a sclerotic political system. It sheds light on a culture of lies, distrust and corruption. It reveals fundamental flaws in core institutions, including the media, the House of Lords and the House of Commons. It draws on events such as the MP expenses scandal, Brexit, 'Partygate' and the farcical premiership of Liz Truss, as symptoms of a great nation at a turning point yet unsure of which way to turn. And it looks ahead, offering practical solutions to answer the key question of our What do we need to do to build a better future?
'The most compelling, lacerating description of the Muppet Show that is British public life I have yet read.' Will Hutton
'There can be no book more urgently needed than this one.' Steve Richards
Audible Audio
Published October 26, 2023
23 people are currently reading
73 people want to read
About the author
Gavin Esler
14 books18 followersGavin Esler is an award winning television and radio broadcaster, novelist and journalist. He is the author of five novels and two non-fiction books, The United States of Anger, and most recently Lessons from the Top, a study of how leaders tell stories to make other people follow them. It’s based on personal encounters with a wide variety of leaders, from Bill Clinton and Angela Merkel to Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher, and even cultural leaders such as Dolly Parton.
Reviewers have been full of praise for Esler’s fiction and story-telling abilities. The writer Bernard Cornwell said his novels are "made luminous with wisdom, sympathy and story telling." The Guardian commented that Esler's fiction displays "undoubted sympathy for the human condition and a burning anger, a genuine lyricism, a quick sensitivity and a real understanding of other people." The Financial Times said Esler's stories of people in power and the compromises they are forced to make, shows that he "understands the political beast better than anyone."
Gavin EslerGavin Esler was born in Glasgow, and brought up in Edinburgh and Northern Ireland. His family are descended from German Protestant refugees who fled to safety in Scotland during the religious wars of the early 17th Century. He spent the first three years of his life living with his parents, grandmother and aunts in a three-bedroom council house in Clydebank. The family moved to Edinburgh and Gavin won a scholarship to George Heriot's School. He planned to study medicine at Edinburgh University and then, to the relief of patients everywhere, made an abrupt switch to English, American and, eventually, Irish literature. After he finished his post-graduate studies he was offered a job on The Scotsman in Edinburgh but turned it down as likely to be a bit dull, preferring instead The Belfast Telegraph. He moved on to the BBC in Belfast during some of the worst of "the Troubles," and got to know leaders of the IRA and other Republican and loyalist paramilitary groups. On one occasion the leader of a loyalist organisation introduced himself to Esler with the memorable words: “I am speaking to you as someone deeply involved in violence.” It turned out to be an accurate description.
His investigative work on the wrongful convictions of Giuseppe Conlon and his son Gerry led to a campaign which eventually overturned the convictions of the so-called “Guildford Four” and “Maguire Seven” -- innocent Irishmen and women convicted of bombing offences on the basis on non-existent or unreliable “evidence.” Their stories eventually became the basis of the film, In the Name of the Father.
Esler moved on to become the BBC's Chief North America Correspondent, based in Washington and covering the Bush and Clinton White House. He visited 48 of the 50 states but somehow missed out on Wisconsin and North Dakota. His first encounter with Bill Clinton in 1991 led him to believe that the then Governor of Arkansas might indeed become President of the United States some day - a belief somewhat dented when a Democratic party official described Clinton to Esler as “Oh, you mean Governor Zipper Problem.”
He then reported from countries as diverse as China, Peru, Argentina, Cuba, Brazil, Russia, Jordan, Iran, Saudia Arabia and from the Aleutian Islands, as well as all across Europe. He won a Royal Television Society award for a TV documentary about Alaska and a Sony Gold award for a BBC radio investigation into the case of Sami al Hajj, who was detained without charge in Guantanamo bay, but released shortly after the radio programme was broadcast.
Over the past two decades Gavin Esler has interviewed world leaders ranging from Mrs Thatcher, David Cameron, Gordon Brown, Tony Blair, John Major, King Abdullah of Jordan and President Chirac to President Clinton, President Carter, Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega, Ed Miliband and Israel's Shimon Peres. In the arts and culture programmes he anchors for BBC World he has als
Reviewers have been full of praise for Esler’s fiction and story-telling abilities. The writer Bernard Cornwell said his novels are "made luminous with wisdom, sympathy and story telling." The Guardian commented that Esler's fiction displays "undoubted sympathy for the human condition and a burning anger, a genuine lyricism, a quick sensitivity and a real understanding of other people." The Financial Times said Esler's stories of people in power and the compromises they are forced to make, shows that he "understands the political beast better than anyone."
Gavin EslerGavin Esler was born in Glasgow, and brought up in Edinburgh and Northern Ireland. His family are descended from German Protestant refugees who fled to safety in Scotland during the religious wars of the early 17th Century. He spent the first three years of his life living with his parents, grandmother and aunts in a three-bedroom council house in Clydebank. The family moved to Edinburgh and Gavin won a scholarship to George Heriot's School. He planned to study medicine at Edinburgh University and then, to the relief of patients everywhere, made an abrupt switch to English, American and, eventually, Irish literature. After he finished his post-graduate studies he was offered a job on The Scotsman in Edinburgh but turned it down as likely to be a bit dull, preferring instead The Belfast Telegraph. He moved on to the BBC in Belfast during some of the worst of "the Troubles," and got to know leaders of the IRA and other Republican and loyalist paramilitary groups. On one occasion the leader of a loyalist organisation introduced himself to Esler with the memorable words: “I am speaking to you as someone deeply involved in violence.” It turned out to be an accurate description.
His investigative work on the wrongful convictions of Giuseppe Conlon and his son Gerry led to a campaign which eventually overturned the convictions of the so-called “Guildford Four” and “Maguire Seven” -- innocent Irishmen and women convicted of bombing offences on the basis on non-existent or unreliable “evidence.” Their stories eventually became the basis of the film, In the Name of the Father.
Esler moved on to become the BBC's Chief North America Correspondent, based in Washington and covering the Bush and Clinton White House. He visited 48 of the 50 states but somehow missed out on Wisconsin and North Dakota. His first encounter with Bill Clinton in 1991 led him to believe that the then Governor of Arkansas might indeed become President of the United States some day - a belief somewhat dented when a Democratic party official described Clinton to Esler as “Oh, you mean Governor Zipper Problem.”
He then reported from countries as diverse as China, Peru, Argentina, Cuba, Brazil, Russia, Jordan, Iran, Saudia Arabia and from the Aleutian Islands, as well as all across Europe. He won a Royal Television Society award for a TV documentary about Alaska and a Sony Gold award for a BBC radio investigation into the case of Sami al Hajj, who was detained without charge in Guantanamo bay, but released shortly after the radio programme was broadcast.
Over the past two decades Gavin Esler has interviewed world leaders ranging from Mrs Thatcher, David Cameron, Gordon Brown, Tony Blair, John Major, King Abdullah of Jordan and President Chirac to President Clinton, President Carter, Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega, Ed Miliband and Israel's Shimon Peres. In the arts and culture programmes he anchors for BBC World he has als
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 8, 2024
Clear headed and incisive look at the gap between what many of us believe about Britain - British by the Grace of God, sanctified by history, empire and the Battle of Britain - and the pitiable current state of affairs. Esler, who's a distinguished journalist and broadcaster, lights on many causes in a sustained attack. That we've no clearly written down constitution, just a mass of vague historical precedent. That no-one can say clearly and definitively where power lies. That we draw too many of our political leaders from too narrow a social background, badly out of touch with modern reality. That reality itself is capable of distortion, through the age-old arts of persuasion and rhetoric all the way to modern fake news. It's all powerful, incendiary stuff.
He's especially telling, in the closing chapters, on the political clique for whom the Second World War never quite ended, who don't realise that Britain needed allies more powerful than itself to see it out, and who wilfully skew accounts of the British Empire and of the European Union.
We deserve better. What needs to change is clear. How to do it is hard, and doubtful.
He's especially telling, in the closing chapters, on the political clique for whom the Second World War never quite ended, who don't realise that Britain needed allies more powerful than itself to see it out, and who wilfully skew accounts of the British Empire and of the European Union.
We deserve better. What needs to change is clear. How to do it is hard, and doubtful.
August 2, 2024
Gavin Eslers views on Britain in 2023/4.
The main problems he highlights :
- no constitution means we rely on the goodwill of those in charge
- recently we have had some incompetent and unprincipled leaders
- the potential for some thing to go really wrong is there given that the PM can act how he wants
- we have been lucky that this far we have only had fools not psychopathic totalitarian style leadership
- we need a proper set of rules , a constitution and “ checks and balances “ to hold our leaders to account
Aside from this he talks about the loss of trust in US and Uk politics. Most Uk doesn’t bother to follow the news - they are disenchanted and unbelieving
Truth is difficult to discern in the social media storm
How do we get ourselves out of this mess
Well I enjoyed most of the book and I get the points he makes. I agree with much of it. I doubt however that much will change !
Like him however I yearn for new leaders that come not from the straight jacket of eton and Oxford .
One to ponder
3 stars because the book is long and many of his points are made well already in the first 100 pages
The main problems he highlights :
- no constitution means we rely on the goodwill of those in charge
- recently we have had some incompetent and unprincipled leaders
- the potential for some thing to go really wrong is there given that the PM can act how he wants
- we have been lucky that this far we have only had fools not psychopathic totalitarian style leadership
- we need a proper set of rules , a constitution and “ checks and balances “ to hold our leaders to account
Aside from this he talks about the loss of trust in US and Uk politics. Most Uk doesn’t bother to follow the news - they are disenchanted and unbelieving
Truth is difficult to discern in the social media storm
How do we get ourselves out of this mess
Well I enjoyed most of the book and I get the points he makes. I agree with much of it. I doubt however that much will change !
Like him however I yearn for new leaders that come not from the straight jacket of eton and Oxford .
One to ponder
3 stars because the book is long and many of his points are made well already in the first 100 pages
July 17, 2024
Essential 2024 reading in the UK. I read it over the election period. The anachronistic and vague way in which the UK is governed is laid bare. Esler has a clear writing style and doesn't get bogged down in dry factual wording.
Will the problems detailed in this book change now we have a new govt? I highly doubt it.
Will the problems detailed in this book change now we have a new govt? I highly doubt it.
July 18, 2024
An outstanding read, and a terrific insight in to how bad things are but how much improvement there could be. It lays bare the absurdity of what we've encountered as a nation for many years, and actually has some eye opening facts that I didn't know. Essential reading for anyone with a vague interest in politics and indeed how the nation functions - as I have always thought, binary answers to such important things as to how a nation functions aren't the answer, as ever. it's a complex and often reasoned outlook on to the problems we face, and how stupid three word slogans and binary referendums create more problems than they solve. I read it over the UK election time, so at the time of writing there was less hope than there is now. Wonderful book though.
February 8, 2025
A really great read. With detailed, informative and occasionally amusing examples the deficiencies of our political system are laid bare. It is suggested that ‘we’ are to blame for this. However the book lacks an explanation of how this could happen. The books analysis paints a picture of powerlessness among ordinary people and thus they opt out. There is no clear route here as to how opting back in could change the entrenched position of the elite.
November 3, 2023
Excellent and well balanced description of the mess which faces the people of "Perfidious Albion" in C21
March 13, 2024
Vital reading
This book needs to go on to the A level curriculum for sure. An antidote to any rose tinted view of what used to be Great Britain.
This book needs to go on to the A level curriculum for sure. An antidote to any rose tinted view of what used to be Great Britain.
May 4, 2024
Some really good analysis if a bit negatively biased and pessimistic.
December 25, 2024
Obsessed with Russia and completely delusional. A clear symptom of Britain’s deep malaise and decline.
December 10, 2025
DNF it just rly wasn’t organized well, felt like we jumped around a lot so the writing was just a continuous train of thought without any significant breakthrough moments
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews