Unleashing Demons: The Inside Story of Brexit

by Craig Oliver

MAIL ON SUNDAY BOOK OF THE YEAR

'ESSENTIAL' Sunday Times

'HIS SOLDIER'S DISPATCH IS EASY TO READ AND VIVIDLY ILLUSTRATES A SENSE OF RISING PANIC AND EMBATTLEMENT. IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO BE THERE AT THE TIME, IN THE EYE OF A FRENZIED STORM, THEN [UNLEASHING DEMONS] SHOULD BE BOUGHT...' Andrew Marr, Sunday Times

'VIVID AND IMMEDIATE... IT PAINTS A BRUTALLY HONEST PORTRAIT OF THE BRITISH POLITICAL CLASS' Mail on Sunday

OBSERVER BOOK OF THE WEEK

'A MUST-READ ACCOUNT OF HISTORY AS IT HAPPENED' Matt D'Ancona

'JAUNTILY WRITTEN...NAUGHTY FUN' Quentin Letts

'UNLEASHING DEMONS...HAS THE VIVIDNESS AND PACE OF A POLITICAL THRILLER. EXTRAORDINARILY CANDID...' Financial Times

'A FASCINATING BOOK' Robert Elms, BBC

'THE BOOK THAT WILL SET WESTMINSTER ABLAZE' Mail on Sunday

'Gripping reading' New Statesman

'Utterly fascinating...indispensable to appreciating this extraordinary phase in our history.' JOHN SIMPSON

'The compelling insider's account' NICK ROBINSON

'This is one of the most vivid, frank and exciting inside accounts to have been written for years.' ANTHONY SELDON

'A gripping fly-on-the-wall account.' ROBERT PESTON

As David Cameron's director of Politics and communications, Craig Oliver was in the room at every key moment during the EU referendum - the biggest political event in the UK since World War 2.

Craig Oliver worked with all the players, including David Cameron, George Osbourne, Barack Obama, Angela Merkel, Jeremy Corbyn, Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Theresa May and Peter Mandelson.

Unleashing Demons is based on his extensive notes, detailing everything from the decision to call a referendum, to the subsequent civil war in the Conservative Party and the aftermath of the shocking result.

This is raw history at its very best, packed with enthralling detail and colourful anecdotes from behind the closed doors of the campaign that changed British history.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, History, Contemporary, Current Affairs

432 pages, Hardcover

First published October 4, 2016

Reviews

[Andrew Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Brexit wounds are still fresh, so what better time to get the views of David Cameron’s communications chief on how the whole thing played out. The book takes the form of daily diary updates. After opening with the cataclysmic climax to the UK’s vote, we are taken back to the beginning of the referendum campaign. Most of the events covered here seem familiar (and why not, they were covered comprehensively on the wall to wall television and radio news updates I avidly watched) but it was interesting to get the inside track as the campaign momentum ebbed and flowed.

The key elements for me boiled down to:

- The vote quickly boiled down to the economy (the remain team) versus immigration (the leave team). In the end the latter was deemed to be the issue that carried the vote.
- The leave team lied, consistently and comprehensively. They made up facts and got away with it.
- The remain team failed to garner proper support from Labour and from the SNP.
- The remain team failed to gain the support of any effective media champions. The popular press came out mainly in support of leave.
- The polls were all over the place and failed to provide the information that might have caused the remain team to adjust their campaign strategy.

Craig Oliver is clearly an intelligent man and a highly articulate communicator, but he comes across as a bit holier-than-thou here. He may well have known more than just about all the MP’s he sought to coach on how they should get their points across, but he does go on and on about how poor the politicians seem to have been at grasping the key messages. David Cameron and George Osborne escape this criticism, but just about every other MP on the remain side comes in for some stick.

Oliver also criticises the BBC (the biggest communication engine in the UK) for letting the leave team get away with lies and for failing to give equal airtime to truthful facts (remain) and made-up facts (leave). But I can't help thinking that as director of communications part of his role must have been to manage this relationship. In this he patently failed.

Predictably, both Michael Gove and Boris Johnson come out badly (as does Theresa May), but more than that most politicians come across as being more concerned with their own career aims than they were about the ultimate outcome of the vote. Again, Cameron and Osborne escape this criticism.

Overall an interesting account of a key event in British political history. Rather depressing, but insightful nonetheless.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Subtitled, “The Inside Story of Brexit,” this is the first in what will, undoubtedly, be many books about the referendum. It does, however, have a very interesting author – both in terms of his level of involvement and his access to the major players and in his obvious commitment to the Remain campaign. Craig Oliver was David Cameron’s Director of Politics and Communications and this book takes us through January, 2016, with Cameron renegotiating a deal with Europe, up until the aftermath of the referendum.

The beginning of the book opens on the 23rd of June, 2016, with early suggestions that Leave has lost and Remain has won. Oliver is feeling that it will be close, but he is confident and, indeed, Nigel Farage concedes defeat. However, in politics, as we know, anything can change and, as the results begin to come in, optimism turns to pessimism. The Prime Minister texts, “How worried should we be?” Of course, we now know the result and this book then asks what went wrong and why…

The referendum was a central promise in the Conservative 2015 election manifesto. It is clear, from this work, that Oliver believed that the electorate would not vote against their own pockets and that the economy would trump immigration as the primary concern. It was also assumed that the three million voters who had not voted in the recent general election would not turn out to vote in the referendum, when, many disaffected voters did, in fact, turn out to vote Leave. History is usually written by the winner – this is the story of the referendum from the losing side.

This book begins with cries for the Remain Campaign to be more proactive and this is a theme which follows through the book. Another theme which resonates through the book is the disunity within the Conservative Party. So, within these pages, you read of the difficulty of getting the Labour party involved with the Remain campaign, and you can really sense Oliver’s sense of frustration with Jeremy Corbyn and the members of the Labour Shadow Cabinet, of his dislike of Michael Gove (which deepens as the book progresses), of Boris Johnson and his late decision to campaign for Leave and of Theresa May’s attempts to sit on both sides of the fence – a ‘submarine’ strategy of not being dragged into any particular side which worked very well for her.

This was a campaign which many people, including myself, followed avidly. Through it all, though, you cannot help feeling that Oliver is often aware of what, ‘the man on the street’ thought, but just did not know how to answer their concerns. The Remain Campaign threw everything they had into the argument for the economy, but never really addressed the issue of immigration in a way that made much of a difference against those campaigning for Leave. Also, although Nigel Farage is mentioned, he is often mentioned disparagingly, or not taken seriously; despite the fact that he was seen, and heard, everywhere in the campaign. Whatever Oliver thought of him, it was obvious that he was ignored at Remains peril. Lastly, he often seemed to misjudge how things were seen by those undecided voters. For example, he applauds Obama’s visit to the UK, in which he warned the country that they would be, “at the back of the queue.” He is keen to say what a useful visit it was, how Obama would change minds and how positive his message was for Remain. Yet, many people at the time commented to me how disgruntled they were at Obama’s ‘interference’ and I felt that was one thing which really backfired in the Remain campaign.

Overall, though, this is a really fascinating view of the campaign from the inside. Oliver comes across as incredibly hard working, focused and dedicated. He obviously thinks highly of Cameron and is keen to promote him as both an excellent Prime Minister and a down to Earth guy (when he calls Cameron he is invariably with his children or mowing the lawn). Although there is lots of insider gossip, Oliver is never really unpleasant about anyone. You sense he quite likes Boris for instance, although the one person he really criticises for being disloyal is Michael Gove. I found this a really interesting account of one of the major political events of my lifetime. I was, literally, glued to the news reports and newspapers throughout this period. As Oliver himself admitted though, the most listened to news report is the 8am bulletin on Radio 2 and he seemed to be pitching his message elsewhere. With the politicians obsessed with broadsheets and in-fighting, they really failed to capture the imagination of the average person, which cost them dearly.

[Hjalti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fínasta bók sem gefur áhugaverða innsýn í Brexit og bresk stjórnmál. Bókin fjallar aðallega um stjórnmálamenn og kosningabaráttuna en kafar ekki djúpt ofan í ástæður og (hugsanlegar) afleiðingar Brexit. Höfundurinn, Sir Craig Oliver, var aðalspunameistari David Cameron og því er þetta einhliða frásögn eins og við er að búast. Frásagnarstíllinn er léttur og persónulegur, eiginlega í dagbókarstíl. Áhugaverðast finnst mér hvað kosningabaráttan hefur verið kaótísk og stefnulaus, aðallega hjá útgöngusinnum, a.m.k. eins og Oliver lýsir þessu. Mæli með bókinni fyrir þá sem hafa áhuga á pólitík og samtímasögu.

[Ty Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an excellent narrative on the Brexit campaign, with lessons that can be applied to political communications more generally. The author was David Cameron's Communications Director, and effectively decided much of the Remain campaign's strategy. Oliver stresses message discipline in campaigning, and you can see this in his writing too, as he continually comes back to the main problems with the campaign. The day to day workings of the campaign are super interesting, I loved learning about all the different personalities involved. Oliver is incredibly skilled at communications, and this shows in his ability to explain this story and its implications well.

[Lena , süße Maus · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this to get out of my " leftie echo chamber" and am proud to announce that I've successfully made it through 400 pages of this torie's diary entries!

[Joseph Cope · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't get very far with this. Written from diary entries, there is little context or reflection. An extra star though for comments re some new carpets and what was had for lunch in the back of a car. Clearly this is one persons perspective, quite raw, and written very close to the action. As that it probably works OK if you have the patience and an interest in the minutiae of politics (Andrew Marr loved it). For sure it is an interesting topic- how did it all go so wrong? - but for myself I will need to find a more considered account.

[Iain Snelling · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting contemporary account of The Brexit referendum, part diary part memoir. Craig Oliver was director of communications for David Cameron.

Three main conclusions for me, which reinforced what I believed:

One was that the original attempt to renegotiate the relationship with the EU was hurried and ineffective. The only need to call the referendum quickly was the internal politics of the Tory Party.

Second was that the press and particularly the BBC are responsible for the dumbing down of politics. Of course most are partial but even with that caveat the way that simple messages take precedence over any depth or nuance is very depressing and played into the Leave campaign’s unfounded and unchecked narrative. There are many examples in the book of the BBC accepting and not challenging a Leave campaign claim. This issue required politicians to be willing to lie and deceive, but the press should be willing and able to call them out on basic issues of fact.

The third is just how badly the Labour Party let down the campaign. There were very few genuinely cross prey events, with shared platforms not allowed, and Jeremy Corbyn whose own views on the EU were like warm at best was content to sit in the sidelines and watch a ‘blue on blue’ fight.

Reading this now with the knowledge of what has gone in since brings this decision making process into sharp focus.

[Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of the Brexit referendum, as told from the point of view of an aide to David Cameron working on behalf of the Remain side. UNLEASHING DEMONS is as fast-moving, powerfully told and exciting as you'd expect from this febrile period, and no matter your views on the eventual outcome, this makes for a gripping read. Oliver delivers a down-to-earth and naturalistic prose style in which character is everything, while at the same time offering more than reasoned criticism towards the various failings on the part of many people and institutions involved. A proper "insider's view" of a pivotal moment in the UK's recent history.

[James Beech · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyable read!!

[Old Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting account of one of the greatest days in recent British history. The people ignored Remain's lies and voted for independence.

[Kharis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book and a real glimpse into Downing Street at a crucial time. I learned a lot about the plotting of communications and their relationship with the press. What I didn't realise was how 'rehearsed' the cross party debates were and how scripted some of them had to be - it is a worry that MPs cannot answer questions without a script that is written by someone else. It also totally highlights Labour leadership lack of engagement in the whole campaign. Was the leader a 'closet leaver?'. Many assume so. But Labour certainly did not want to be seen to 'unite' with conservatives - which begs the question - if they can't unite under a supposedly common cause, which many argued was for the greater good of the country - how can they lead a government and unite the united kingdom and Europe at this crucial time when the country right now is so divided on many issues? They probably can't. Seems to also highlight some home truths - the campaign admit being unable to answer questions about immigration (and so didn't want to draw further attention - although quite rightly they didn't want to keep changing what they saw as their core message) because there was or is no plausible solution and instead focussed the argument on the economy. Was very well written in an engaging way. Hard to put down.

[Michael Heath-Caldwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the age of the crabby electorate that voted for 'Boaty McBoat Face the 'Remainers' dogmatically persist in down playing the migration issue, which has impacted on so many UK residents.

'Remainer' organisers tried using fear tactics, threatening a one-off referendum, no second chances, to coerce the electorate to vote 'remain,' but are now backsliding non-stop to reverse the decision.

Cameron's last meeting with Merkel after the referendum show how dogmatic about open migration she was. this shows the EU making redundent the constituent nation states which no longer represent the people in them and become nothing more than ad hoc administrative zones.

Craig Oliver's book now exposes that the UK has no control in the EU and no control getting out of it, and that the disaster of Brexit is preferable.

[John McDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

The reader who's able to work through the first 200 pages, 70% of which is what some Americans refer to as "inside baseball" or appropriately here 'inside No. 10 Downing Street baseball', will find in the remaining 200 or so pages a remarkable political treatise that, in my view, explains pretty clearly why UK voters voted to leave the European Union, but also provides remarkable insight into just why Donald Trump gets elected in the U.S. Summed up in a single word, it's "alienation" among voters who have lost trust in government solutions, including immigration and downward spiraling economic prospects for many.

Oliver was David Cameron's Director of Communications, and Cameron, who urged the Referendum be held, was brought down by the vote. Cameron's demise had help from Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, and even, in many ways the BBC, but at its core Brexit was tailor-made for voters a significant number who hadn't voted in a British election since Tony Blair's ride as PM to express their vitriol and embedded unhappiness with their circumstances.

Every right-wing campaign that caters to voter dissatisfaction is attended by the "Big Lie" and the "Leave" campaign rolled out the disingenuous 350 Million Pound-per-week lie going to the EU, flatly stating that leaving the EU would mean that money would come back to the NHS, an institution beloved in Britain. What voters weren't told by the proponents of the "Lie" is that once the vote was taken, the Leave campaign would evaporate with on power to redirect whatever savings were made.

Oliver makes the point that for the first time in modern history a vote to benefit the economy, as a vote to 'Remain' clearly would, did not work, the evidence being clear that leaving EU would render economic hardship on Britain as the post-Brexit vote most certainly did, not to mention the political instability the UK has experienced since. Gordon Brown, who in this campaign was almost as ineffective as Jeremy Corbyn, put his finger on the pulse of the problem when he stated that too many people feel they have nothing to lose by voting Leave, that there's no risk to voting Leave even though they might realize that there is huge risk were Leave to prevail, which is exactly what's happened in Britain the days since. Indeed, the Brexit vote spurred the Scottish "devolution," a form of independence from the UK that leaves Scotland in the EU, and promoted a Second Scottish Independence Referendum.

What Leave did successfully, something Oliver refers to but doesn't analyze, is the analytics (Cambridge Analytics to be specific) that told the Leave campaign that there were approximately 3 Millions voters who had not voted but who were living lives of quiet English desperation ready to vote to Leave the EU as a vote of disgust with the way things were for them. How does one campaign against that (i.e. telling voters how good they've got it--good luck but in a way that is what Remain campaigned on. Those voters voted and most of them voted to Leave. That one fact is why the early Referendum polls were almost uniformly wrong right up until the last week of the campaign and the quandary the Remain campaign found themselves in to convince those voters things could get worse, which they did. But when there's nothing left to lose, as Brown pointed out, it's not outlandish to go all in on the one thing you're told would make things worse, and that, I believe, is precisely what happened in the Referendum (and what happened in America in 2016 and 2024 for which Americans are now paying a huge price in lost democracy and economic instability). As Oliver points out, those voters, even those who Remain expected to capture felt betrayed by the establishment. Post-election polling even showed that many Leave voters actually were convinced that Britain would be able to trade in a single market, and even that the EU would overlook border entry procedures to permit Britain free passage through EU countries. Not going to happen, and it didn't but these voters believed to their chagrin and disappointment later that the EU would not budge on that.

The success of the Leave campaign--something Oliver doesn't dwell on--also created political instability that sent Britain on a path of self-harm, a spiral that momentarily has been stopped by Keir Starmer's election in the 2024 General Election, although the jury remains out on that so far.

Anyone who reads this book should be prepared to wade through the first 150-200 pages of information that simply seems inapplicable to the discussion. Who really cares what kind of a lunch the PM and his staff have when they visit Doncaster, and other such informational detritus? Where are the editors, I ask, to gently prod the author toward a more readable book that focuses on the story, as the final 200 pages most assuredly do. Don't fell bad about skipping a lot of the early stuff, but read the rest. You'll understand Brexit better and America a lot better.

[Jakub Dovcik · Rating 4 out of 5]

A diary of the Communications director of the Remain campaign is a torturous read. Most of this has been analysed, so just a few points that struck me:

- So much of the thinking of people within the Remain campaign was spent on navigating the political situation of the day from the perspective of the government - everyday scandals, policy announcements and so on, everything was a part of the narrative and that must have been really exhausting - also not something that Brexiteers had to deal with
- Gove shines more than Cummings. Dom is actually present very little in Craig’s narrative, where Gove takes the centre antihero stage. Boris Johnson is presented as merely a celebrity, not the driver of the events.
- It is fascinating to read how much were Remainers actually aware of some of the points that are now used against them - like the fact that Project Fear was not working, and actually so much of their time and energy was used in combating *the narrative that they are executing Project Fear*. They knew that the economic argument for staying in the EU does not work for people who fear that they are losing out at the moment and that they have nothing to lose. Yet they were unable to maintain a strategic message discipline.
- Remain fell into a cacophony of narratives, whereas Leavers could be nimble in their lies and falsehoods. Managing all the parties (where Corbynites and Theresa May did all they could not to be seen as decisive in their stances) must have been extremely difficult. Fascinating to read about the number of interventions by Peter Mandelson and later Alastair Campbell - who knows how it would have unfolded, had the Remain run a tighter ship.
- Craig Oliver obviously adores David Cameron, but he is presented as quite a hopeless leader, definitely not in the driver’s seat of the events. Who knows what would have happened had the Tories had a better-skilled leader and PM.
- The biggest blame for allowing the spread of misinformation and lies is attributed by Oliver to the BBC ‘due to their sheer size’. One knows what to expect from The Telegraph, but BBC running every false story from the Leavers was something the Remain campaign never managed to combat.

Overall, a depressing, but actually interesting read. Having recently met Craig Oliver, I can tell how changed and scarred he was by this period and the book is an honest, insightful and interesting tale of how it all unfolded.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This certainly is what it claims to be - an insider's view on Brexit!
I guess that wasn't really what I was after when I ordered it, though. It is such an insider's view that we are introduced to a huge range of characters, the vast majority of whom were not major players in the events. And for someone who is just interested in an analysis of why it all happened the way it did, I must admit it was a case of massively too much detail.
It seems to me that you would have to be a complete political tragic, and an English conservative voter to be interested in this much detail, or to be familiar with most of those names or interested in their daily meetings and views on the daily grind of government.
The reason why I say I think you need to be a conservative voter to fully enjoy this is that it is a bit hampered by the usual attitudes held by those who go into politics: total conviction that they are the sole proponents of intelligent, well informed opinions; that there were few, and only minor options other than those taken by their side; that their other allies and the press let them down, and an over emphasis on the admittedly shameful and underhanded tactics of the Leavers.
I would have appreciated a little more soul searching about the reasons why the Remainers' campaign failed, the limitations of slogan and fear driven politics, and a more concerted effort to understand the reasons for the disenchantment of the Leave voters. I think someone with more nuanced views, like some of the figures in the conservatives who campaigned for the Leavers, or the Labour people who were perhaps roped into a position which didn't entirely suit them, may have had more insightful thoughts to offer. Oliver doesn't go any deeper into this question than an analysis by pollsters and statisticians of the reported views and turnouts of various voting groups. For these reasons, I think that this will be fully read, and with enthusiasm by a very small audience.

That said, if the above description fits you - you will almost certainly enjoy this record; and the analysis at the end of the voting trends, and some of the breakdowns of votes which are not otherwise readily available, are interesting to the casual observer from another English speaking country with a mild interest, like me.

[Ali Ilman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unleashing Demons, the inside story of Brexit by Craig Oliver.

When the referendum took place over 4 years ago, I was only a wee lad. Still am! 😂 British politics weren’t one of my interests, I was playing games all day long and I was still homeschooled.

Though ever since I grew older, coupled with my increasing fondness for England, I had read more about Brexit and right now am witnessing a terrific comedy show going on at Number 10. It’s an utter shambles. I’ve always thought that Leave winning the referendum was a sham, and I still do, but reading this book has made me wonder...how on earth Vote Leave were able to get away with the xenophobic, racist campaign they did for MONTHS.

So, how’s the book?

It’s utterly insightful. It’s got that diary feeling to it.

One might say the failure to renegotiate with EU a deal in favour of the UK is the key factor in the referendum being held, but I don’t feel this is the case. Certain parts of the society were growing increasingly ‘concerned’ about immigration due to the freedom of movement that comes with being a part of EU.

And obviously, Vote Leave decided to capitalise on that ‘concern’...

‘Turkey are joining the EU and hundreds of thousands of Turks are coming to the UK!’

Mass immigration was their core message, coupled with lies such as...

‘The EU determine our taxes and laws’
‘We need to take back control’
‘Leaving the EU will give the NHS £350m per week’

All nonsense. Racism. Even some economists and entrepreneurs spoke out against Brexit. Though how nonsensical Vote Leave were, they managed to win the bloody referendum. Why?
They kept on going and going with their core message, mass immigration, and with the power of media, especially over in the UK, managed to sway certain people to vote Leave.

This brings us to Stronger In’s campaign. Did they fail spectacularly? I wouldn’t say so, but their focus on young people weren’t magnified. The ones that were going to be deeply impacted by Brexit are young people and the working class in society. Vote Leave were campaigning for something that is literally a leap into a void where nobody knows when it ends. Gambling the future of many people.

In the end, the referendum was not a matter of if, but when.

[Coffee & Chapters · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an incredible and true, raw account of the events leading up to the Brexit vote, an event that is described as the biggest political event in the UK since the Second World War. Craig Oliver was a key member of David Cameron’s cabinet, as his Director of Politics and Communications, with unique insight into the events within cabinet and the divisions amongst the Conservative party when the vote was first announced.

For myself, I had no idea of the influence and worry of which side of the campaign politicians including Theresa May, Michael Gove and Boris Johnson, had on the Conservative party and people’s opinions. Craig Oliver presents the account on a month-by-month basis and the challenges that David Cameron had to consider whilst campaigning for Remain, but also as Prime Minister, and his continued aim to fulfil his duty towards the people of the UK. The book is also rather comedic and shows some interesting thoughts that member of the party had towards each other. I think it is incredibly interesting to know how much one needs to consider and the day-to-day activities and obstacles present. Craig Oliver doesn’t stand to defend the Conservatives, but rather acknowledged the mistakes that were made as learning points and shows the reader that the party did not get it all right the first time. It also humanises the politicians slightly, and shows that despite all, they too are humans, and are not perfect, even though society expects them to be.

I gave the book three stars because it actually made me go into a reading slump! I believe I’m not as passionate about politics as perhaps I should be. Also, I feel I read this at a time where enough time has passed to dive back into an event that was so controversial at the time. Nevertheless, I do recommend this and feel it is great to understand the account of events from those who were there every day, dealing with it first-hand.

[Chris Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

I suppose that any book about Brexit is going to have to deal with at least two issues:

1 - Brexit isn't over yet so it's too early for any conclusions

2 - Impartiality will be difficult on such a divisive issue

The book gets around the first point by not actually being about Brexit - it's actually about the EU referendum. (The cover image has a subtitle '... of the EU Referendum' though my copy says '... Brexit')

With regard to the second point: There's absolutely no attempt at impartiality. To be honest it's probably unreasonable to expect it from someone so entrenched in the highest level of one side. The book does say near the start that it'll discuss mistakes that were made by the Remain campaign but it only admits to those that would fit the 'What are your biggest faults?' job interview question ('I'm too honest', 'I'm too thorough', etc) If the book is accurate then in my opinion their biggest mistake was in not addressing questions around the issue of sovereignty - instead they saw it as being a simple Economy v Immigration battle.

It's not a bad book - though it's based on a diary and I suspect many of the entries were originally bullet points as the narrative is sometimes stilted. I also think that someone unfamiliar with British politics may struggle as many people drift in and out without any introduction.

[C.A. A. Powell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this fly on the wall account of the losing Remain team's efforts to win the EU referendum. One is taken through the various stages of the build up to the referendum. The negotiated new EU deal etc. It obviously points out the reasons why the Remain team wanted to stay in the EU with its economic argument. There still seemed to be the failure to recognise why the majority of the UK electorate would not be swayed. What I mean is they accept they lost and why, but there still seemed to be a refusal to understand the non-economical reasons. Almost like it must remain irrelevant.
My enjoyment is perhaps more warped because I know they are going to lose and I want Brexit to happen. I know it will happen and these guys are going to lose. Still, I do feel some sympathy for them. It is well written and I would recommend this account of well-intentioned British politicians who accidentally let the apathetic gremlins out of the box to claim a nation back. Or so we hope.

The Black and Tan Summer: Ireland's Turbulent Year of 1920

[Alejandro Shirvani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent political diary from an insider. Oliver has had time to reflect on the reasons behind Remain's defeat in the referendum and reading this account you can see the problems building. It does leave you feeling like Cameron and his associates were burned by complacency and thought they could switch from an equivocal stance or being Eurosceptic when it suited them for political reasons, to endorsing EU membership and felt they would take the country with them. A chapter on 'how it feels to be Ed Miliband' shows exactly what happened when the previously loyal right wing press put Cameron and his campaign in their sights as they generally do to Labour.

There are some great nuggets in here about relations within the Conservative party and the way Cameron's inner circle saw Johnson, Gove, Duncan Smith and Theresa May who the author has down as playing a very good tactical game to position herself for the leadership.

[Neil Lakeland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written unsurprisingly from the Remain perspective, this book nevertheless gives an insightful account of the reasons behind the calling of the EU Referendum, the renegotiations and ultimately the battle between Remain and Leave, which culminated in June 2016.  Starting with the result, and then moving into the background and explanations, Craig clearly describes the main protagonists and leaves the reader in no doubt of his feelings for the BBC, the disjointed Labour leadership, Michael Gove, Theresa May and Boris Johnson. What however, is interesting is the analysis of where he perceived the Remain campaign went wrong and how Leave managed to focus, in a post-truth era, on the emotive side of the argument rather than the facts surrounding the economy.  His analysis of modern-day news consumption is also fascinating.


For anyone interested in politics, or who wants to understand some of the background to the Brexit debate, this is well worth a read.

[Raluca · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is written like a journal, which sometimes can mean events are not presented as linked together. I found myself a few times having to go back to recheck the chain of events.

David Cameron is presented in a very positive light and clearly the author has a very good opinion of him. I am not entirely sure it is justified.

The part I appreciated the most was the realistic presentation of the bafflement of the Remain campaign in regards to the lengths the Leave campaign was willing to go to and the false information that was being spread around in the name of Leave. I think this is the sort of bafflement that remains to this day in regards to many other topics, which are being pushed around with aggressiveness and shared in the name of "free speech". This is the challenge of today's era of social media and Brexit was just one of the first visible examples.

[Adrian S · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author, who is the former Director of Communications under British PM David Cameron, presents his book as an inside account of the events leading up to the Brexit vote in the summer of 2016.

Craig Oliver's experience as a senior government media representative who is talented at preparing and communicating extremely complex and emotional political facts for the public at large is immediately recognizable, so I don't have a lot to add.

The only thing I would highlight, perhaps, is the following quote from the author: "And yet even I, who am as metropolitan and liberal on immigration as they come, questioned being part of an organization that insists on having unlimited freedom of movement to work," with an emphasis on "to work".

[norman stewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Behind the Black Door of No. 10

I found the book somewhat repetitive as the months leading towards the final date in June 2016 are detailed. At times it seemed to be a very one sided story and even now trying to remember some of the news items it was difficult to recall the facts. I had no idea how much emphasis was placed on speech writing, creating Bullet Points to push without definitive explained detail, and the amount of rehearsal to be carried out....if you wore a jacket , it sent a message......if you loosened your tie, rolled up your sleeves that also sent a message....the book certainly pulled no punches about other people during the campaign although the involvement of Nigel Farage was only quietly handled

[Ramesh Abhiraman · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this book, David Cameron's campaign manager for the Remain initiative describes how he retched and vomited after the referendum and the "morning after" at No.10 Downing Street, as people prepared to resign.
As in the entire Brexit saga, nothing too edifying.
Not even British prose with its supposed differences from the American can save the reader from the trainwreck that was Brexit. At least, without flinching or making excuses, Craig Oliver explains why momentum inevitably led David Cameron to call the referendum that would prove his undoing.
An old book, tons of Brexit books since. The disaster that kept on giving, for the r.o.w, the joke that kept on giving.

[Tara Brabazon · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book captures the slow motion train wreck of the EU referendum. Written by Cameron's Director of Politics and Communication, it covers the day-to-day shambles that was the racist, xenophobic and post-fact campaign to leave Europe. The futility of fighting racism with evidence is captured in these pages. But the incapacity to create a strong communication message from the Remain group is also very clear.

It is not well written and it is a bit baggy like an unedited diary, but the daily debacles are available to see.

[Russell Whiting · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a pretty interesting account of the EU Referendum but only from the Tory side. The only references to anyone outside the Tory party either comes in passing or with criticism. It's written more in the form of long notes rather than a details account or diary, and is full of moments when Oliver can apparently see something bad coming, but does nothing to try and stop it.

Be prepared to read phrases like "Everyone agreed with me" and "Everyone said what a great job I was doing" and constant moaning about the BBC and their editorial control over the online coverage of the Referendum.

[Josep Marti · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best political thrillers I have ever read. Having finished Owen Bennett’s account, which focuses on the Leave campaign, Oliver’s insights were useful and interesting to understand the Remainers. It has the right anecdotes to make it funny, the narrative is good enough to keep the reader turning pages, and the position of the author as Cameron’s spin doctor makes room for some good reflections and thoughts on the referendum and the campaign— and the results, in the expanded version of the book.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book confirms that the ridiculous reasons to justify both the referendum and Brexit itself were even worse than they appeared. Nobody comes out of this looking good, but the author directs particular ire at BoJo, Gove and Corbyn. Cameron just seems a bit tired and bewildered, and Osborne is nowhere to be seen. Confirms my belief that there is an immense vacuum of power in British politics. I only hope we survive the hateful process over the next few weeks, and that the unleashed demons can be brought under civil control again.

[Laura Buckley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this an incredibly interesting account of the Brexit mess, told from the inside. I don't think the writing was great - there were a few anecdotes related that were set up as if they were funny, and I personally found most of the book incredibly dry - but it wasn't bad either. Solid, middle-of-the-road story telling, and the story was wild enough to carry the whole thing off.

Definitely frustrating at times, but I think that's more a function of my feelings about Brexit than my feelings about the book itself.