The Future of British Politics

by Frankie Boyle

Where and who do we want to be? How might we get there? What might happen if we stay on our current course?

This brief but mighty book is one of five that comprise the first set of FUTURES essays. Each standalone book presents the author's original vision of a singular aspect of the future which inspires in them hope or reticence, optimism or fear. Read individually, these essays will inform, entertain and challenge. Together, they form a picture of what might lie ahead, and ask the reader to imagine how we might make the transition from here to there, from now to then.

In The Future of British Politics, comedian Frankie Boyle takes a characteristically acerbic look at some of the forces that will be key in coming years, from Scottish independence and post-colonial entitlement to big tech surveillance and the looming climate catastrophe. Despite his fears that 'soon the only red tape in this country will be across the finish line of the compulsory Food Bank Olympics', he manages to locate some hopeful signs amid the gloom, reminding us that 'despair is a moment that pretends to be permanent'.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Humor, Essays, Scotland, Comedy

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2020

About the author

Francis Martin Patrick "Frankie" Boyle is a Scottish comedian and writer, well known for his pessimistic, often controversial sense of humour. He was a permanent panellist on Mock the Week for seven series and has made guest appearances on several popular panel shows including Have I Got News for You, 8 Out of 10 Cats, Would I Lie to You?, You Have Been Watching, Never Mind the Buzzcocks (as guest host and team captain when Phill Jupitus was unavailable for recording), and Argumental, as well as writing for Jimmy Carr's Distraction and Sean Lock's TV Heaven, Telly Hell.

Reviews

[Keen Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

"At the moment Britain is in a strange position where we seem to be sanguine about foreigners owning our infrastructure, but we just don't want them picking our fruit."

"You rarely hear anyone complaining that their taxi driver wouldn't stop going on about Gramsci, or see folk getting banned from football grounds for Marxist chanting."

Ah me oh my! There are very few writers, if any, who can make me laugh as long and hard as this man. What initially got me going, was how he was trying to be positive, and of course you can probably tell how well that goes. This is only a short essay, but one which is really good value and addresses many serious issues, but in his darkly distinctive way. A joy to read!

"While they are well intentioned, there is something alienating about the predominantly white and middle-class British climate movement, and something in the way they imagine a polite protest will achieve something that denies all we know of the British state. It's dispiriting to see people who believe anything can be achieved by being polite to the police."

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

This satirical essay is fantastic! Enjoyed every piece of it. The contrast between what the reality is, and the borderline fantasised story is fun to read. There's also the eventual Frankie Boyle style joke.
The crude reality though is the half truth told, which is at the same time funny and worrying.

[Maria Gabriella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Warning: do not read in bed before sleeping. It caused convulsive laughter that postponed bedtime considerably. Frankie Boyle's description of Michael Gove is just gold.

[Georgia♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A hilarious, satirical essay regarding, you guessed it, British politics. Although more so present (well, 2020 present) British politics than the future. The topic of the UK government is already a joke enough but Frankie Boyle applying his dark humour to the topic just makes it even more funny. This was interesting as well as comedic and overall a very pleasant read despite covering some heavy and important subjects.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliantly on the nose satirical essay about Britain’s past, present, and the type of future we seem to be heading to. And also hilarious, obviously

[Tom Butt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting enough, easy to read. Doesn't really go into the future of British politics in much depth, but then again it is less than 70 pages...

[Finn Mannerings · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny, insightful, saddening. My oh my is British politics in the shit.

[Tash · Rating 4 out of 5]

i have no idea who any of these politicians are but i DO hate neoliberalism so it all worked out

[Ms Carmella Jane Delargy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read from our darkest satirist

Frankie Boyles new book is more of an essay. Easy to read in one sitting.
Insightful, informed and honest.

Touches of the New World Order monologues weave through the writing and his characteristic dark humour flashes through.

This is an extremely well written book. Taking on both left (where his politics lay) and right and providing lots to think about.
His points in the left's failure to engage with a wider audience and the assumptions we may make about the decency of people in power are well made.

I am firmly of the view that Frankie Boyle is one of the most important satirical voices in the UK. This book is evidence of that.
Highly recommend and will be gifting to many people this Christmas - it seems a most appropriate gift for 2020.

The section about Scottish history was really interesting - next book?

[Mark Robertson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty funny but aimless

[Jack Greenwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love political satire now before the cult of Boris becomes enshrined in law and criticism is punishable by tear gas and pepper spray.

They say that the sun never set on the British Empire. I meant it did, but it was hard to see behind the huge pile of dead Indians.

Enough one-liners to make your chuckles mutate into horrified splutters. It’s a rollicking wave of bludgeoning satire, leaving no-one right-of-Frankie safe. At times, your political preference won’t matter, you’ll end up laughing out loud at his quintessentially British cynicism either way.

Part of the Brexit narrative has been that we need to become the Britain we once were: a nation at sea, where the sun never sets. Both of which will be achieved, but only because of climate change.

I love his penchant for mixing mythical story-telling with current affairs. Whether labelling Toby Young a ‘villainous kneecap’ or an ‘unviable foetus’. Or laying low the Cummings behemoth:

Perhaps Cummings has been sent to test the resolve of humanity … a creature that’s existed since the dawn of time to thwart human potential, his likeness glimpsed in the margins of cave paintings, hieroglyphs and woodcuts.

But Frankie’s main appeal for me is the fact that, behind the cutting exterior, he genuinely cares about people and politics.

The far right in Britain are using social media to recruit while the left use it to berate people for liking problematic music videos. I think a problem for the left is their essentialism: they see people as either good or bad, and the role of activism focuses on energising the good ones.

Frankie deserves some sort of national treasure status now, right? Scottish treasure I might add (so as not to offend his Bempire-hating soul).

Short, not sweet. Sometimes you've got to embrace the insanity.

[Isobel Moloney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Professor Max Saunders writes in the afterword, 'if we're not only to survive these [apocalyptic scenarios] but also to thrive, we need to think beyond them as well as about them' - and I think that's what Frankie Boyle fails to do.

Some funny jokes though

[Flora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to the audiobook of this because I wanted to spend some time with Frankie Boyle's voice, one I find very calming when he's reading or chatting, rather than when he's performing on stage. I find the sprinkles of positivity he laces throughout works like this one do a lot for calming me down when I'm feeling distressed about my future and struggling to see a way out. Frankie is a big inspiration for me, he has been creatively for many years, and more recently I find him very politically inspiring as well.
This one was particularly nice to visit tonight, as it turns out a bit of hate based nostalgia for the politicians of years past (Dominic Cummings is a name I haven't heard uttered since probably about 3 days after this books original publication) is a good thing to listen to when you're exhausted after a long day of considering your future.
I'd like to pick up a hard copy of this, give it anither read through at some point, to be able to properly think about the things he discusses, particularly in the back half of the book.
I like Frankie as a narrator. Shame he didn't narrate Meantime.

[Hornthesecond · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you enjoy Boyle's newspaper and online opinion pieces, his blog entries, and/or the monologues on his TV show, you'll probably enjoy this book. There were some good laughs in here and some brutal descriptions of Boris Johnson's Cabinet. I think those parts of this book/essay will probably date fairly quickly - after all who's going to remember who Dominic Raab and Priti Patel were in 5-10 years' time. Brexiteers and Tories should probably steer clear unless they're also masochists. Not a book for the easily offended when it comes to language and sexual references, but then I'm sure you wouldn't be even considering reading Boyle if you're easily offended. An enjoyable book, partly because it made me laugh, and partly because I agree with a fair bit of Boyle's politics and like the effective and colourful way he expresses his views. 4 stars only, as I'd have liked it to be longer.

[Colin Murtagh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short little book, told in Frankie's own style. If you are at all easily offended, I would skip this.
In this book, which is more of a long essay, Frankie goes through the history of UK politics, the current state and the possible future. Given when this was written, it's become slightly out of date. The pandemic isn't mentioned, Cummings is, a lot, but it does give a sense of time and place. This being Frankie Boyle, he can do it with a dark humour, that virtually no one else can do, but unusually for a political comedian, he's still funny. With the loss of Jeremy Hardy, he is probably the last good political comedian left.
He has released this as an audiobook as part of the Prometheus series, on his website.

[Simon Howard · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the last book I’ve read in Tortoise Media’s 2020 FUTURES series, and for good reason: I didn’t think I’d be very interest in comedian Frankie Boyle’s view of The Future of British Politics. I wouldn’t have bought this had it not been part of the five-piece set.

It turned out to be a book which wasn’t really about the future of British politics at all, but a 59-page comedic essay about British politics as it currently is. Clearly, the Goodreads average score shows that this has brought a lot of joy to a lot of people, but this style of offence-as-humour just isn’t my cup of tea, and I took nothing from it.

[Miles Farrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frankie seamlessly intertwines biting satire and relatability with genuinely provocative insights about both politics and history - and how they relate to each other. He covers many important issues of both today and the past - everything from Covid to the Act of Union of 1707. It was incredibly cathartic and easy to read, and Frankie almost riffs on all of these topics but with remarkable ease and insight. If you want to read about these topics with no interference from capitalist power structures like established media outlets, or just want to hear Frankie's honestly satirical quips, this book is a great read.

[Jen Abrahall · Rating 4 out of 5]

“oxbridge is a compound term formed from the words obnoxious and privileged” this has to be the tamest of my favourite lines. For a 60 page book it was surprisingly informative, engaging and funny. It really is like listening to Frankie Boyles new world order but with more context and more well rounded metaphors for the British government. For an authors that criticises the right so enthusiastically it can be initially surprising to find criticisms of the left in his writing, but never the less, every comment was considered and well formulated. A genuinely informative and funny read.

[Gab · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect!

Boyle hilarious, jet-black humour is great for having a laugh in the face of the dire situation our society is, but to just dismiss this essay as a series of jokes is really shortsighted.
Boyle actually unflinchingly pin-points the causes of some issues, the mentality behind them and why the public thinks the wait it does. Also, and you would never believe it when reading some of the jokes, he manages to offer a tiny speck of hope for the future, a pin-prick of light at the end of the tunnel.
The man is not only very smart and aware, but his emotional intelligence really shines.

[Rosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are some excellent, excellent lines in this, that properly made me cackle, as I could hear them in Boyle's wonderful Scottish drawl, and it's a fun little exploration of where politics was at in 2020. He gets it right, with regards to the attitude of the various parties, and mentions the rise of the right... he just doesn't imagine it hard enough. Here we are, in 2025, with flags everywhere.

We've got to do something about this, lads. I was hoping that Boyle would make some useful suggestions, but other than being very funny about how we've arrived at this point, he doesn't, really...

[Simon Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not sure this was as much about the future as it was a darkly humorous critique of the present. At its best when deconstructing members of the cabinet. It also has interesting comments about Scottish independence and the legacy of Empire. I was surprised that there wasn’t more about replacing first past the post elections & 2 party politics which surely has been exposed as an outmoded anachronism.

[Peter Blake · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I was rating this based purely on entertainment factor I would be giving this at least a four. Several moments such as 'Boris Johnson's serious face is the face serious people pull when they're trying to look confused' made me audibly chuckle.

However, given the title of the essay, it never really offers any insight into 'the future of British politics' rather than just scathingly recounts the already broken systems.

[Will Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this brilliant essay Frankie discusses the dire political situation we find ourselves in, and analyses how we got here and what happens next. I really enjoyed the glib pessimism throughout and there were genuinely funny laugh out loud bits on every page. I wish the future was going to be as funny as this piece of writing. But it’s not, the World’s going to burn

[Martyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with anything Frankie Boyle does, there is real wisdom, consideration and analysis between the cutting punchlines.
This book reads somewhere between a social commentary and a comedy monologue, and due mainly to it’s length, loses some of the bite that his shorter articles posses. However towards the end, the comedy gives way somewhat for serious explanation and thought, before arcing towards something akin to hope.

[Sheraz Qureshi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book, as expected, was very funny and attacked both the left and right. The reason why the book gets 3 stars rather than a higher rating is because the book doesn’t really explore ‘ the future ‘ of British politics! Instead, the book spends most of its time examining recent events and the past.

[Archie Morrison]

I've always been a big fan of anything Frankie Boyle puts out there and this turned out to be no exception. It was basically 60 pages of his monologues throughout his "New World Order" episodes, which on the whole I find entertaining albeit occasionally repetitive. Would definitely recommend! Now onto another book in this "FUTURE" series thing

[Deb Lancaster · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Frankie. I've laughed at his jokes through all his incarnations. I really really love who he is now. This is an excellent piece of writing. I would think that given that it echoes pretty much everything I think. He's a proper good person. Nihilism turns to altruism so it does. What else is left?

[Daniel Mossop · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always with Frankie Boyle it is funny and it’s dark. This book also makes you think, gives you some alternative viewpoints and questions while keeping it entertaining. The somewhat grim subject matter of the state of our world and current government etc never gets you too down whilst being talked about or at least he gently picks you back up after. Well worth a read.

[Rhys · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frankie Boyle is one of my favourite comedians but I have often found his writing too whimsical and distracted. It was much better here, where he has one topic to focus on. Of course, he constantly tries to meander off topic but is constantly pulled back to focus on his point. Very enjoyable and with some genuinely enjoyable moments. Oh, and I learned something too.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like I’ve read most of the ideas in this long form essay in his Guardian columns or on his TV shows like New World Order. Which is a polite way of saying he’s recycled old jokes for this project - or vice versa. That’s not to take away from the fact that he makes some very good points, I’m just not sure the content lives up to the title. And I say this as a fan of his work.