All In: How we build a country that works

by Lisa Nandy

‘A persuasive manifesto for a better Britain.’ Observer Book of the Day

Britain is in crisis. This timely book by one of the stars of frontline politics shows a way out.
In this brilliant and accessible intervention, Lisa Nandy reveals how Britain can leave behind the mess in which we find ourselves. All In charts a course towards a fairer, more equal, more prosperous country by drawing on the greatest asset we have – each other.

Rapid global changes, political division and economic crisis have left Britain reeling. For decades, large swathes of the country have been shut out, condemned to low productivity, underinvestment and managed decline, and stripped of their voice. With most major cities now beset with high housing costs, air pollution and congestion, even the ‘winners’ are losing.

All In shows how, by handing power and resources to people with a stake in the outcome, Britain can draw on the talent, assets and potential in every part of the country and start firing on all cylinders again. Finding strength rather than fear in our differences, it reimagines the relationship between people and government so that all of us can play our part in meeting the challenges of our age and rebuilding Britain the only way that works – together.

Lucid, clear-eyed and hopeful, this book sets out how we restore values, energy and direction to our politics and offers a glimpse of the alternative future that remains within our grasp.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

224 pages, Hardcover

Published May 16, 2023

About the author

Lisa Eva Nandy is an English Labour Party politician serving as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport since 2024.

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sections of this read as if it were only written so Nandy can shoehorn in another quote.

Some decent ideas but this let's it down as does its quick pace which leaves little room for investigation of an issue.

Interesting on the power of football for communities, devolution, the role of local groups in decision making.

[Euan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some good anecdotes and observations about regional inequality and appreciated nods to the north west etc. namely Wigan, Bury and other orbital towns around Manchester.

But in all honesty other than that I can’t really bring myself to say much else. I don’t really see what the point of the book is and there is absolutely no structure or development, it honestly just reads like a collection of guardian opinion pieces all saying the same thing - something something citizens assemblies/community ownership.

[Ella Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This gets 3.75 stars from me, my boss forced me to read it and I'm not a political book girlie, but I found it more interesting than I expected! Going to her lecture tonight, morphing into the world's biggest Lisa Nandy fan??

[Jacob Stelling · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a powerful book which offered serious thought about what has gone wrong in Britain in the last few decades, and how this has led to disillusionment and a growing divide between the people and the political class.

Nandy seems to be serious about understanding the reasons why people are so frustrated and feel left-behind, tying that local focus into national and international trends. She does this whilst rejecting the populist narrative and offering positive solutions for the future.

Makes you feel hopeful in the context of the new government, and offers serious ways we can build a better Britain.

[Imogen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lisa Nandy’s All In is less about giving us the answers to all of the problems facing us – of which there are many – and more about giving us the power to answer them ourselves. It is a vision of a country that works together, where we all have a stake in what happens in our communities.

Throughout the book, Nandy highlights a number of ways the UK has veered off-course, with examples from the 1970s all the way through to the 2020s. And of course, the vast majority of these occasions are marked by a Conservative Government taking centralised decisions. Rather than give us a one-size-fits-all solution, Nandy takes tackling various issues to a deeper level, thinking not of policies but of people.

A huge recommendation for this book is its readability. Never did I feel I was out of my depth. By using examples, quotes, and ditching the jargon, Nandy’s book is one anyone could pick off the shelf in a store and make it through – true to the spirit of the book itself, which speaks to the power of the many.

As well as a message to the public, there is also one here for politicians: listen. Nandy believes some of the stark divisions that have emerged recently and the feelings of disenfranchisement would be greatly helped by politicians not trying to theorise around reasons but listening to their constituents, to the public. After all, as Nandy says, good leaders have the self-confidence to listen and change.

I particularly liked Nandy’s emphasis on the regional inequalities between London and the South East and the rest of the UK. Coming from Cornwall, there were many examples of the North that are almost identical to some of our current and historical challenges, and I finished the book wanting to work for stronger regional solidarity.

Of course, getting people involved in the way Nandy talks about means empowering them with the right tools, and this is where we should begin if we are to be All In.

[Jonny Brick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clear, measured and full of case studies that add to her argument: community, togetherness and a redrawing of British politics. Now to put it into practice!

[John Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Restores your faith in politicians. A very positive and enlightening read, the antithesis of the rotten system the Tories have presided over this past decade. Refreshing.

[Gary Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

"All In: How We Build a Country That Works" by Lisa Nandy, published in 2023, is a thought-provoking examination of Britain's political and social landscape from the perspective of a Labour MP who has served Wigan since 2010.

Nandy's central thesis is that Britain's current challenges stem from an over-centralization of power in Westminster and a disconnect between political decision-making and local communities. She draws on her experiences both as a constituency MP and shadow cabinet member to illustrate how this disconnect manifests in practice.

The book is particularly strong when Nandy delves into specific examples from her constituency work in Wigan, demonstrating how national policies often fail to account for local realities. Her analysis of the impact of deindustrialization on former mining communities and the subsequent failure of various regeneration schemes offers valuable insights into why many voters in traditional Labour areas have felt abandoned by the political establishment.

However, while Nandy's diagnosis of problems is compelling, her proposed solutions sometimes lack concrete detail. The book's calls for greater devolution and community empowerment, while admirable, could benefit from more specific policy prescriptions and implementation strategies.

The writing style is accessible and engaging, successfully blending personal anecdotes with political analysis. Nandy's authentic voice comes through clearly, particularly when discussing her mixed British-Indian heritage and how it informs her understanding of British identity and belonging.

While some readers might find certain sections repetitive in hammering home the centralization argument, the book overall presents a valuable perspective on Britain's political challenges and potential paths forward. It's particularly relevant for understanding Labour's evolving approach to questions of community, identity, and economic reform.

Worth reading for anyone interested in contemporary British politics, especially those seeking to understand Labour's thinking on how to reconnect with its traditional voter base while addressing modern challenges.

[Chris Malone · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lisa Nandy is such an impressive, articulate and clear politician to listen to, but this book is weighed down with convoluted sentences, repetition and no clear progression or structure. She repeats so many times near the end of the book, that life is complex, politics is complex, and we need to accept that, yet we look to our politicians to wade through the complexity and come up with genius, simple solutions to dilemmas.

I was hoping for a clear argument: this is how things are, this is why, and this is what needs doing. We were given lots of current issues, and many, interesting historical quotations and underpinning reasons, but the solution seems to be in the hands of the people … citizens assemblies … without much more detail.

If, as Lisa asserts, solutions to the current broken society and politics, lie with the people; those close to their communities and events, then two hundred pages of pontificating in a fairly dogmatic tone, seems to go against this desire. Where’s the leadership? I compare her book with Greta Thunberg’s recent publication, The Climate Book, which involved many short articles from participants, activists and experts. For a reader, that said ‘I believe in consulting the people.’ Greta also built her argument, chapter by chapter, and reached clear and logical conclusions.

My husband and I started off reading with high hopes, but after diligently reading, aloud, from start to finish, we felt it was a missed opportunity to do Lisa Nandy proud. The book needed more editing, and it needed a plan; a structure, so the reader travelled with her from beginning to end and beyond. Sadly, very disappointing.

[Peter K · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an energetic and accessible book written with a passion for both identifying the problems that we face in our country but also in explaining how these can start to be addressed - and it is not that this particular politician has all the ready made answers - which made it so interesting to read.

Whilst packed full ( a little too full ) of quotes from the great and the good ( you're never more than a paragraph away ) this is a very good book.

Lisa Nandy identifies the key problems that she thinks are facing us in the UK and from her experiences which have ranged from running a charity to being a councillor as well as the established Labour MP for Wigan describes the framework through which they can be tackled.

If I distilled one key theme from the book it was that involving people in the decisions that affect them is key to tackling the alienation and disaffection that is currently rife and she employs some interesting and impactful examples of how this can be done at the local and not so local level.

The advocation of citizens assemblies and the promotion of a basic national infrastructure policy that sought to protect key aspects of local life from deterioration were just two of the good ideas prompted in this book.

The author is clearly someone that cares and seeks to represent and protect her constituents and this was a book that I enjoyed reading and gave me cause for optimism - and god knows that is in short supply at the moment

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

All In is a well-written book. Too often, books by politicians are platitudinous, but this isn't the case with All In. It's strong on diagnosing the challenges that twenty-first century Britain faces, but also how to reverse our managed decline. It's also balanced and recognises that while the Conservative Party has created and exacerbated many of the challenges we now face, others have been longer in the making and therefore the Labour Party must bear some responsibility. Lisa also recognises that politicians have failed to meet the expectations of the public; they have been too slow, too timid, and in some instances taken the wrong course.

Lisa is a serving Shadow Secretary of State, so I did not expect the book to announce new Labour policies - and it's always a risk that a position articulated in All In is mistaken for Labour policy, so I it should be expected that Lisa would err on the side of caution in their work. That may be why I think the solutions Lisa sets out fall short. They are all well-trodden paths: handing power to communities and so forth. That doesn't mean that Lisa is wrong, but I would have liked her to be bolder in her solutions - and I think looking further afield outside of the UK may have added value to this.

Overall, worth a read if you want to get a sense of how the next Government may think.

[Anthony Etherington · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘All In’ by Lisa Nandy is thought-provoking and inspiring. The author, MP for Wigan, challenges us to imagine a very different country where people are given way more power to influence the decisions affecting them and their communities. The chapters on the background to, and causes of, the UK’s current malaise are particularly strong and Nandy delivers some powerful examples of what can be achieved when people have the chance to shape their own futures. She stays refreshingly clear of party politics, blaming both the main political parties for focusing on top-down, centrally delivered ��solutions’ (state intervention v market liberalism). She makes no apology, either, for not providing a tick list of ‘to do’s’, pointing instead to just a few of the tools that could help to improve the way the UK works, such as citizens’ assemblies, promoting a culture that accepts complexity and diversity, introducing a new tri-partism (CBI/TUC/government joint working), and far greater ‘financial autonomy‘ for all parts of the nation via e.g. decentralized citizen wealth funds. This is a must-read for anyone interested in, as the book’s sub-title puts it: ‘How We Build A Country That Works.’

[Si Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

That was interesting. Nandy talks a lot about how what’s wrong with politics is that people feel left behind. They feel disengaged and unheard. Their votes don’t matter.

And she speaks a lot about how to get people more involved. And about how people making meaningful contributions is ultimately the solution to broken politics.

But the one most obvious way to achieve that is something she mentions once almost as an aside.

‘It is curious to me why there has been an important debate about introducing proportional representation at
Westminster but it is seldom up for discussion at local and regional level where the problem it seeks to solve is often more acute.’

That’s it. That’s the only mention of PR in the entire book.

If you’re going to write an entire book on how to restore trust in politics and how to engage and involve people, you should at least include a few paragraphs on PR.

Still, I know a lot more about Nandy and her views and ideas now. I’m feeling optimistic about her appointment as Secretary of State for Culture.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, that was about as good as it was going to be, I suppose. She says good things about wigan, she acts normal, says the right thing, mentions "quiet patriotism" whatever TF that is about once every three pages, and stays away from anything controversial. It's a pre-election book, in other words, meant to reassure you that the labour party aren't going to do anything too mad and that they have the good sense to know that it's not a good idea to an express an opinion on any real hot-button issues. I probably could have guessed most of it, to be honest. Some of the ideas in the last chapter were interesting. Spongey and vague, but interesting. Yeah, I could vote for this.

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book and I like Lisa Nandy as a person and a politician. She comes across as warm, open, caring and relatable and does a decent job of leaving current party politics out of this book and focusing on the topics without apportioning blame. However, the book is really let down by very loose editing. There is so much repetition that it becomes a distraction. Hopefully a revised edition will be released soon that can correct some of the basic editorial shortcomings. This would become a much stronger book for it.

[SamBet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book - thoughtful and with workable solutions to the challenges the country faces. You get a real feeling that Lisa Nandy is about making beneficial change with others not to others; a real sense of understanding or seeking to understanding others perspective; an understanding that the right answers aren't found in a single place/from a single person/party but from collective endeavour. I found that it was a hopeful book to read - given the state of our politics.

[Mr Alister Cryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Friendly fire

This book was not the book that I expected it to be. The opening section was disappointing in that it simply amounted to a state of the union analysis. Although the book could do with some proofreading and fact-checking as Grenfell is not in South London, it makes for an interesting and rewarding read.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting take on how the UK could be less of a hot mess

[Dan Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that's full of hope. All In is accessible and informative with many heartwarming stories of progress.

[Paul Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspiring ideas and experiences! I hope we can try it out soon with a change of government...

[Yasmin Jans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really inspiring and hopefully book but lacked structure and each chapter was relatively similar.

[Kieran · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great ideas but lacking in specifics

[Hannah Feld · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. Helped increase my hope in a Labour government.

[Tim Light · Rating 3 out of 5]

Raised some good points but never really came up with a convincing plan of action. Also felt Nandy repeated the same points throughout.