How They Broke Britain, James OBrien
How They Broke Britain, James OBrien
List: $15.75 | Sale: $11.03
Club: $7.87

How They Broke Britain

Author: James O'Brien

Narrator: James O'Brien

Unabridged: 10 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Virgin Digital

Published: 11/02/2023


Synopsis

Brought to you by Penguin.

‘Made me so angry I had to stop listening to it while driving. Superb’ THE SECRET BARRISTER

Something has gone really wrong in Britain.

Our economy has tanked, our freedoms are shrinking, and social divisions are growing. Our politicians seem most interested in their own careers, and much of the media only make things worse. We are living in a country almost unrecognisable from the one that existed a decade ago. But whose fault is it really? Who broke Britain and how did they do it?

Bold and incisive as ever, James O'Brien reveals the shady network of influence that has created a broken Britain of strikes, shortages and scandals. He maps the web connecting dark think tanks to Downing Street, the journalists complicit in selling it to the public and the media bosses pushing their own agendas. Over ten chapters, each focusing on a particular person complicit in the downfall, James O'Brien reveals how a select few have conspired - sometimes by incompetence, sometimes by design - to bring Britain to its knees.

©2023 James O'Brien (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Reviews

Goodreads review by Dan on November 27, 2023

Please read this before the next general election.......more

Goodreads review by Nick on February 07, 2024

The Wail of Waterstones Man I should start out by saying that I didn’t like this book, in fact I quite intensely disliked it. Which is strange, because I agree with almost all of it. I mean it felt like I was being shouted at by a particularly irate student at a Labour Party fringe meeting, but in te......more

Goodreads review by Sivvy on January 05, 2024

An excellent but utterly depressing summary of the decline of the country in recent years - something we’ve all felt in a million different ways but seeing it summarised and analysed so clearly is pretty horrific. A forensic and exhaustive documentation of the nation’s deliberate dismantling, the bo......more

Goodreads review by George on March 10, 2024

I’ve never listened to James O’Brien’s radio show nor read his previous books, so I went into How They Broke Britain knowing little of the man except for my vague impression that he’s a self-important, sanctimonious, uninteresting loudmouth. Ten hours of audiobook later, I can’t say he proved me wro......more

Goodreads review by Mike on November 04, 2023

Very well researched and written O’Brien’s book delivers on its promise to explain how the UK finds itself sliding backwards in the world, morally, politically and of course financially. A chilling but essential read, I came away better informed, chilled to my core and damned angry. The shameless se......more


Quotes

How They Broke Britain made me so angry I had to stop listening to it while driving. Superb work

A damning account of how the country ended up in the current mess . . . O’Brien’s scathing voice provides a thorough record of the self-serving actions and pronouncements of those who have held power in Britain Guardian

The most important political book of the year and a fascinating must-read for anyone who cares about Britain. Eye-opening, jaw-dropping, heart-breaking

O'Brien is a punchy and compelling writer. The book is fluent, engaging and thoroughly researched . . . O'Brien eviscerates all of his targets Times Literary Supplement

A compelling, thought-provoking and illuminating read. O’Brien doesn’t hold any punches . . . It is a book that will make you gasp in shock, shake your head in bewilderment and wonder how any of this was allowed to take place in 21st-century Britain Herald

[A] brilliant exposé of those who deliberately turned a once admired country into an economically poorer, lamentable parody of its former self: the Brexiteer neoliberal right, their Tory MPs, journalists and think tanks who inflicted such massive self-harm

O'Brien's new book confirms that not only are our politicians and their backers as corrupt and incompetent as you suspected they were, it's actually worse than that. And it's packed full of facts about Brexit, Think Tanks and Tory sleaze that will help you win argument after argument with your irritating relatives

Excoriating

It’s essential. It should make you angry. Fuming Adam Rutherford

Intelligent, forensic, devastating and shocking – How They broke Britain is as terrifying as it is brilliant