With Parliament still in the grip of deadlock over Brexit, a book with the title ‘Why We Get the Wrong Politicians’ might sound particularly timely. However, even Isabel Hardman admits that the provocative title is slightly misleading. Rather than a populist takedown of lazy and self-serving MPs, her examination of the political class is more sympathetic, as she shows that it tends to be the structural flaws in the system which have caused so much political dysfunction in recent years. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Elections
Why We Get the Wrong Politicians by Isabel Hardman
Filed under Books
The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama by David Remnick
I hardly ever read two books or more at the same time but with ‘The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama’ by David Remnick I had to make an exception. It is a beast of a book and I would never have finished it if I hadn’t been reading some fiction alongside it over the last few weeks. As I mentioned in my post about political biographies, almost all books about political figures are extremely weighty tomes which are crammed with more detail than you will ever need to know. ‘The Bridge’ is no different but even though it definitely isn’t aimed at the casual reader, it is still a highly readable account of Barack Obama’s truly extraordinary life and path to the White House. Continue reading
Filed under Books
Boris Johnson
Local election day in Britain this year is likely to see the Conservative Party lose hundreds of council seats across England, Scotland and Wales. One result that might bring the Tories some good news however is that of the Greater London Assembly with Boris Johnson predicted to win a second term. Yes, it seems as though the gaffe-prone, floppy-haired incumbent mayor known almost exclusively by his first name has pulled it off again. Continue reading
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