I got interested in this book during my last two visits to the UK - both in spring 2024. I hadn't travelled much to the UK during the past 20 years, quite the opposite to the 15 years before, when I had lived and studied there, made friends and regularly visited them. Visiting the UK today feels very different compared to twenty years ago. Even when considering that the entire world has changed a lot throughout the past two decades (and so did I, myself), I wondered what it is, that appears to have changed "on top of how the rest of the world has changed". James O'Brian's book sounded like a good read for better understanding this apparent change. I am afraid it didn't help as much as I had hoped.

Just to be clear: l learned a lot about various media scandals and political desasters that led up to Brexit and the various cosequences of Brexit. The book is a well written and well selected compilation of reports on "things that went wrong", covering legal cases, newspaper columns and commentaries, outrageous speeches, unfortunate or desastrous political decisions, etc. etc. Also, I appreciate O'Brian's choice of ten people for ten chapters with analyses of their particular role in the process that led to Brexit and/or its political implementation.
I learned a lot about Brexit, but I wonder whether this is all there is to say about what has changed in the UK. I agree that Brexit was a tragically anachronistic political decision, and I believe that this decision has caused many problems and will probably continue to do so. Still, I find it hard to believe that it can explain all changes in British society. Maybe it can, maybe it can't. To find out, the book would have needed to compare "the old days" with today. It doesn't do that at all. Instead there is a persistent but implicit claim, that everything was better at some ill-defined moment in history - when Britain was not yet broken.

Readers of this book can learn a lot about the various ways in which British media interact with Westminster politics. One can find out a lot about the Tory party, too. I admit that enjoyed the clearly marked attitude of the author. However, I still don't know why visiting the UK today feels so different than it did twenty years ago.
Also, I don't think that Britain is any more broken than other European countries - just visit Germany, France or Italy for comparison! ( )

The title tells it all. A book about those (politicians, millionaires, etc.) who in the last 10-15 years literally broke Britain. ( )