How They Broke Britain: The Instant Sunday Times Bestseller Paperback – 25 April 2024

I'm only half way through but this is a very detailed excellently researched book / document detailing 14 years of corruption, deception and lies perpetrated by politicians, think tanks and sections of the media - all working together. I'm not political but somehow I saw through all the lies at the time particularly the brexit ones spewed out by vote leave and Johnson's hollow premiership and campaign. James O'Brien exposes the main culprits one by one, chapter by chapter, those culprits who brought once admired British Values into the gutter. Only a few weeks into a new Government and I can see these values bring lifted up again, cleaned down and being proudly presented to the People of the U.K. and the World again. I found chapter 4 a particularly thought provoking part of the book (see page above). I feel this chapter sums up all that's been wrong in politics and the media over the last 14 years of tory "rule". In the last part of this chapter one brave man with the support of a few others chose to speak up for truth and values and against the corruption of electoral rules. The guilty ones tried to vilify him and publicy humiliate him even though they knew he spoke the Truth. No action was taken against the culprits, in fact they were elevated to higher positions. But I love the fact that this young man only feels pity for them, as he questions are they truly happy with their egotistical positions and lifestyle considering how they achieved them.An excellent book which I'm sure will be a classic history of our times for generations to come.

Eye opening on not just Britain but no doubt read across to the USA, Russia and others. Thanks James, keep doing what you’re doing.

A very strong critique on recent politicians, advisors and right-wing press editors. I am not sure I believe everything he states but it gives reasons why we are in the terrible state we are in today. It is interesting that comments in the Daily Telegraph are always attacking the BBC. Reading Charles Moore's columns he seems to have a great hatred for the BBC, NHS and the EU. I am not entirely convinced of James O'brien conspiracy theories but he does make a good case.

Great read. Should be added to school curriculum. Examples of human greed and ambition

An in depth account of some of the worst people who very recently governed us. Really well researched and containing great detail. Very readable

This is a monumental act of accusation which will endure for decades and will be read with disbelief and outrage. The architects of Brexit stand all accused in their infinite malice mendacity corruption and stupidity. But there is one savage omission. The Public who subscribed to and sustained and supported by their vote the political agenda of abuse mockery victimisation and marginalisation, the attacks on the vulnerable, the migrant, the foreigner, the whole kit and caboodle of dire and mindlessxenophobia.The Brexit-supporting British Public equally and perhaps moreso deserves a scathing chapter in this act of accusation. It is little consolation that the wheels came off the wagon. The wagon remains a wreck. The House of Usher remains a ruin among us.Brexit Britain cannot point thr finger or laugh at Tramp's equally desolate and desperate U.S. of A. It developed and created the template for him and his clownish cronies.The ultimate tragedy is that the whole world has become infected by their plague.James O'Brien's book is an invaluable record. But it is sadly not a cure.

James O'Brien's latest book - following tomes on how to be right and not be wrong - is arguably his most polemical yet. Chapter by chapter, he dissects the roles that media moguls, politicians and newspaper editors have played in generating a generation's worth of failure, incompetence and downright illegality as this country has lurched from crisis to crisis, with seemingly no sign it will ever stop. Research here is key, and O'Brien's scalpel precision in both recording and retelling so many of the key stages between Rupert Murdoch's rise as a press baron to the laughably brief tenure of Liz Truss as Prime Minister. In between is made up of a frankly unbelivable-unless-it-was-true catalogue of cronyism, ill-preparedness, political gain at the expense of public wellbeing and criminal negligence. While I don't personally keep with every facet of each individual given their chapterial shame sheet, theres never the less ample fuel to stoke my personal ire. Standouts are inevitably the eviscerations of Nigel Farage, David Cameron, Dominic Cummings and Boris Johnson - key architects and beneficiaries of the Brexit referendum in 2016 which provides this book with its raison d'etre. O'Brien's skilful ability to plot piece by piece how a campaign of fear-mongering, racism, divergance and sheer bloody lies enabled these crooks and swindlers to point the blame at anyone other than themselves and somehow rise their own greasy poles in the meantime. It's telling that even the data obsessed and clearly non-parliamentarian Dominic Cummings is damned by O'Brien with faint praise for often being the smartest guy in a room filled with incompetence and promotion above and beyond any actual achievement. Privilege, entitlement and a willingness for self-service above the public need are the recurrent themes that emerge, and O'Brien's book is as important a testament to How they broke Britain as the Nuremberg trials were in accounting the events of World War II. Essential reading for anyone who still thinks it's all the fault of immigrants, the badly off, the disabled and the most needy of society, who have all been betrayed by the actions of nine white men and one white woman.

Very interesting (and alarming) read. James O'Brien definitely knows his stuff.