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Broonland:The Last Days of Gordon Brown
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A scathing and witty indictment of the architect of New Labour, Gordon Brown
How did the intellectually intimidating, industrious architect of the New Labour project become its maligned and feckless undertaker? In this scathing, witty indictment of Gordon Brown’s tenure as prime minister, Christopher Harvie says goodbye to Broon by exploring the Britain New Labour helped create. It is a place where the gap between rich and poor grows ever wider and manufacturing has been replaced by ‘retail, entertainment and recreation’ (for which read shopping, gambling and drinking).
Now that the casino economy has veered wildly out of control, and our public utilities and industries have been auctioned to the highest bidder, Broonland is both an essential anatomy of a country on the brink of collapse and a caustic, darkly funny portrait of a decade that took Britain from boom through bust to busted.
Reviews
A capacious critique of this most complex of modern British politicians ... his biographical connection with Brown ... turns Harvie into something like a polymathic Jiminy Cricket, perfectly perched at the PM’s shoulder ... Harvie possesses a map to the full hinterland of Gordon Brown.
An impish romp through the New Labour era ... with Brown cast as a socialist Faust seduced by the capitalist Mephistopheles of the City of London ... [Harvie’s] unique skill is having an eye for the curious and complex interconnections between making money and making culture. This book covers everything from organized crime to football ... If you like writing stuffed with fascinating ideas, to the point that the sentences burst like a badly wrapped present from an enthusiastic friend, then dip in.