Haywire

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The first full history of the last two and a half decades, compellingly told by a leading contemporary historian

Vladimir Lenin, an occasional resident of North London who went on to other things, has been credited with once saying that there are decades where nothing happens but weeks when decades happen. The first two and a half decades of this century in Britain have had plenty of those weeks. Indeed, our recent history has at times resembled an episode of Casualty, the long-running BBC hospital drama in which every hedge trimmer slips, every gas pipe leaks, every piece of scaffolding collapses and everyone ends up in intensive care.

In Haywire Andrew Hindmoor makes sense of the deluge of events which have rained down on Britain since 2000, from the Iraq War to financial collapse, austerity to Brexit, as well as more easily forgotten moments such as the MP’s expenses scandal. He shows not simply how one crisis has quickly followed another, but how each crisis has compounded the next, so that disaster feels like the new normal. Has Britain simply been the victim of a particularly prolonged run of bad luck which will, sooner or later, come to an end? No. Hindmoor argues that the way the British state is organised has, time and again, made a crisis out of a drama – and that it is time to find an alternative before we all go haywire.Stylish and laconic, this is a magnificent sweep through a grave downturn in our fortunes. There is more than a hint of Edward Gibbon in Hindmoor’s elegant, magisterial prose and all his judgements are spot on. A remarkable book—Matthew ParrisAndrew Hindmoor is Professor of Politics at the University of Sheffield, and Co-Director of the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute. He has edited the journal Political Studies and is currently an Associate Editor of New Political Economy.GB

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