The Bookshelf
Reviews of recently-read political books
The Red Flag ranking system
Entertainment
Dire
Bareable if there's nothing else around
Readable
Highly enjoyable
Drop everything else and read this book!
Politics
If you like to scream at your book, then this is for you
Occasional mitigating features
Vaguely leftist
Mainly excellent
Bang on-message (our message, that is)
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Turn Again Livingstone John Carvel
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Politics:
'Red' Ken Livingstone is back and ready to take on the Millbank tendency. Timed to coincide with Ken's bid to become London mayor, this authorised biography is both timely and revelatory. Lucid and enjoyable to read, it charts Livingstone's rise to his coup d'etat at the GLC and his battles against the law lords and Thatcher. We are told that Blair wanted to give Livingstone a cabinet post had he not been so outspoken. The author believes that Ken's chances of becoming mayor are excellent and believes that Ken is the correct choice for the job. However, this biography is in no way idolatory, making just as much play of Ken's faults as of his strenghts. It is an excellent and page-turning piece of political biography, which does a good job of setting the record straight about Ken.
The Downing Street Years Margaret Thatcher
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By the end of the first paragraph of this book you will want to scream. By the end of the book you will feel positively homicidal. It may be ghost written, but the Lady's inimitable style seeps out of every page: ruthless, dogmatic, evil and red-blooded capitalist. Whilst it is interesting insofar as it provides an insiders view of the events of her governance, this is so badly obscured by her desire to 'do down' both the opposition and her enemies in Cabinet that we in fact learn very little. There is no attempt to explain or apologise for any of the tragic failures of her regieme nor any possibility of allowing any alternative point of view to be considered. Whilst reading this book, all I could imagine was of Young Conservatives swooning over Her words. As far as the left is concerned, the only possible merit of this book is that perhaps it may help us to remember why we are here.
Inside the House that Jacques Built Charles Grant
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Part biography, part political analysis, this study of the work of Jacques Delors is worth reading for anyone who wants to understand the driving force behind the European Commission we have today. The biographical detail works rather better than the occasionally rather dry analysis of the machinery of the Commission and I would only recomend this book to commited Euro-philes, rather than just the casual reader. It is, unfortunately, increasingly out of date and could do with a second edition to cover the final years of Delors 'reign' as President of the Commission. A little more information on how this bank clerk rose to become the most popular figure in French left-wing politics would also be interesting.
Things Can Only Get Better John O'Farrell
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Highly amusing in an understated sort of way, Things can only get better is a much better way of boning up on the Labour Party's recent history than plodding through any number of dry histories of the subject. This biography takes John O'Farrell from campaigning for Labour in the dying days of Callaghan's government, through the day he realised that Michael Foot would never be Prime Minister and on to the 'New' Labour victory in 1997. A little too keen on Blair (but hell, who didn't feel a little buzz on May 1st?), his heart is definitely in the right place. I won't tell you the final sentence, because that would spoil it: he summs up in one hilarious, yet poignant, line exactly what has gone wrong in the Labour Party in the last ten years.
Hidden Agendas John Pilger
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In what can only be described as a polemic (in the nicest possible sense), left-wing journalist John Pilger sets most of the world to rights, from Blair's Britain to Suharto's Indonesia. His views are dramatically expressed and he pulls no punches in criticising the vested interests. This is not, as the title might suggest, some conspiracy theorist's rant, but in fact a plain-speaking account of the world as it exists. Particularly good if you want to understand the underlying conflict which led to the crisis in East Timor, this books' range of targets is as wide as its geographical scope. Succesive British governments come, rightly, in for massive criticism over its arms export policy. My only criticism can be Pilger's rather outdated view that the EU and ERM are some vast anti-worker capitalist scheme.
Mandy; the unauthorised biography of Peter Mandleson Paul Routledge
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You know that the writer is on the right lines when he dedicates the book to 'the Socialists who created the party that Mandleson wants to lead'. Indeed, this book barely has a good word to say for the machiavellian Mandleson and his circle of cronies, who it casts as manipulative and power-seeking. Indeed, it gives creedence to the claim that Mandy was recruited by MI5 at High School and then infiltrated both the British Communist Party and the Labour Party for them. The revised edition gives good coverage of how the loan scandal which the first edition released to the public eye brought down Peter, but this is, confusingly, put at the front of the book rather than at the end of the chronological biography. The author also has a tendency to go into fascinating but irrelevent detail at some points and then skim over many of the more important points of Mandy. If nothing else at the end of this book, you will be convinced that Mandleson must never achieve his eventual goal: 10 Downing Street.
Diaries Alan Clark
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You couldn't ask for a much better read than the diaries of the late, eccentric, lecherous Tory grandee. Alright, so you vemenently disagree with every last thing he says, but it's hard not to have some kind of grudging respect for the man, particularly given his rather gentlemanly outlook on politics and the great respect he holds for his political rivals. It also gives an illuminating look at the politics of the Thatcher years, for which purpose I would recommend it much more thouroughly than The Downing Street Years.
Tony Blair John Rentoul
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Written before Blair swept to power, this biography has a tendency to be rather sycophantic towards the young leader. However, it is interesting in so far as it details the influences which shaped the creature we know today (Tory father, public school education...). It does appear to be the best-written and most complete biography of Blair available at the moment, although it is in desperate need of updating, and is worth reading to help to understand the forces which drive him. To really understand the forces behind him, however, Mandy is a much better bet!
On the Brink; The Trouble with France Jonathan Fenby
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If, like me, you are a commited francophile, then you'll find this book both pleasurable and stimulating from begining to end. It is particularly refreshing to find someone who does not view France through rose-tinted spectacles but who celebrates it for what it is and is prepared to analyse and speculate on its problems. This book covers such areas as the rise of the Front National, Islamic terrorism and the crisis in French identity. It is lucid and enjoyable, using good examples to highlight the problems. Yet it is, over-ridingly an optimistic piece of writing, with a central belief that France is strong enough to overcome these crises.
REVIEW COMING SOON...
The Course of My Life Edward Heath
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