- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: William Heinemann (1 April 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0434020265
- ISBN-13: 978-0434020263
- Product Dimensions: 13.5 x 2.1 x 21.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 176,992 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Silent State
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Product Description
Review
'Will strike fear into the hearts of politicians, assuming they have hearts. Anyone with a vote worth stealing should read this. You won't know whether to laugh or rise up and overthrow absolutely everything.' --Charlie Brooker
'Heather Brooke puts every other British journalist to shame. She single-handedly exposed the systemic corruption that had become an embedded part of parliament at the turn of the 20th century. In doing so she has changed British public culture and earned an essential place in our national history. She is an extraordinary figure who must be celebrated.' --Peter Oborne
'Secrecy is one of the great British diseases. It's so secret that we don't even admit we suffer from it. Heather Brooke is part of the cure - challenging the routine concealment and distortion of important information. There should be more journalists doing the same.' --Nick Davies, author of FLAT EARTH NEWS
'Heather Brooke puts every other British journalist to shame. She single-handedly exposed the systemic corruption that had become an embedded part of parliament at the turn of the 20th century. In doing so she has changed British public culture and earned an essential place in our national history. She is an extraordinary figure who must be celebrated.' --Peter Oborne
'Secrecy is one of the great British diseases. It's so secret that we don't even admit we suffer from it. Heather Brooke is part of the cure - challenging the routine concealment and distortion of important information. There should be more journalists doing the same.' --Nick Davies, author of FLAT EARTH NEWS
Book Description
The most important and entertaining political book you’ll read this year, by the journalist who exposed the MPs' expenses and changed C21st Britain.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
92 of 97 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must read for all UK voters,
By
This review is from: The Silent State: Secrets, Surveillance and the Myth of British Democracy (Paperback)
I bought this book having heard of Heather Brooke through her instrumental role in breaking the MPs expenses scandal and I'm so very glad I did.
Heather lifts the lid on the rotten heart of British democracy and exposes just how little real information the electorate actually have to work with when judging the performance of their elected officials, police services and judiciary. We pay for huge amounts of data to be gathered on our behalf and about us, and yet we are (in many cases explicitly) denied access to that data. Sometimes we get to pay for it many times over before being presented with a figure-fiddled, dumbed-down press release that bears little or no resemblance to the facts. In many ways a lot of UK voters already suspect many of the issues raised in this book, but to see the hard facts is something of a smack-in-the-face. If you are suffering from voter apathy, this is one book that is guaranteed to stir you out of it. Heather has a wonderfully fluid and accessible writing style that carries you through what could easily have been a dry subject with ease and humour. Her ability, and persistance, to get at the truth places her at the pinnacle of modern investigative journalism and, for me, the name Heather Brooke belongs amongst those of game-changes like Bob Woodward,Carl Bernstein and Amira Hass.
37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Depressing and shocking,
By
This review is from: The Silent State: Secrets, Surveillance and the Myth of British Democracy (Paperback)
I have spent 30 odd years of teaching History, and attempting to answer questions from students such as "How could they do that", "How did they get away with that", "Why did people believe them" about various historical events of the last 2000 years. Any ideas I might have had that we now live in more democratic and enlightened times are blown away by this book. Some of the stories are not new, but collected together they are a dismal and depressing chronicle of present-day Britain. In many ways we have as little freedom as medieval peasants.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
?gone native,
This review is from: The Silent State: Secrets, Surveillance and the Myth of British Democracy (Paperback)
I used to work in the public sector so I have seen the other side. The book makes lots of good comments and is well worth reading. The general principles I agree with but implementation needs to be economic and practical. For example the recent government announcement that local authjorities will have to publish details of all items over £500 (all in line with the book) seems way over the top as a starting point and likely to increase costs. Why not start at - say £5000 - and then extend it from there?
The author - rightly - draws attention to the (existing) rights of public access to local authorities' financial transactions but makes no mention of the abuses that occur and public money wasted as a result of some 'questions and objections' from members of the public - all of which have to be responded to. It would have been useful if the author had pointed out that this (existing) provision applies only to local authorities - ?as will the new £500 requirement - what about the rest of the public sector - especially central government and quangos. However these are relatively small gripes - still strongly recommended.
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