- Paperback: 314 pages
- Publisher: Gibson Square Books (10 Dec 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1906142378
- ISBN-13: 978-1906142377
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 199,144 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
'Suicide may be the only answer.' Austin Mitchell MP, PA Quote of the Day; 'Timely and worrying - a devastating report card.' Professor Trentmann, Sunday Express; 'Turns and bites Labour.' John Lloyd, Financial Times --1
Product Description
Drily witty, based on 9 years of research from the vantage point of the Adam Smith Institute, Britain's oldest and most prestigious think tank, "The Rotten State of Britain" describes it as it is: under Gordon Brown leadership, Britain has achieved that sinking feeling. In this biting analysis of the government's reputation for economic and social prudence, Eamonn Butler shows how over 12 years a way of thinking has settled in that has caused the rot.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
45 of 47 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Dr Butler has written an book whose passion does nothing to take away from its cool-headed analysis. His demolition of the Blair/Brown years embraces not merely New Labour's well-known failings: spin over substance, the nanny and surveillance state, stealth taxes and wasted money, but illustrates the emptiness of its proudest boasts: "no return to boom and bust", "education, education, education", "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime".
He makes no bones that Blair and Brown built on weaknesses already present, in particular Britain's chronic over-centralisation, but also points to New Labour's doleful record of undermining checks on executive power in the civil service, parliament and elsewhere.
He concludes with a well-judged call for central government to retreat from responsibilities which it cannot discharge. His book is far better qualified to set a pre-election agenda (and far more moral) than Will Hutton's 1996 diatribe, from which it takes its name.
He makes no bones that Blair and Brown built on weaknesses already present, in particular Britain's chronic over-centralisation, but also points to New Labour's doleful record of undermining checks on executive power in the civil service, parliament and elsewhere.
He concludes with a well-judged call for central government to retreat from responsibilities which it cannot discharge. His book is far better qualified to set a pre-election agenda (and far more moral) than Will Hutton's 1996 diatribe, from which it takes its name.
40 of 42 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
On one level, this book wouldn't look out of place as an extended Daily Mail or Telegraph leader, albeit significantly better written than most. On another level, given the credentials of the author and his closeness to the affairs of government, it has to be taken as more than a reactionary rant or the sounding off of a golf club bore. Dr Butler has clearly thought this through and worked out his argument in fine detail, even allowing for his occasional divergences into personal diatribe.
What he expresses is what many of us sense, without access to the sources that he has to verify our instincts. It's a pretty damning condemnation of what has been a wretched and deeply wasteful regime. Not before time and not without very good reason.
I recently emigrated with my family from the UK to Germany. Aside from the personal reasons behind the move, at least a part of the final decision was made for us by the self-evidently parlous state of education, health and welfare provision in the UK. In short, it was obvious to us that (unless we were willing to take a chance on the local state schools - we weren't) a decent education for our son was going to cost us the thick end of 100K - money we neither had nor wished to invest in that way - that public health provision was a demonstrable shambles, and that any attempt we made to provide for a comfortable retirement was very less than certain to be successful. This much was blindingly obvious from personal experience, even without Dr Butler's informed analysis.
So we left, taking ten of thousands of pounds worth of UK tertiary education with us, for a country that has already achieved much of what Dr Butler puts on his wish list at the end of this intriguing book. Germany is run as a confederation of states, with strong local government and clear lines of accountability. It shows. Things work. On the face of it, taxation looks like it will cost us a similar amount to what we were used to paying in the UK, but I don't mind because it gives us excellent services. In the end, neither my wife nor I had the 50 years or so to wait for the UK to look across the Channel and apply some of the lessons offered by their European neighbours.
It isn't rocket science, nor, as Dr Butler points out, is change likely to happen any time soon, as long as the UK maintains a political system based entirely on interest groups and party politicking, miles removed from any sort of real public accountability - like losing your job if you mess up - and in service apparently exclusively to itself.
Dr Butler's book makes for a depressing if enlightening read. I found myself thinking 'it can't be this bad', but then looking to my own experiences and seeing the truth in what he said. In the end, if he is only half right, it's reason enough to march in the streets and get not a tweak to the current system, but root and branch reform. A timely message, but will it be heeded? Can it be?
What he expresses is what many of us sense, without access to the sources that he has to verify our instincts. It's a pretty damning condemnation of what has been a wretched and deeply wasteful regime. Not before time and not without very good reason.
I recently emigrated with my family from the UK to Germany. Aside from the personal reasons behind the move, at least a part of the final decision was made for us by the self-evidently parlous state of education, health and welfare provision in the UK. In short, it was obvious to us that (unless we were willing to take a chance on the local state schools - we weren't) a decent education for our son was going to cost us the thick end of 100K - money we neither had nor wished to invest in that way - that public health provision was a demonstrable shambles, and that any attempt we made to provide for a comfortable retirement was very less than certain to be successful. This much was blindingly obvious from personal experience, even without Dr Butler's informed analysis.
So we left, taking ten of thousands of pounds worth of UK tertiary education with us, for a country that has already achieved much of what Dr Butler puts on his wish list at the end of this intriguing book. Germany is run as a confederation of states, with strong local government and clear lines of accountability. It shows. Things work. On the face of it, taxation looks like it will cost us a similar amount to what we were used to paying in the UK, but I don't mind because it gives us excellent services. In the end, neither my wife nor I had the 50 years or so to wait for the UK to look across the Channel and apply some of the lessons offered by their European neighbours.
It isn't rocket science, nor, as Dr Butler points out, is change likely to happen any time soon, as long as the UK maintains a political system based entirely on interest groups and party politicking, miles removed from any sort of real public accountability - like losing your job if you mess up - and in service apparently exclusively to itself.
Dr Butler's book makes for a depressing if enlightening read. I found myself thinking 'it can't be this bad', but then looking to my own experiences and seeing the truth in what he said. In the end, if he is only half right, it's reason enough to march in the streets and get not a tweak to the current system, but root and branch reform. A timely message, but will it be heeded? Can it be?
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As Ian Dury would say..
What a waste of a country, what a waste of opportunity, what a waste of resources. Every taxpayer ought to realise what our government and Nu-Labour is actually doing with our money and how after more than a decade of the "schools and hospitals" mantra, they have delivered almost nothing of real value to our nation whilst spending untold billions in doing so.
Before I read this book I was laid back on infringement of civil liberties - after reading it I can only support the T-Shirt slogan which reads "1984 was a warning - it shouldn't be the Nu-Labour instruction manual".
What a waste of a country, what a waste of opportunity, what a waste of resources. Every taxpayer ought to realise what our government and Nu-Labour is actually doing with our money and how after more than a decade of the "schools and hospitals" mantra, they have delivered almost nothing of real value to our nation whilst spending untold billions in doing so.
Before I read this book I was laid back on infringement of civil liberties - after reading it I can only support the T-Shirt slogan which reads "1984 was a warning - it shouldn't be the Nu-Labour instruction manual".
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Daily Mail Supplement
This book could have come straight out the pages of the Daily Mail with its philosophy of public bad privatisation good. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Dav45
Excellent 'State of the UK'
A really good analysis of what is wrong with the UK, and some sensible ideas about how to put it right. Read more
Published 14 months ago by R. A. Chard
I am persuaded by this assessment of New Labour
This is essentially a very readable and pacey summary of how New Labout went about destroying valuable aspects of British life with their over-regulation, incompetence, bad... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Neil Kernohan
Who left him in charge?
An excellent book really, on an important subject. We know historically that every time a Labour administration leaves office, it leaves a mess and the 'New Labour' of Blair and... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Ian Cook
Book review -- Rotten State of Britain
Very informative, a frightening indictment of just how our politicians cannot be trusted with money and doing what is right for this country. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Colin Tyler
Diagnosis Not Cure
This is one of a number of books heavily and, in my view, justly critical of the Blair-Brown years, others which come to mind being Fantasy Island, The Gods That Failed and, from a... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Ian Millard
Makes some good and insightful points
I enjoyed reading this book, not because it taught me anything new particularly, but simply because it tells-it-like-it-is. Read more
Published on 21 May 2010 by Keith
Mixed bag
A worryingly high number of good points, diluted by a tendency towards unreasonable rants (even New Labour wasn't uniformly wrong or bad), and the whole let down by terribly sloppy... Read more
Published on 10 May 2010 by Picky reader
Not as good as 'Squandered' or 'Fleeced'
An OK book, but didn't seem particularly original. Personally, I found 'Squandered: How Gordon Brown is wasting over one trillion pounds of our money' and 'Fleeced' by David Craig... Read more
Published on 6 April 2010 by manager
It really just comes over as abit of a rant
I got this book because of the title and wanting to know just how bad this Labour Government is.
What I got was a book that was simply a rant with a few facts thrown in. Read more
What I got was a book that was simply a rant with a few facts thrown in. Read more
Published on 2 Feb 2010 by C. Hutchinson
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