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Product Description
Review
Under New Labour there were two governments: one official, one largely hidden. The other government belonged to Gordon Brown. Now Steve Richards has created a unique biography of that administration – and a brilliant and understanding portrait of a huge political figure, his personal weaknesses and immense strengths. In so doing Richards, easily one of our best commentators, uncovers the unfashionable truth that politics sometimes matters as much as personalities.
DAVID AARONOVITCH
This book has been a long time coming, but it's well worth the wait. Steve Richards is quite simply one of the best in the business. His mix of criticism and compassion has produced the most intelligent take yet on the strange world of Gordon Brown and New Labour.
JOHN KAMPFNER
Product Description
The definitive account of New Labour's rise and fall.
On 11 May 2010 Gordon Brown resigned as Prime Minister; it marked the end of thirteen dramatic years of Labour government. When he finally released his grip on power, many questions remained about the most intriguing and complex political figure of modern times and co-architect of New Labour. Leading commentator Steve Richards watched every step of the stormy political journey from 1992, when Brown became shadow chancellor, to the day he left Number Ten, and narrates it here for the first time.
Steve Richards has gained access to all levels of Westminster to explain this complex party and its leadership, reflecting on the outcome of the 2010 general election and what the fall of New Labour means for our nation’s political future.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Whether you are student of politics, a fan or not fan of Gordon Brown, or whether you just want to understand a period of British political history, with ramifications which have unfolded and some yet to unfold especially in the light of the new government, or any other reasons that spark your curiosity about this book, I would boldly say that this is compelling and essential reading.
Also, given that Steve Richards has had various contact and conversations with architects of New Labour, and the fact that this book covers events and analysis of them from around 1992 to the loss of the general election of 2010 and formation of a coalition government, and giving the reader a crucial recounting, insight into and analysis of events, personalities (Mr Brown especially) and their thoughts and actions, all make this book central to being able to understand not just what happened, some reasons and interpretations (fair and unbiased ones at that, in my opinion) but also central to appreciating the books that have been written by the various architects of the NL years, their fans and detractors too, with a much more enlightened mind.
It's an important bonus to the reader that Mr Richards also gives a quite in-depth retelling and insight into the days post-GE2010 and formation of coalition, which to me is a much more honest and less biased version than the book by, somewhat disgraced, David Laws on the subject. Laws' text is always going to be tinged with a sense of self and political interest by him, whether true or just perceived, that to me it is difficult to take seriously as unbiased.
There are so many other events covered in the book, be it aftermath of death of John Smith, the falling out between Mandelson/Blair and Brown, the global financial crisis, and so on, which together with the style of writing make "whatever it takes" compelling reading.
Enthusiastically recommended
Also, given that Steve Richards has had various contact and conversations with architects of New Labour, and the fact that this book covers events and analysis of them from around 1992 to the loss of the general election of 2010 and formation of a coalition government, and giving the reader a crucial recounting, insight into and analysis of events, personalities (Mr Brown especially) and their thoughts and actions, all make this book central to being able to understand not just what happened, some reasons and interpretations (fair and unbiased ones at that, in my opinion) but also central to appreciating the books that have been written by the various architects of the NL years, their fans and detractors too, with a much more enlightened mind.
It's an important bonus to the reader that Mr Richards also gives a quite in-depth retelling and insight into the days post-GE2010 and formation of coalition, which to me is a much more honest and less biased version than the book by, somewhat disgraced, David Laws on the subject. Laws' text is always going to be tinged with a sense of self and political interest by him, whether true or just perceived, that to me it is difficult to take seriously as unbiased.
There are so many other events covered in the book, be it aftermath of death of John Smith, the falling out between Mandelson/Blair and Brown, the global financial crisis, and so on, which together with the style of writing make "whatever it takes" compelling reading.
Enthusiastically recommended
26 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a must-buy for anybody who wants to cut through the spin, hyperbole and justification of the many autobiographies (and biographies) of the New Labour years for a serious analysis of what happened and why. Steve Richards - columnist ofr the Independent - had been talking to Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and those around them since the birth of New Labour and charts the following 16 years in terms of policy and belief.
He compares the ideology-light Blair with the socially-committed but personally flawed Brown. Examining the two men and how they governed - both more terrified of criticism from the right than plaudits for actual achievements.
We see Gordon Brown as neither a hero nor the man who stopped the march of New Labour. Richards recalls the early days of the Brown-Blair partnership inder both Neil Kinnock and John Smith when the Scotsman we now recall as ham-fisted and unable to use the modern media could dance around his TV interviews as Labour's young star and future leader. When Blair takes the leadership, Brown buries himself in working up policies for government - already waiting for his turn at the top.
And so we have the years of the Blair government with Brown looking for poverty reduction strategies that the Daily Mail will not notice and Blair becoming increasingly market-oriented and playing for good headlines. Always in the background is the festering sore of Brown waiting impatiently to be leader.
After broken promises and attempted coups, Brown comes to power with a divided party and a public hungry for change from the spinning of New Labour. He can shine through floods, terrorist attacks and foot and mouth and his popularity soars. Yet after encouraging media talk of an early election, then announcing that ducking out of it had nothing to do with disappointing polls, public and journalists realised the talk of new politics and change was a sham. When the global credit crunch hits, Brown sears he will do anything it takes to stave it off and Richards postulates that his actions and international influence brought us out of it. But nothing could save Brown from election defeat.
This book should be a mandatory text for all politics students interested in the complexities of how and why both Blair's New Labour and Gordon Brown disappointed all but their fiecest cheerleaders.
He compares the ideology-light Blair with the socially-committed but personally flawed Brown. Examining the two men and how they governed - both more terrified of criticism from the right than plaudits for actual achievements.
We see Gordon Brown as neither a hero nor the man who stopped the march of New Labour. Richards recalls the early days of the Brown-Blair partnership inder both Neil Kinnock and John Smith when the Scotsman we now recall as ham-fisted and unable to use the modern media could dance around his TV interviews as Labour's young star and future leader. When Blair takes the leadership, Brown buries himself in working up policies for government - already waiting for his turn at the top.
And so we have the years of the Blair government with Brown looking for poverty reduction strategies that the Daily Mail will not notice and Blair becoming increasingly market-oriented and playing for good headlines. Always in the background is the festering sore of Brown waiting impatiently to be leader.
After broken promises and attempted coups, Brown comes to power with a divided party and a public hungry for change from the spinning of New Labour. He can shine through floods, terrorist attacks and foot and mouth and his popularity soars. Yet after encouraging media talk of an early election, then announcing that ducking out of it had nothing to do with disappointing polls, public and journalists realised the talk of new politics and change was a sham. When the global credit crunch hits, Brown sears he will do anything it takes to stave it off and Richards postulates that his actions and international influence brought us out of it. But nothing could save Brown from election defeat.
This book should be a mandatory text for all politics students interested in the complexities of how and why both Blair's New Labour and Gordon Brown disappointed all but their fiecest cheerleaders.
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
At last a book on New Labour that tells me what really happened and examines fairly the motives that drove Blair and Brown. I have read virtually every book on the New Labour era. This one is the best as it challenges so many current assumptions and orthodoxies. Perhaps it is a bit too long, but it is worth reading to the very end as each pages sheds new light on such recent history.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Whatever it takes
a well researched history of the man, as you would expect,in a sober style which makes you realise that very few of these polititians have any real sense of the fact that they are... Read more
Published 15 months ago by LUCKY
Hell, tha's a Gordon fer me, whatever
There's one side of a coin, and there's the other.
Richards plumbs down into the depths of the tectonic plates movements circa 2010,
with an insight and subtlety of grasp... Read more
Richards plumbs down into the depths of the tectonic plates movements circa 2010,
with an insight and subtlety of grasp... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Ladybeth
Outstanding
As one of those sad cases who devours all of the new current affairs books as they are published I have to say that this book is far and away the best I have come across on Gordon... Read more
Published 18 months ago by David Fuller
Knowledge of Scottish geography needed-or more accurate research.
I mostly enjoyed this book- which made me feel rather more sympathetic to Gordon Brown than I had before. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Dalgety
Compelling reading -- revelatory
I came to this book with the usual preconceptions about Brown and his entourage -- but I was gripped by a narrative which comes across as completely evenhanded and yes, revelatory. Read more
Published 18 months ago by RebeccaM
Enlightenment
I enjoyed this book though it confirmed my poor opinion of politicians. It is well written in straitforward prose. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Mrs. Susan Black
Ponderous
Having reached Chapter Five p 147 I'm beginning to flag a little. It's starting to feel rather like the sort of book you had to complete at school or university. Read more
Published 19 months ago by enthusiast
A Slightly Overdue Balancing
Steve Richards book is, as well as being a absorbing account of the Gordon Brown premiership, a slightly overdue balance to the slew of memoirs, accounts and self serving Blair... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Samuel BC McAusland
Whatever it takes
This is the third book about the Labour government I've read lately and I have mixed views.
I think the level of research and access Steve Richards has achieved means that... Read more
I think the level of research and access Steve Richards has achieved means that... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Ms Anne C. Dickson
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