What a brilliant book! I am really impressed by how well Owen Jones knows his stuff!
Jones deals with the key elements of the establishment (mainstream political parties, think tanks, the media, the police force), and one of his key themes is the revolving door between these different elements, with key players moving from one to another and sometimes back again.
I found the history lesson in chapter one particularly interesting, about how an initially tiny number of, at the time, ‘ideological pariahs’: free-market thinkers who believed that the social-democratic consensus which characterised the decades after the Second World War (involving for example considerable state intervention in the economy, a 75% top rate of income tax and public ownership of key industries and utilities) was misguided and set out to reverse this ‘socialist ratchet’. In the 1970s, many free-market think tanks were founded, these developed and disseminated ideas that would later become not only the cornerstones of Thatcherism, but moreover a new ‘common sense’.
In later chapters, Jones turns on its head the notion that we now live in a society of truly free market capitalism: ‘British capitalism is completely dependent on the largesse of the state’ and ‘free-market ideology is often little more than a front for placing public assets in private hands at the expense of society’. The state provides the infrastructure without which companies simply could not function, gives massive subsidies to business, tops up low wages and spends £24 billion per year on housing benefit, much of which goes to private landlords (among whom can be found a number of MPs). Interestingly, Jones makes the point that it is not only left-wingers who are critical of this ‘socialism for the rich’; libertarian right-wingers acknowledge it too and in the course of his research Jones spoke to Douglas Carswell (now UKIP’s sole MP). Yet it is poorer members of society receiving social security benefits who are widely portrayed by the mainstream media and many politicians as ‘scroungers’, as a drain on the hard-working taxpayer.
Jones also discusses corporate tax avoidance, as well as Britain’s financial sector, the background to the 2008 financial collapse and the subsequent state bailout of the banks, which of course lends support to his claim that ‘Risk and debt have become nationalized, and carried by the population, while the profitable elements are privatized’.
There is loads that I could write about this book, but I haven’t got time to and anyway it’s best to read it for yourself. I do not know how useful this book would be for those seeking a really academic study of ‘the establishment’, but I’m pretty sure that this is not Owen Jones’ target audience. ‘The Establishment’ is an absolute ‘must have’ for the general reader who has an interest in politics or society, or for anyone who simply wonders why their opinions don’t seem to be represented by mainstream politicians (maybe this will change now that someone from outside ‘the establishment’ has been elected Labour leader!). I think the book needed better editing but my only other criticism would be that, in my opinion, Jones is too hard on the police; although mentioning at the start of chapter four that the police keep members of the public safe, sometimes by placing themselves in danger (and indeed providing a short anecdote in support of this from the chairman of the Police Federation), he does not give sufficient weight to this and to the fact that by far the majority of individual police officers are just ‘ordinary’ men and women trying to do the best job they possibly can in circumstances that are frequently challenging. Other than this, I can’t recommend this book highly enough – thanks so much Owen Jones for letting us know what’s really going on!
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From the Publisher
About the author
A British Revolution
If you enjoy this book then read Paul Twivy's " Be Your Own Politician" which tackles how we can create true democracy in the UK: a British revolution.
Top reviews from United Kingdom
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- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 October 2015
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 September 2015
Top reviews from other countries
- Amazon KundeReviewed in Germany on 3 December 2015
A brilliant analysis of the crackdown on social democracy ... compulsory reading.
- MReviewed in Canada on 27 October 2019
Great representation of politics and corporate corruption.
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