Society & Politics

Since leaving office in 2007, the empire of Tony Blair has grown exponentially. As a businessman he has been unprecedentedly successful (read more)

Since leaving office in 2007, the empire of Tony Blair has grown exponentially. As a businessman he has been unprecedentedly successful for a former public servant, with a large property portfolio and an estimated GBP80 million of earnings accrued in just a few short years. But how has he managed to achieve this? Being an ex-Prime Minister comes with certain advantages, and besides his excellent state pension and twenty-four-hour security team, Blair enjoys the best contacts that money can buy - as do those willing to pay him for access to those contacts.

Consequently, Tony Blair Associates' clients can be found around the world, and include the controversial presidents of Kazakhstan and Burma. There is also Blair's role as special envoy in the Middle East. While his record as a peacemaker is in doubt, the position has brought him into contact with a variety of oil-rich potentates in the region who now number among his most profitable clients. (hide)

Tony Blair has dominated British political life for more than a decade. Like Margaret Thatcher before him, he has changed the terms (read more)

Tony Blair has dominated British political life for more than a decade. Like Margaret Thatcher before him, he has changed the terms of political debate and provoked as much condemnation as admiration. At the end of his era in power, this book presents a wide-ranging overview of the achievements and failures of the Blair governments.

Bringing together Britain's most eminent academics and commentators on British politics and society, it examines the effect of the Prime Minister and his administration on the machinery of government, economic and social policy and foreign relations. Combining serious scholarship with clarity and accessibility, this book represents the authoritative verdict on the impact of the Blair years on British politics and society. (hide)

The past decade saw the rise of the British National Party, the country's most successful ever far-right political movement, and (read more)

The past decade saw the rise of the British National Party, the country's most successful ever far-right political movement, and the emergence of the anti-Islamic English Defence League. Taking aim at asylum seekers, Muslims, "enforced multiculturalism" and benefit "scroungers", these groups have been working overtime to shift the blame for the nation's ills onto the shoulders of the vulnerable. What does this extremist resurgence say about the state of modern Britain? Drawing on archival research and extensive interviews with key figures, such as BNP leader Nick Griffin, Daniel Trilling shows how previously marginal characters from a tiny neo-Nazi subculture successfully exploited tensions exacerbated by the fear of immigration, the War on Terror and steepening economic inequality.

Mainstream politicians have consistently underestimated the far right in Britain while pursuing policies that give it the space to grow. Bloody Nasty People calls time on this complacency in an account that provides us with fresh insights into the dynamics of political extremism. (hide)

HOW COULD THIS HAVE HAPPENED? On 23 June 2016, UK voters elected to leave the European Union. The result was perhaps the biggest (read more)

HOW COULD THIS HAVE HAPPENED? On 23 June 2016, UK voters elected to leave the European Union. The result was perhaps the biggest bombshell in modern British political history. In this new and updated edition of Denis MacShane's bestselling history of the UK's relationship with Europe, the former Europe Minister reveals the full story behind Britain's historic EU Referendum decision.

Denis MacShane was the only senior Remainer to havecalled the EU Referendum result correctly and his book provides the essential context to the new political and economic landscape of Brexit Britain. (hide)

WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN THE TIES ARE CUT?Whatever view you take on Brexit, innovative ideas are needed to thrive. The UK needs to get (read more)

WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN THE TIES ARE CUT?Whatever view you take on Brexit, innovative ideas are needed to thrive. The UK needs to get itself into shape. This book suggests how.

We consider radical ideas to reform the voting system, transform the economy via a whole range of initiatives, including a sovereign wealth fund, drastically improve health, welfare and education provision and secure Britain's place in a fast-changing world. Most commentaries criticise what others do. Britain Post Brexit spells out what needs to be done.

Published:26 Nov 2018 (hide)

After a decade as Conservative Party leader and six years as Prime Minister, he remains an enigma to those outside his exclusive (read more)

After a decade as Conservative Party leader and six years as Prime Minister, he remains an enigma to those outside his exclusive inner circle.Now, in the wake of his dramatic resignation following the sensational EU referendum campaign, this new edition of the book that 'got the world talking' (Daily Mail ) revisits the real David Cameron, bringing the story of his premiership to its final chapter.Based on hundreds of interviews with colleagues past and present, friends and foes, this unauthorised biography charts Cameron's path from a blissful childhood in rural Berkshire through to the most powerful office in the country, giving a fascinating insight into his most intriguing relationships, both political and personal.Exploring the highs and lows of his administration, from his brush with disaster over the Scottish question and his humiliation over Syria to his surprise election victory in 2015 and his controversial win on gay marriage, this fully updated edition offers a comprehensive assessment of Cameron's legacy in office, weighing up the extraordinary achievements of Britain's youngest Prime Minister for 200 years. (hide)

Five years in the making, 'Cameron at 10' is the gripping inside story of the Cameron premiership, based on over 300 in-depth interviews (read more)

Five years in the making, 'Cameron at 10' is the gripping inside story of the Cameron premiership, based on over 300 in-depth interviews with senior figures in 10 Downing Street, including the Prime Minister himself. As dusk descended on 11 May 2010, David Cameron entered 10 Downing Street as the youngest prime minister since Lord Liverpool in 1812. He stood at the head of the first Coalition government in 65 years, with the country in dire economic straits following a deep financial crisis.

From the early heady days of the Rose Garden partnership with the Liberal Democrats to the most bitterly contested general election in years, 'Cameron at 10' highlights forty dramatic moments in an exceptionally turbulent period in British politics. The book contains all the highs and lows on the domestic front as well as providing revealing insights into the Prime Minister's relationships with foreign leaders, particularly the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Barack Obama. With unprecedented access to the 'inner circle' of politicians and civil servants that surround the Prime Minister, from Chancellor George Osborne and former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to all of Cameron's personal team, this is the most intimate account of a serving prime minister that has ever been published. (hide)

Note that we are cheaper than Amazon for this popular title.What are the grand dynamics that drive the accumulation and distribution (read more)

Note that we are cheaper than Amazon for this popular title.What are the grand dynamics that drive the accumulation and distribution of capital? Questions about the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for economic growth lie at the heart of political economy. But satisfactory answers have been hard to find for lack of adequate data and clear guiding theories. In Capital in the Twenty-First Century, "Thomas Piketty analyzes a unique collection of data from twenty countries, ranging as far back as the eighteenth century, to uncover key economic and social patterns. His findings will transform debate and set the agenda for the next generation of thought about wealth and inequality. Piketty shows that modern economic growth and the diffusion of knowledge have allowed us to avoid inequalities on the apocalyptic scale predicted by Karl Marx. But we have not modified the deep structures of capital and inequality as much as we thought in the optimistic decades following World War II. (hide)

In Science, no-one believes the earth is flat any more. Economists, on the other hand, haven't budged from their original worldview. (read more)

In Science, no-one believes the earth is flat any more. Economists, on the other hand, haven't budged from their original worldview. Market Capitalism depends on seven big ideas: competition, the 'invisible hand', utility, agency theory, pricing, shareholder value, and limited liability. These served the world well in the past, but over the years they have become cancerous, and are slowly killing the system as a whole.

Eve Poole argues that if you zoom in on any of these firm foundations, they start to blur and wobble. Here she offers alternative views for a healthier system. And looking at them together, it becomes clear why we're so stuck. The capitalist system masquerades as a machine programmed by experts, with only Economists and Governments qualified to tinker with it.

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Companion to the major new BBC documentary series CIVILISATIONS, presented by Mary Beard, David Olusoga and Simon SchamaThe idea (read more)

Companion to the major new BBC documentary series CIVILISATIONS, presented by Mary Beard, David Olusoga and Simon SchamaThe idea of 'civilisation' has always been debated, even fought over. At the heart of those debates lies the big question of how people - from prehistory to the present day - have depicted themselves and others, both human and divine. Distinguished historian Mary Beard explores how art has shaped, and been shaped by, the people who created it.

How have we looked at these images? Why have they sometimes been so contentious? In Part One, she examines how the human figure was portrayed in some of the earliest art in the world - from the gigantic stone heads carved by the Olmec of Central America to the statues and pottery of the ancient Greeks to the terracotta army of the first emperor of China. And she explains how one particular version of representing the human body, which goes back to the ancient world, still influences (and sometimes distorts) how people in the West see their own culture and that of others. Throughout this story, she is concerned not only with the artists who made images, but with those who have used them, viewed them and interpreted them. (hide)