A unflinching audit of the damage done by fourteen years of Conservative government.
What went wrong with Britain? presents a comprehensive account of the devastating legacy left by the Conservative government. Shining a light into every dark corner, the book exposes the full extent of the damage inflicted on the country’s economy, social fabric and political integrity.
When the Conservatives were voted out of government in July 2024, they left behind a miserable record of rising poverty, inequality and division. This book reveals the forces that have driven the country to the point of crisis, from austerity and economic mismanagement to sheer political dysfunction. Each chapter offers new insights into the far-reaching consequences of government policies that prioritised ideology, personal ambition and party politics over the public good.
Examining the rise of populism, the politics of Brexit, the UK’s response to the pandemic and the steady erosion of public trust, this shocking account of the legacy of Conservative government from 2010 to 2024 is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand exactly what went wrong with Britain.
This book provides an audit of fourteen years of Conservative government in Britain, from 2010 to 2024. It examines the rise of populism, the politics of Brexit, the UK’s response to the pandemic and the steady erosion of public trust.
Arvustused
Passionate, provocative and timely an excoriating across-the-board audit from an impressive line-up of experts and an indispensable resource for anyone who cares about our country and hopes to see it change for the better. Tim Bale, author of The Conservative Party after Brexit
Inspired, as the authors admit, by frustration and despair, this book nevertheless provides important and acute analytical assessments of what went wrong under the Conservatives. Anand Menon, co-author of Brexit and British Politics
A uniquely comprehensive guide to the ruins that are collapsing all around us. The evidence collected in the book is so powerful that, as its conclusion argues, we now have only one course of action: to end the domination of a financial oligarchy whose extreme wealth is founded on the tragedies described so systematically here. David Whyte, author of Ecocide: Kill the Corporation Before It Kills Us -- .
Introduction: what went wrong with Britain? Steven Kettell, Peter Kerr
and Daniela Tepe
1 Talking the country up, talking the country down Matthew Watson
2 Missing the crisis? James Morrison
3 Covid, Brexit and the emergence of national populism Owen Worth
4 The UKs chronic territorial condition Jonathan Bradbury
5 The crisis in our NHS pre- and post-Covid Allyson M. Pollock, James
Lancaster and Louisa Harding Edgar
6 Who cares about care? Juanita Elias, Ruth Pearson and Shirin M. Rai
7 Social care or social harm? Tamsin Bowers-Brown, Andrew Brierley and
Alexander Nunn
8 Cracks in the food system Claire Thompson, Dianna Smith and Laura
Hamilton
9 What happened to all the anti-racists? John Narayan
10 Gender, austerity and crisis in an age of catastrophe Frankie Rogan and
Emma Foster
11 The Conservatives and the climate crisis Neil Carter
12 The politics of debt and perpetual crisis Johnna Montgomerie
13 Brexit and the crisis of British democracy Jonathan Hopkin
14 Fighting back? David Bailey
15 Security in Britain today Lee Jarvis and Michael Lister
16 Whats wrong with Britain and whats Britain got to do with it? Colin
Hay
Index -- .
Steven Kettell is a Reader in Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick. He is a founder and co-executive editor of the journal British Politics.
Peter Kerr is an Associate Professor in Politics at the University of Birmingham. He is a founder and co-executive editor of the journal British Politics.
Daniela Tepe is a Senior Lecturer in Political Economy at the University of Liverpool. Her recent publications include The Fault Lines of Inequality and the Politics of Financialization (2022). -- .
