Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 Superb April 11, 2008
Mike_Brighton (Nr. Brighton, England)
27 out of 30 found this review helpful
A coruscating review of all New Labours works since 1997 and how they have squandered an eye-popping 1.2 trillion (50,000 per family, and counting) implementing its promises of 1997 to transform our hospitals, schools, police, pensions and social services.
A government that in 2008 seems to be making similar promises to that it made in 1997, except forgetting the epic scale of spending over its period in office that in truth appears to have delivered very little other than a vast and self-regarding bureaucracy.
Every page drips with contempt for New Labour and it's architect that currently sits in No.10. Read this and it is unlikely you'll vote Labour at the next election.
New Labour autopsy makes grisly but compelling reading May 10, 2008
K. T. O'Reilly (SE London)
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
Since the recent local elections, there's been much speculation about why New Labour got the sort of pounding normally reserved for Rocky Balboa's opponents. The answer lies inside this book. David Craig lays out in painstaking detail just how we've been taxed so punishingly and why all that money has had little or no effect on improving our country. It's a splendidly researched book. Even as a veteran Private Eye reader, I found plenty here I wasn't aware of.
I know, I know - you're thinking this could easily be dry and boring, it's about politics and economics after all but I promise you it's anything but boring. Craig's prose is very readable and he makes you laugh loud and often, usually with disbelief at how our money is indeed being squandered. The chapters on the EU and the fate of half our gold reserves will make your jaw hit the floor. Other parts of the book, those dealing with the treatment of the elderly, patients in the NHS and our troops fighting Blair's wars will make you want to throw something.
As the previous reviewer said, this is not Tory propaganda - Craig is quite scathing about the Tories in places. His opinions seem neither left nor right wing really. He argues against pointless government expansion and pointless privatisation with equal gusto, demonstrating how both waste our money. You may not always agree with him on everything but he makes his points well. His main point is of course that New Labour has been a disaster for this country. It would take an extremely loyal and self-deluded New Labour fan (probably with the last names Blair or Brown) to finish this book and disagree with him.
So That's Where My Pension Went ! April 29, 2008
Black Prince (England)
19 out of 21 found this review helpful
In the 1970s there was a seminal work by Bacon & Eltis "Britain's Economic Problem: Too Few Producers" which showed how much superstructure was crushing a weak productive base. Now we get to see what happens when the Bureaucratic Monolith starts sucking pension funds dry and stealth-taxing because business has migrated to tax havens or manufacturing to China.
We are being treated to the Soviet Phenomenon of top-heavy bureaucracy sucking the lifeblood from the populace and enslaving them to service The State. This book shows how out-of-control The Executive is in Britain, and how democratic control and accountability does not exist at ANY level of government or public administration.
The political parties are simply fronts for The Bureaucracy and it is like Norman Seigneurs plundering a conquered island.
Not a political diatribe May 8, 2008
Freddie Firework (Bournemouth, UK)
14 out of 16 found this review helpful
There's a strong temptation to think that this book is simply a right-wing attack on New Labour. I think it's much more intelligent than that and, believe me, you will be shocked, saddened and maddened at some of its content. We all sense, from time to time, that our political masters are losing their grip on the real world: this book proves just how out of touch Gordon and his cronies are and how they are presiding over a system that rewards blatant incompetence.
This book should should be on the 'essential' reading list of all students studying politics, economics, history.
No, strike that: it should be read by every voting adult in the UK.
It can't be true but it is April 27, 2008
Michael Watson (Elland, England)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
Everyone should read this book before voting this coming week. The numbers are eye-popping and it's our money we no longer have, thanks to the complete ineptitude of the present government.
Everyone should read it but, if you do, you'll wish you hadn't! It's pointless to quote from the book. some of the figures are so huge, mere mortal taxpayers couldn't grasp what the government has done, followed by a perfect attempt to confuse the public into believing we should be grateful.
Someone I know recommended this book. I wish he hadn't. I should have nightmares thinking this lot might be re-elected.
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