'90s Britain
It isn't a bad book but ultimately I found it frustrating and unsatisfying. He uses the memoirs of the politicians of the day well and I suppose I'm grateful that he's read Major, Currie, Brandreth et al so that we don't have to. Every Tony Blair quote does not achieve the presidential tone Blair was aiming for, but ends up sounding something more likely to be uttered by Alan Partridge.
I felt the pop culture stuff was weak and frequently read more like a list of things to be glossed over and if there is a limit an author should feel it necessary to produce a quote from Drop The Dead Donkey then Turner hasn't recognised it.
No problem with the hammering of New Labour as being in existence merely to win elections but pointing out their vacuity is hardly a revelation. There's no real narrative, no real conclusions and in his eagerness to put it to Blair he ends up being far too charitable to the Tories, citing sleaze so as to make it seem like media froth when he should be more bothered not by the sex but by the blatant corruption. Edit - as Sw2 articulated far better above!
Ultimately it just felt a rather lightweight book on a strange decade which will undoubtedly be bettered.
It isn't a bad book but ultimately I found it frustrating and unsatisfying. He uses the memoirs of the politicians of the day well and I suppose I'm grateful that he's read Major, Currie, Brandreth et al so that we don't have to. Every Tony Blair quote does not achieve the presidential tone Blair was aiming for, but ends up sounding something more likely to be uttered by Alan Partridge.
I felt the pop culture stuff was weak and frequently read more like a list of things to be glossed over and if there is a limit an author should feel it necessary to produce a quote from Drop The Dead Donkey then Turner hasn't recognised it.
No problem with the hammering of New Labour as being in existence merely to win elections but pointing out their vacuity is hardly a revelation. There's no real narrative, no real conclusions and in his eagerness to put it to Blair he ends up being far too charitable to the Tories, citing sleaze so as to make it seem like media froth when he should be more bothered not by the sex but by the blatant corruption. Edit - as Sw2 articulated far better above!
Ultimately it just felt a rather lightweight book on a strange decade which will undoubtedly be bettered.
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