Cruel Britannia [Hardcover]

Nick Cohen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1999

A coruscating barrage on Tony Blair's New Labour, from the celebrated Observer columnist.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A leftist British journalist, Cohen is the kind of writer who must relish making enemies. British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Labor Party cohorts are his main targets in this collection of columns on politics and society that were previously published in the British press, mostly in the Observer. Cohen's big issue is that Blair's New Labor has mimicked its Conservative Thatcherite predecessors. As he writes in his introduction: "The same themes kept being heard, the same vices were displayed, only the suits were different." Cohen's caustic tone indicates that he feels personally betrayed that Blair's government hasn't adhered to the unionist politics that Cohen obviously favors. With the class-based anger that is a tradition in England, he also takes on the legal system, psychologists and the media. Occasionally, as in a piece criticizing Britain's unwillingness to impose trade sanctions on Burma's military regime for its support of the drug trade, Cohen hits his mark. As often as not, however, his razor pen misses, as in a McCarthyesque column excoriating Labor for hiring an economic consultant who once worked for the CIA. To most readers, the sum total of these columns will add up to a dogmatic voice from the leftist wilderness. Of course, a minority will relish the questions he raises, and more than a minority will take pleasure from the sharpest jottings of his poison pen. But even Americans who share his views (and those who feel toward Bill Clinton the way Cohen feels toward Blair) will have to be avid followers of British politics and society to fully appreciate this collection. (Aug.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Readers looking for a fresh perspective on contemporary Britain should run, not walk, to find this new book. Cohen, a columnist for the Observer in London, is a spirited essayist, and his pieces on the foibles and hypocrisies of Tony Blair's Labour government are brimming with wit and insight. Cohen is certainly no fan of the current prime minister or his entourage, which he describes as a "bickering and faintly risible elite, whose ranks are filled with old Thatcherites, downsizing executives, aging media monopolists and New Labour modernizers smelling slightly stale after less than two years in power." Elsewhere, he says that the "British elite may not govern wisely, but if you cover its absurdities it brings moments of exultant pleasure." These sharp jabs are accompanied by incisive forays into crime, corruption, public policy, and the judicial process, drawing on extensive research. This is the sort of collection that can restore a reader's faith in journalism. Recommended for all libraries.AKent Worcester, Marymount Manhattan Coll., New York
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Verso Books (July 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 185984720X
• ISBN-13: 978-1859847206
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,231,951 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nick Cohen always has to be worth reading., June 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Cruel Britannia (Hardcover)

Nick Cohen has the keenest and most cynical of insights. He is not a journalist who can be cosied along, or made to "dance".

Given his unwelcome and sensational revelations, the establishment - speaking broadly - quite understandably hates him to a serious degree in high circles, and his continued survival can only be attributed to his increasing public profile.

Watch this man. He's a danger to all the myths we hold dear.

(His columns have also made The Observer worth reading again.)

No wonder the wonks in Labour hate this man. Cohen has rumbled them.

-Glenn.

4.0 out of 5 stars Savage dissection of Blairism, August 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Cruel Britannia (Hardcover)

This is a savage dissection of Blairism from the Left. It should be read in conjunction with Hal Colebatch's Blair's Britain (Claridge Press), which comes from the conservative side but in a strange way compliments it. The two authors would probably disagree with each other's priorities but both see cruelty, social destruction and nihilism behind the smiling mask of Blair's "Third Way." Between them they cover the field.