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'Enormously readable...excellent' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times 'A superb piece of thorough journalism' David Aaronovitch, The Times Nigel Farage is arguably one of the most influential British politicians of the 21st century. His campaign to take the UK out of the EU began as a minority and extreme point of view, but in June 2016 it became the official policy of the nation after a divisive referendum. In Michael Crick's brilliant new biography, One Party After Another, we find out how he did it, despite never once managing to get elected to Parliament. Farage left public school at the age of 16 to go and work in the City, but in the 1990s he was drawn into politics, joining UKIP. Ironical...
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When it was originally published in 1984, Michael Crick's treatise on the Militant tendency was widely acclaimed as a masterly work of investigative journalism, and although the rise of Jeremy Corbyn can be attributed more to the phenomenon of 'Corbynmania' than to hard-left entrism, to some within the party, Crick's ground-breaking book must seem like a lesson from history. Updated and expanded, Crick explores the origins, organisation and aims of Militant, the secret Trotskyite organisation that operated clandestinely within the Labour Party, edging out adversaries at grass-roots level and recruiting people to its own ranks, which, at its peak in the mid-1980s, swelled to around 8,000 members. Whilst eventually most of its leaders were expelled, it caused damaging rifts within the party and closed the door to Downing Street for almost a generation.
Ferguson's own autobiography was a great bestseller on its publication in 1999. But Fergie's book told the story through only one pair of eyes. Now, Michael Crick, acclaimed biographer of Jeffrey Archer, writes the first fully rounded, independent portrait of Sir Alex. From his roots as a Govan trade unionist to the current peaks of world football, Crick applies the same forensic skills he applied to his study of the disgraced Tory peer. Through hundreds of interviews with those who've known and worked with Sir Alex, and delving back through the archives, Michael Crick explores the money and the politics of football, the bust-ups, the fights, and those memorable moments of glory. Charismatic...
Sir David Butler pioneered the science of elections, transforming the way we analyse election results. In 1945, aged only twenty, Butler was the first to turn British constituency results into percentages, and thereby founded the science of psephology. Appearing as an expert on Britain's first TV election night in 1950, he promoted the idea of 'swing' to explain gains and losses to the public. Later, he invented the BBC's popular Swingometer, which is still used today. He has publicly analysed every British general election since the Second World War, and done more than anyone to transform TV coverage of elections, with a style that combined authority and showmanship with his phenomenal memo...
Both serious and witty at the same time, this text covers key matters in Heseltine's life from the suicide of his great grandfather to the struggle to become Prime Minister. It takes in his upbringing in South Wales, his career at Oxford, his business career and of course all the political events.
Michael Howard has never been far from controversy in his twenty-two years in Parliament. Under Margaret Thatcher he introduced the poll tax, water privatisation and the notorious Clause 28. Later he was one of the most unpopular Home Secretaries of modern times, decried by his deputy Ann Widdecombe for having 'something of the night' about him. By 1997 Howard looked dead politically. Then a dramatic comeback propelled him to the Tory leadership. Michael Crick explores Michael Howard's complicated background -- the son of Jewish immigrants who settled in South Wales. As a member of the Cambridge Tory Mafia he once flirted with Labour, only to become a fervent Thatcherite and Eurosceptic -- but what does he really believe? Based on more than 400 interviews and extensive research, Michael Crick presents a rivetingly revealing look at the man who aspires to overturn Labour's massive majority at the next election.
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It is often said that the first rule of politics is never to resign. It seems, however, that Britain's leaders have all too often failed - or refused - to heed this sage advice. Fighters and Quitters charts the scandals, controversies and cock-ups that obliterated dreams of high office: from the ex-minister who faked his death in the 1970s, to Geoffrey Howe's plot to topple Margaret Thatcher in the 1990s, Chris Huhne's journey from despatch box to jail cell in 2013 and up to Damian Green's demise in the `Pestminster' furore of 2017. Then there are the sex and spy scandals that heralded doom, from peers busted in bed with prostitutes, to MPs caught cavorting in public parks and, of course, the infamous Profumo affair. Who jumped and who was pushed? Who battled to keep their job and who collapsed at the first hint of pressure? Who returned, Lazarus-like, for a second act? From humiliating surrenders to principled departures, Fighters and Quitters lifts the lid on the lives of the politicians who fell on their swords.
"A cracking read by a great writer." – Chris Mason, BBC political editor "A rare, fascinating and funny look at life in the corridors of power." – Isabel Hardman, author of Why We Get the Wrong Politicians and Spectator assistant editor "It's the book we have long needed." – Michael Crick "A timely look at how some of the key relationships in Westminster work, and how they sometimes misfire." – Laura Kuenssberg, BBC presenter and former political editor *** Shadowy geniuses whispering, Rasputin-like, into the ears of our elected politicians under a cloak of secrecy, or a crucial but undervalued cog in the machinery of government? ... Or just a rag-tag band of weirdos and misfits? Des...