Britain Alone

The Path from Suez to Brexit

De: Philip Stephens

Narrado por: Sean Barrett

Duración: 13 h y 49 m

Resumen del Editor

In 1962 the American statesman Dean Acheson famously charged that Britain had lost an empire and failed to find a new role. Nearly 60 years later, the rebuke rings true again. Britain's postwar search for its place in the world has vexed prime ministers and government since the nation's great victory in 1945: the cost of winning the war was giving up the empire.

After the humiliation of Anthony Eden's Suez expedition, Britain seemed for a time to have found an answer. Clinging to its self-image as a great island nation, it would serve as America's best friend while acknowledging its geography by signing up to membership of the European Union. Never a comfortable balancing act, for 40 years it appeared to work. In 2016 David Cameron called the Brexit referendum and blew it up.

Award-winning journalist Philip Stephens paints a fascinating portrait of a nation struggling to reconcile its waning power with past glory. Drawing on decades of personal contact and interviews with senior politicians and diplomats in Britain, the United States and across the capitals of Europe, Britain Alone is a vivid account of a proud nation struggling to admit it is no longer a great power. It is an indispensable guide to how we arrived at the state we are in.

©2021 Philip Stephens (P)2021 Faber & Faber

UK voters *should* have been familiar with this material before BREXIT

Covers the English political and economic landscape over the last few decades. From Suez to Brexit is the tagline but it becomes difficult to disassociate much of the early period from the second world war and especially from the economic collapse of the British economy, caused in large part by the US insistence that Britain should dismantle her imperial trading relationships, largely so the US could leverage them for their own benefit.

Covers the split between a transatlantic leaning policy and a Europe centric policy. The irony of maintaining a massively expensive nuclear deterrent that is neither independent noe cost effective, purely for “prestige” while at the same time running down conventional naval, air defence and ground based forces is well covered.

The author is highly critical of recent leaders from Thatcher onwards and it does seem the dumbing down of the British political class has had increasingly adverse unintended consequences. In particular Blair and Cameron are both deservedly pilloried.

I still am at a loss how the English decided that going it alone could be preferable to an economic and political alliance with Europe and the author repeatedly points out that a Britain without influence is of no use whatsoever to her military masters in the USA.

Really well written, the events gibe with my own recollection of this time period, from the 1960’s onward. The author appears to have no axe to grind: in a sense that makes the content of this work more devastating. What is somewhat sad is that this material was well known to most people who were paying attention, how the UK got into the Brexit fix is a mystery. The mendacity of populism and weak leaders is covered superbly by the author.

The narration is clipped and at first seems almost too neutral however I feel the narrator did the material a service. Some accents were applied to quotations from the principals, there are not overdone and are subtle enough as to not impinge.

An utterly depressing, yet compelling and factual, description of lions led by donkeys.

The most articulate narrative on Britain’s contemporary history leading to Brexit

Just the most superbly researched and well-written story on Britain’s political and economic journey leading to Brexit. This is just what I needed to try to make sense of the political and economic events of the last few years.

narration is awful

story I great but the narration makes the book almost impossible to listen to