'A wildly entertaining but uncomfortable read ... Pitilessly brilliant' JONATHAN COE. u003cpu003eu003cbu003e'There will not be much political writing in this or any other year that is carried off with such style' u003ciu003eThe Timesu003c/iu003e.u003c/bu003eu003c/pu003e u003cpu003eu003cbu003eA u003ciu003eTIMESu003c/iu003eBOOK OF THE YEAR.u003c/bu003eu003c/pu003e u003cpu003eu003cbu003e'A quite brilliant dissection of the cultural roots of the Brexit narrative'u003c/bu003eDavid Miliband.u003cbru003e u003cbu003e'Hugely entertaining and engrossing'u003c/bu003eRoddy Doyle.u003cbru003e u003cbu003e'Best book about the English that I've read for ages'u003c/bu003eBilly Bragg.u003c/pu003e u003cpu003eA fierce, mordantly funny and perceptive book about the act of national self-harm known as Brexit. A great democratic country tears itself apart, and engages in the dangerous pleasures of national masochism.u003c/pu003e u003cpu003eTrivial journalistic lies became far from trivial national obsessions; the pose of indifference to truth and historical fact came to define the style of an entire political elite; a country that once had colonies redefined itself as an oppressed nation requiring liberation.u003c/pu003e u003cpu003eFintan O'Toole also discusses the fatal attraction of heroic failure, once a self-deprecating cult in a hugely successful empire that could well afford the occasional disaster. Now failure is no longer heroic - it is just failure, and its terrible costs will be paid by the most vulnerable of Brexit's supporters.u003c/pu003e u003cpu003eu003cbu003eA new afterword lays out the essential reforms that are urgently needed if England is to have a truly democratic future and stable relations with its nearest neighbours.u003c/bu003eu003c/pu003e
