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  • All Out War: The Full Story of How Brexit Sank Britain's Political Class

  • By: Tim Shipman
  • Narrated by: Rupert Farley
  • Length: 32 hrs and 5 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (589 ratings)
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All Out War: The Full Story of How Brexit Sank Britain's Political Class cover art

All Out War: The Full Story of How Brexit Sank Britain's Political Class

By: Tim Shipman
Narrated by: Rupert Farley
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Summary

Politics was turned upside down during 2016. This book by Sunday Times political editor Tim Shipman is the first to tell the full story of how and why Britain voted to leave the European Union and how the vote shattered the political status quo.

Based on unrivalled access to all the key politicians and their advisors - including Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, George Osborne, Nigel Farage and Dominic Cummings, the mastermind of Vote Leave - Shipman has written a political history that reads like a thriller and offers a gripping day-by-day account of what really happened behind the scenes in Downing Street, both Leave campaigns, the Labour Party, Ukip and Britain Stronger in Europe.

Shipman gives his listeners a ringside seat on how decisions were made, mistakes justified and betrayals perpetrated. Filled with stories, anecdotes and juicy leaks, the audiobook does not seek to address the rights and wrongs of Brexit but to explore how and why David Cameron chose to take the biggest political gamble of his life and explain why he lost.

This is a story of calculation, attempted coups, individuals torn between principles and loyalty. All the events are here - from David Cameron's pledge to hold a referendum through to the campaign itself, his resignation as prime minister, the betrayals and rivalries that occurred during the race to find his successor and the arrival of Theresa May in Downing Street as Britain's second female prime minister.

All Out War is an audiobook about leaders and their closest aides, the decisions they make and how and why they make them as well as how they feel when they turn out to be wrong. It is about men who make decisions that are intellectually consistent and - by their own measure - morally sound that are simultaneously disastrous for themselves and those closest to them. It is about how doing what you know has worked before doesn't always work again. Most of all it is about asking the question: how far are you prepared to go to win?

©2016 Tim Shipman (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

Critic reviews

"Tim Shipman's dispatches from the political frontline are a must read if you want to understand what happened beneath the smog and beyond the noise of the conflict." (Nick Robinson)
"Tim Shipman is brilliantly qualified to write the inside story of the referendum, with his unrivalled access to all the players." (John Rentoul)
"Britain underwent a political revolution last summer. Tim Shipman, one of the most brilliant, best informed and well-connected journalists in Westminster, has written a superlative book which does full justice to a momentous time in a national history." (Peter Osborne)

What listeners say about All Out War: The Full Story of How Brexit Sank Britain's Political Class

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Fabulous and frightening insight.

The people have spoken, the bastards - but politicians seem even bigger bastards. This was a great but frightening tale of stupidity, naivety, deceit, indecision, opportunism, condescension, cowardice and incompetence shown to a staggering degree by the political elite of
all shades. The same people who lecture us about governing for all, understanding the concerns of us ordinary citizens, who ask us to tighten our belts and pull together, who tell us they genuinely care about preserving and improving the NHS, about supporting effective mental health for all, funding our schools and libraries and looking after and actually caring for our old people - but year after year fail to deliver because in their narrow line of vision, self interest is a much higher priority than the national interest. However you voted, there are no heroes here. We are certainly governed by "Here today, gone tomorrow" politicians but it seems that most want to extract as much as they can for themselves today so they can enjoy a very comfortable tomorrow.

My Dad, like thousands of other men and women spent years of hardship and being shot at during WW2 to defend the concept of democracy. The suffragettes suffered abuse and prison to get the vote for women but despite this I increasingly feel disenfranchised. I no longer feel that voting for any party makes the slightest difference to the self serving political classes we now endure. Tim Shipman's book was excellent but it leaves you feeling even more despondent and impotent than before. I remember seeing the slogan " Dont vote, it only encourages them" as a joke but I now feel even more strongly that the joke is on me. We still have a parliamentary democracy in this country but the connection between the people and the government appears to be hanging by a thread and even that is being stretched by the self seeking career politicians, special advisers and assorted hangers on that this book exposes.

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12 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Magnificent blow by blow account

This remarkable - and very long - book reads like distant history, It is hard to believe that (at time of writing) the referendum was only 8 months ago, but this superb account manages to humanize most of the key participants - particularly Cameron, Osborne, Gove and Johnson, while bringing to the fore many of the support players, particularly Dominic Cummings. Johnson comes across as a pretty sympathetic figure, Nigel Farage, on the other hand, doesn't.

Tim Shipman's book manages impartiality by only expressing opinions through the mouths of the participants he interviews. Sometimes these are named - like Farage or Arron Banks - more often they are " a source close to Gove" (for example). He only expresses opinions himself to drill down into situations where accounts differ - amazing considering he was writing just weeks after these events took place.

There does seem to be a little bias - though it is buried deep, and may simply be down to contrasting natures of the two campaigns. The characters in both main Leave campaigns, for instance, come across as much more colourful than those in the worthy but duller Remain camp, but that may just be because they probably were. The otherwise-admirable multitude of options that pervade the book seem to go missing when considering the somewhat lackluster Labour Campaign and Corbyn's remarkable effect at galvanizing new party members is dismissed, suggesting (without comment) that they are mainly leftist nutters.

So, if you want a quick and/or biased (one way or the other) account, then look elsewhere. If you want a riveting, beautifully written (and read) day by day historical account of what happened to who and when, then you will enjoy this. Shipman does examine the reasons that Leave won - and offers plenty of often contradictory opinions from his sources - but never reaches a definitive conclusion. After all, he'd have to interview tens of millions of people to do that, and that's probably a bit much, even for him!

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12 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Blow by Blow account

I didn't realise until I had downloaded it that this book is 32 hours long. I was actually looking for a rollicking journalist's inside summary of the to's and fro's, but this really was more detail than a normal person needs to know about the Brexit campaign. It is interesting to review the arguments now, with the benefit of hindsight, and Tim Shipman does a pretty good job of staying objective (he doesn't seems to take sides much). It is interesting (maybe depressing) to see how much marketing and comms have taken over from actual political debate.

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9 people found this helpful

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  • EJ
  • 31-12-16

Absolutely riveting!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would definitely recommend this book (which I listened to as an audiobook) to anyone interested in how the referendum came to be won and lost. Rupert Farley's narration adds to the sense of atmosphere and he does a good job of getting the 'tone' of the key players.

It is a fascinating 'fly-on-the-wall' account of the mixture of focused ruthlessness and sheer ineptitude that ran through both sides' campaigns and all the political parties.

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9 people found this helpful

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Should be compulsory for all school children.

Amazing depth of information, beautifully segmented both by subject and timeline. An unbiased account that will enrage remoaners and delighted Brexiteers in equal measure. Perhaps in the ratio 52:48

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6 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Gripping, very well researched and brilliantly wri

Would you listen to All Out War: The Full Story of How Brexit Sank Britain's Political Class again? Why?

Most definitely, I found it to be a riveting insight into the complexities of a national campaign

Who was your favorite character and why?

Dominic Cummings, he has the Bull Dog intensity for the fight and the never say never attitude that probably tipped the balance, I just wish he was on the other side

Which character – as performed by Rupert Farley – was your favourite?

To be honest, I actually found the whole thing of trying to be a character and attempting accents and impressions to be quite annoying and unnecessary and the main reason I decided to write this review

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I effectively did, apart from 8 hours sleep half way through, I listened to it in one sitting, even taking it to the kitchen, toilet and pub with me

Any additional comments?

For anyone interested in UK National politics, this book is an essential listen/read and I am looking forward to starting the next book, Fall Out, as soon as possible

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5 people found this helpful

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Great political inside information. Well done

really enjoyed this. I will definitely listen to it a second time. Highly recommended for anyone who wants a detailed inside analysis of all the political campaigns leading up to the referendum. And the backstabbing after!

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5 people found this helpful

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a must read covers the lot

great book makes Craig Oliver a lightweight. extremely well narrated. My best book for a long time.

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4 people found this helpful

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Great read

A really good account of recent history that will stand the test of time.
An update in 2 years will add even more weight to what is bound to be regarded as a classic account of the period.

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3 people found this helpful

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All the Tories are so nice !!!

I really enjoyed the book; for politics nerds it's like crack cocaine....
But the author leans severely towards the Conservative party and portrays the Tory politicians as people of integrity and compassion. Not even a hint of the characteristics that gave them the nickname The Nasty Party.
Once you price in the author's obvious bias, then drive on and enjoy!

My only complaint is the narrator, who does a fine job, reads way too slowly. I had to listen at 115%.

BTW I now understand why a second referendum is extremely unlikely. The vote was called to end a 30 year civil war in the Conservative Party. If a second referendum votes Remain, that civil war will become permanent and could only end with a full split.

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2 people found this helpful