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How They Broke Britain

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How They Broke Britain

By: James O'Brien
Narrated by: James O'Brien
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

‘Made me so angry I had to stop listening to it while driving. Superb’ THE SECRET BARRISTER

Something has gone really wrong in Britain.

Our economy has tanked, our freedoms are shrinking, and social divisions are growing. Our politicians seem most interested in their own careers, and much of the media only make things worse. We are living in a country almost unrecognisable from the one that existed a decade ago. But whose fault is it really? Who broke Britain and how did they do it?

Bold and incisive as ever, James O'Brien reveals the shady network of influence that has created a broken Britain of strikes, shortages and scandals. He maps the web connecting dark think tanks to Downing Street, the journalists complicit in selling it to the public and the media bosses pushing their own agendas. Over ten chapters, each focusing on a particular person complicit in the downfall, James O'Brien reveals how a select few have conspired - sometimes by incompetence, sometimes by design - to bring Britain to its knees.

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©2023 James O'Brien (P)2023 Penguin Audio Politics & Government Thought-Provoking Funny

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Critic reviews

"How They Broke Britain made me so angry I had to stop listening to it while driving. Superb work." (The Secret Barrister)

"A damning account of how the country ended up in the current mess . . . O’Brien’s scathing voice provides a thorough record of the self-serving actions and pronouncements of those who have held power in Britain." (Tim Jonze)

"The most important political book of the year and a fascinating must-read for anyone who cares about Britain. Eye-opening, jaw-dropping, heart-breaking." (Carol Vorderman)
All stars
Most relevant
A work of pure FACT… James has dotted every single I and, microscopically, crossed every single T. It’s like reading a Venn diagram of the corruption, nepotism, sleaze, traitorism, and evil that has been woven in to British society by the propagomists in this book. I had to take a hot bath after every chapter just to try and wash the stench of these utter barstewards of my skin.!! Thank you James. Keep fighting the good fight !

Forensic

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Read by the author himself, this is a clear and chilling account of how a minority in the media affects the way the government is run and how the public is regularly lied to and governed. It is an account of how the country is in the mess it is currently in.

Essential

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If you were angry before you'll be seething with rage after reading this meticulously researched work. While its an open secret that the brexit result was illegally bought and paid for not least by using social media algorithms to manipulate swing voters with alarmist made up and/or improbable propaganda organised by those that stood to personally gain. Its fortifying to hear JO'B's unbending arrows of rectitude targeting the goons that got us into this utterly lamentable divisive disarray and national foreclosure, championed by Mr Farage like an infected Admiral Ackbar hailing the EU as the Evil Empire with a token defense from ineffectual stormtroopers Cameron and Osbourne from the planet Wet Blanket. Boris gets an angry assasination and blunt dissection, the wallpaper roll cost number of 840 should be tattooed on Boris's head in the shape of Damien's 666. A great but depressing listen.             

Not so angry about it all, you will be...

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brilliantly researched and documented factors resulting in the mess of the UK today. Very well written and the performance is great; I liked the impressions😉

well documented history beautifully written and performed

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The best thing about this book for me was the obvious amount of work and research that has gone into it (though some of it did give the impression of being cut/pasted from other stuff the author has written). As a shatteringly depressing chronicle of how these clowns, criminals, bigots and incompetents have made our country utterly unrecognisable, how they have torched decency, tolerance and compassion and promoted hatred and stupidity, it’s certainly thorough and pulls no punches. It gets 4 stars overall for that from me.

Perhaps some people will be surprised by some of this - I wasn’t. I remember it all, I felt it all, and as someone who comes from a group of people relentlessly targeted and monstered by these people and their supplicant press for at least 8 years (a group he never mentions, shamefully), I found myself practically hyperventilating at times - a kind of retraumatisation. And O’Brien’s breathless, on-the-point-of outrage, slightly shouty narration through much of it really didn’t help me. It felt like a massive exercise in getting something off his chest - and I felt the weight of all the remembered awfulness travel into me and sit with me through the whole thing. So if you have been really hurt by what these people have done - be careful with this book. And some of the silly impersonations of people he attempts here and there didn’t add to the whole mix either.

It’s obviously an important book, Probably preaching to the choir of course. But valuable all the same to comprehensively catalogue the absolute evil lurking in the depths of the people who have taken over Britain. But for me I’m left with the something of the impression of a 10 1/2 hour panic attack - and as someone who does not have the luxury of a life effectively insulated from these people, for whom all this might be an exercise in Guardian-style hand-wringing, and who lives in actual fear in this country now because of what these people have done and are doing, it wasn’t an experience I enjoyed or will want to go through again. I had moments listening to it that felt like PTSD.

I’m sure he feels better having written it though.

10 1/2 hours of panic attack

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