[PDF] How Britain Really Works eBook

Author : Stig Abell
Publisher : John Murray
Page : 416 pages
File Size : 34,17 MB
Release : 2018-05-03
Category : History
ISBN : 1473658403

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'Absorbing . . . an intelligent and clear-eyed account of much that goes on in our country' Sunday Times Getting to grips with Great Britain is harder than ever. We are a nation that chose Brexit, rejects immigration but is dependent on it, is getting older but less healthy, is more demanding of public services but less willing to pay for them, is tired of intervention abroad but wants to remain a global authority. We have an over-stretched, free health service (an idea from the 1940s that may not survive the 2020s), overcrowded prisons, a military without an evident purpose, an education system the envy of none of the Western world. How did we get here and where are we going? How Britain Really Works is a guide to Britain and its institutions (the economy, the military, schools, hospitals, the media, and more), which explains just how we got to wherever it is we are. It will not tell you what opinions to have, but will give you the information to help you reach your own. By the end, you will know how Britain works - or doesn't. 'Stig Abell is an urbane, and often jaunty guide to modern Britain, in the mould of Bill Bryson' Irish Times

Author : Gavin Esler
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 401 pages
File Size : 26,44 MB
Release : 2021-02-04
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1800241070

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'An eloquent, forensic examination of resurgent English nationalism as the force that has driven Brexit and may now break up the United Kingdom' Jonathan Coe 'A fascinating book that draws on poetry, literature and on-the-ground reporting' The Times 'A wonderful book which will be quoted in years to come' New European In the past, it was possible to live with delightful confusion: one could be English or British, Scottish or Irish, and a citizen/subject of the United Kingdom (or Great Britain). Now this archaic state is coming under terrible strain. The English revolt against Europe is also a revolt against the Scottish and Irish, and the pressures to declare Scottish independence and to push for a border poll that would unite Ireland may become irresistible. Can England and Wales find a way of dealing with the state's new place in the world? What constitutional, federal arrangements might prevent the disintegration of the British state? How Britain Ends is a book about history, but also about the strange, complicated identity of Britishness.

Author : Joanna Biggs
Publisher : Serpent's Tail
Page : 295 pages
File Size : 13,46 MB
Release : 2015-04-09
Category : Literary Collections
ISBN : 1782830146

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Nearly all of us have to work, but how much do we really know about what other people do all day? What is it like to be a fishmonger, a sex worker or an Orthodox rabbi? Or a banker, a research scientist or a carer? How do our jobs affect our lives, beliefs and happiness? And what happens when we don't work? Joanna Biggs has travelled the country to find the answers, talking to interns and bosses, professionals and entrepreneurs, thinkers and doers. She takes us from Westminster to the Outer Hebrides, from a hospital in Wales to the industrial Midlands, introducing us to different worlds of work and the people who inhabit them. Rich with the voices of the wealthy and poor, native and immigrant, women and men of the UK in the twenty-first century, All Day Long shows us who we are through what we do.

Author : Guy Martin
Publisher : Random House
Page : 260 pages
File Size : 40,33 MB
Release : 2012-10-04
Category : History
ISBN : 1448131790

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It is a largely forgotten fact that Britain was the first industrialized country in the world, but Guy Martin - the cult motorcycle racer and mechanic - is about to remind us how the industrial revolution helped make Britain great. Guy shows how the discoveries made in the late 18th-19th centuries are to thank for the ease of our every day lives: in order to cook a bacon and egg sandwich in Industrial-era conditions, Guy has to restore a steam locomotive and railway to have the components delivered to the local shop; he has to bring a saw mill back into working order to be able to make a bicycle; he has to revamp a Victorian fishing trawler so he can cook himself some fish and chips, and when he decides to mow the lawn, he restores a Victorian botanical garden. After all that, he's in need of a holiday - so he sets to work restoring a Victorian holiday resort. Illustrated throughout with specially commissioned photography as well as historical images, Guy will take us through each project; his passion, enthusiasm and sheer inventiveness bringing a completely new perspective to the Industrial Revolution. He invites us to live it with him, to enjoy the nostalgia, marvel in the mechanics and learn from its legacy.

Author : Kathleen Burk
Publisher : Grove Press
Page : 844 pages
File Size : 13,47 MB
Release : 2009
Category : History
ISBN : 9780802144294

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A history of the relationship between Great Britain and the United States ranges from the establishment of the first English colony in the New World to the present day, examining both nations in terms of what connected them and what drove them apart.

Author : Thom Brooks
Publisher : Biteback Publishing
Page : 236 pages
File Size : 17,98 MB
Release : 2016-05-24
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1785900153

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From Syrian asylum seekers to super-rich foreign investors, immigration is one of the most controversial issues facing Britain today. Politicians kick the subject from one election to the next with energetic but ineffectual promises to 'crack down', while newspaper editors plaster it across front pages. But few know the truth behind the headlines; indeed, the almost daily changes to our complex immigration laws pile up so quickly that even the officials in charge struggle to keep up. In this clear, concise guide, Thom Brooks, one of the UK's leading experts on British citizenship - and a newly initiated British citizen himself - deftly navigates the perennially thorny path, exploding myths and exposing absurdities along the way. Ranging from how to test for 'Britishness' to how to tackle EU 'free movement', Becoming British explores how UK immigration really works - and sparks a long-overdue debate about how it should work. Combining expert analysis with a blistering critique of the failings of successive governments, this is the definitive guide to one of the most hotly disputed issues in the UK today. Wherever you stand on the immigration debate, Brooks's wryly observed account is the essential road map.

Author : Owen Peter Jones
Publisher : Melville House Publishing
Page : 386 pages
File Size : 25,34 MB
Release : 2015
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 1612194877

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Originally published: London: Allen Lane/Penguin Books, 2014.

Author : Greg Harkin
Publisher : The O'Brien Press
Page : 239 pages
File Size : 19,86 MB
Release : 2012-10-15
Category : History
ISBN : 1847174388

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BESTSELLER An explosive exposé of how British military intelligence really works, from the inside. The stories of two undercover agents -- Brian Nelson, who worked for the Force Research Unit (FRU), aiding loyalist terrorists and murderers in their bloody work; and the man known as Stakeknife, deputy head of the IRA's infamous 'Nutting Squad', the internal security force which tortured and killed suspected informers.

Author : Phillip Blond
Publisher : Faber & Faber Non Fiction
Page : 328 pages
File Size : 27,67 MB
Release : 2010
Category : Political Science
ISBN :

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Set to be the most controversial, hotly debated and provocative political book of 2010.

Author : Kathleen Paul
Publisher : Cornell University Press
Page : 270 pages
File Size : 46,21 MB
Release : 2018-09-05
Category : History
ISBN : 1501729330

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Kathleen Paul challenges the usual explanation for the racism of post-war British policy. According to standard historiography, British public opinion forced the Conservative government to introduce legislation stemming the flow of dark-skinned immigrants and thereby altering an expansive nationality policy that had previously allowed all British subjects free entry into the United Kingdom. Paul's extensive archival research shows, however, that the racism of ministers and senior functionaries led rather than followed public opinion. In the late 1940s, the Labour government faced a birthrate perceived to be in decline, massive economic dislocations caused by the war, a huge national debt, severe labor shortages, and the prospective loss of international preeminence. Simultaneously, it subsidized the emigration of Britons to Australia, Canada, and other parts of the Empire, recruited Irish citizens and European refugees to work in Britain, and used regulatory changes to dissuade British subjects of color from coming to the United Kingdom. Paul contends post-war concepts of citizenship were based on a contradiction between the formal definition of who had the right to enter Britain and the informal notion of who was, or could become, really British. Whitewashing Britain extends this analysis to contemporary issues, such as the fierce engagement in the Falklands War and the curtailment of citizenship options for residents of Hong Kong. Paul finds the politics of citizenship in contemporary Britain still haunted by a mixture of imperial, economic, and demographic imperatives.